Just Like Heaven

1.26.11

We arrived in Hawksbill Cay by noon on 1/24 and picked up a mooring ball in an otherwise deserted anchorage. (We had just entered Exuma Land and Sea Park (google it, it's gorgeous here!) and they provide moorings so sailors don't mess up the reef with our anchors). By this point we had realized that we moved much slower than other sailors – we spent longer at the various islands and hit the small islands in between, not just the larger more inhabited islands. This particular anchorage was off of a small island that most people passed by. It was a very protected anchorage and the beach was a short dinghy ride away.
We went out snorkeling the first day and hiked around the various trails in the island. We hiked among more ruins, this time from early British Loyalists who left America after the Revolution. The ruins were from 1786 and although there wasn't much left to the buildings, you could still clearly see the outlines of the buildings. Granted, we had to pick through palm trees, thorny bushes and cactus (yes, there are cactus in the Bahamas!), but they were still there. We also saw our first Bahamian land critter – a snake! Which I almost stepped on and quickly recoiled nearly running Brad over trying to back away from him. I think I scared him just as much because he was gone almost as quickly as he appeared.
The following day we hiked all the way across the island (all the way = ½ mile...haha) to the eastern beaches. The day was windy with the prevailing Easterlies blowing in from the Exuma Sound. Our side of the island was calm, but when we got to the other side, we were greeted with an angry sea. The waves were crashing against the rocky cliffs and the beach was no more than a small slab of sand that was constantly being eroded by the waves. It was cool seeing that side of the islands, as up until then we had only seen the west side. But the beach was mostly unimpressive so we went back to our quiet side of the island.
We got neighbors that night – a catamaran called “Bikini” with 3 Canadians aboard (apparently these islands are the stomping grounds for Canadian sailors). We took Koa to the beach around 3pm and played in the surf with him for a bit, then started a bonfire to burn off all our paper trash. Since the islands we had been visiting were uninhabited, we hadn't been able to dump our trash for almost a week. We had separated our burnables from nonburnables and were finally getting rid of some of our trash. We had also brought along some sundowners and hotdogs and items to make smores! It was a perfect night. The sky was clear, the wind was down, the temperature was up and we were having a great time. Just before nightfall, the catamaran people dinghied to shore and joined us around the campfire. We talked to them for a bit, then decided to reconvene on their boat for some drinks. We enjoyed an evening on their beautiful 47' new catamaran and also watched some TV with them on their big screen TV!
We left the following morning for Warderick Wells – the Exuma Park headquarters.