Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park

Living and traveling on a sailboat means we don’t always have control over our time or our destinations. That’s how we ended up sailing the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park.

sailors rule: don’t make plans. they’ll change

We intended to head to Eleuthera after Nassau but the wind disagreed. When sailing, the wind wins most arguments. We wanted to leave on Tuesday and the wind forecast for the entire week was from the east. Eleuthera is due east, while the Exumas are southeast. Since we wanted to leave Nassau this week, we came to Exumas.

Exuma Cays sailboat
Sava in Exuma Cays

Our route

We spent one night anchored in Norman’s Cay, one night in Shroud Cay, followed by a night in Hawksbill Cay, and last night in Warderick Wells. The last three are part of the beautiful Exumas Cays Land and Sea Park, now one of my favorite parks in the world.

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Boating Around The Berry Islands

We’ve been in The Bahamas over a week and most of it has been spent enjoying the beautiful weather and clear waters boating the Berry Islands.

Great Harbor Cay

Though adjacent to a cruise line-owned island and home to an airport, Great Harbor Cay feels remote. A great introduction to the Berry Islands for us, we spent 3 nights anchored here. The island is occupied by only 350 or so people, and all of those we interacted with were warm and open; two different people gave us rides. We spent an afternoon traversing the island and the town of Bullocks Harbor by foot, visiting a couple of restaurants, a stunning beach, the marina, and the grocery store.

Colorful town of Great Harbor Cay, Berry Islands, Bahamas
Colorful town of Great Harbor Cay
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Welcome to The Bahamas

You know when you are trying to get away for a holiday or long weekend and everything takes so much longer than it should? That was us trying to get to Bahamas last Saturday, only our problem wasn’t traffic, it was the Gulf Stream.

Longer Than Expected

We figured the 40 nautical mile (nm, or knot) trip would take us 8 or so hours. Nope. With the wind at our front and the gulf stream pushing us north, we had to give up on sailing and turn on the engine. We discovered that the engine overheats when we go too fast. That 8 hours took 12. We cut it short and stopped north of our destination and anchored in the dark. But we made it to Bahamas in one piece! Success!

Our route from Miami to Bimini
Our route from Miami to Bimini
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