Down the Exumas

We are loving the Exumas, especially the Land & Sea Park. There is still so much more to see, though – it’s time to start heading south. There are several more noteworthy locations along the Exumas before hitting the major city, Georgetown. We enjoy the serenity of the islands owned by David Copperfield including the mermaid statue he sank off of Rudder Cay, discover how to search for (living) sand dollars in the shallow sand banks, and bask in the pristine views above Williams Bay.

Blackpoint Settlement

Upon leaving Big Major (where the pigs are!), we set out on a short sail (or rather motor) to Blackpoint Settlement. Blackpoint is famous for having the nicest laundromat in the Bahamas. I know that may sound like a pretty strange thing to be famous for, but most sailors don’t have easy access to do laundry. Fortunately for us, we have a small washing machine onboard – a true blessing. We are thinking we might enjoy doing laundry on shore for a change (where there are dryers!), and Blackpoint is supposed to have a couple good restaurants as well. So the plan is laundry and dinner out – a true date night.

We pull into the anchorage a little before dusk, joining a dozen or so other boats already anchored. We begin to explore our options – namely, what to eat for dinner. Unfortunately, in the Bahamas you can’t just jump on Yelp for assistance. Google does normally have some photos and reviews, so we turn to that. It is nearly impossible to find menus for places, though. So frustrating. I hate to be picky or sound high maintenance, but I want to know what type of food is being offered. I also want to know the price. A $10 cheeseburger is way different than a $25 cheeseburger – but I digress. We eventually find some information about the restaurants and conclude that one of them is likely closed (permanently), one of them closes in a few minutes at 7 pm (seriously?), and the other only has dinner entrees starting at $20. By time you add on 12% VAT and 18% gratuity that becomes a pretty expensive dinner.  We decide to pass and just cook on-board. This means we also decide to pass on laundry. Why did we even stop here? Oh, well.

Islands of luxury

The next morning, we pick up anchor and continue on south. We are planning to stop at Rudder Cay so we can snorkel the mermaid and piano statue. As we begin making our way down the islands, I immediately notice how gorgeous everything is. I mean it’s always pretty, but now we have lots of small islands with palm trees and colorful houses to compliment the vast shades of blue and turquoise in the water. We are motoring through pretty shallow waters with lots of sand bars and rocks nearby. This makes things more interesting, but also means we have to pay a lot closer attention to the depths and where we are going. Less autopilot today and more steering.

We know that Rudder Cay is owned by David Copperfield, the famous magician. According to Google, though, he actually owns 11 islands in the area. One of the more well-known of those is Musha Cay. He has a small, secluded resort on Musha Cay that you can actually vacation at. That is if you have a lot of money to blow. A single night stay starts at around $37 thousand a night – no that’s not a typo. I can’t even imagine. It is gorgeous though. We see a woman walk out of one of the rentals, talking on the phone, and think about how much it is costing her to be standing there on that porch. It’s pretty amazing that we are able to be only a few hundred feet from these type of places and largely enjoy the beauty of them. Matt always likes to say that our catamaran sailing by is part of the reason their view costs so much.

If you think staying at the resort on Musha Cay isn’t luxurious enough, then perhaps you should just consider purchasing the neighboring island, Cave Cay. It’s for sale at the bargain price of only $60 million. It isn’t just a gorgeous island though, it also includes an operating marina, private airstrip, ridiculous house with 360 degree views, and plans for a large resort. Considering what some people spend for a mansion in parts of the US, this really doesn’t seem like too bad of a price. Check it out for yourself here.

The mermaid and piano

Off of Rudder Cay, there is a statue of a mermaid resting next to a piano as if coaxing someone to come play her a song. The statue rests on a sandy bottom in about 15 feet of water. It was sank by David Copperfield who wanted to leave his resort guests a quirky surprise when snorkeling. There doesn’t appear to be any more logical reasons as to why the statue exists. I’m sure future archaeologists will be thrilled by the puzzle this leaves them.

We head into our desired anchorage that is said to be within a close dinghy ride distance to the statue. It’s a small, cute anchorage with two other catamarans already in position. After having a little trouble getting our anchor set, we nose our way up to the front of the pack near the sandy beach and manage to get a strong hold. A couple sting rays come over to enjoy the shade our boat offers – a frequent occurrence in anchorages. After getting settled, we load up the dinghy (and Monster) in search of the statue. We were able to locate some GPS coordinates that other cruisers provided, so we are aiming for that location first. It is spot on! The statue looks like a coral head from the surface, but a quick peak under water confirms it.

We throw in our dinghy anchor since we are a ways from the beach or anywhere to tie up. We quickly notice there must be some current since we are already much further from the statue than we thought. We hop in the water and swim our anchor up closer to the statue. Mostly because Monster is hanging out in the dinghy and barks like a crazy dog if we get too far away, and by “too far” I mean more than a few feet. The current is really strong, though. I’m tired after only swimming a few yards over to the statue, and then I have to keep kicking to just stay in place. We decide to get our obligatory photos and get going. Matt manages to kick down to the statue with the help of his free diving fins and sits down at the bench, posing for his photo. Of course, the GoPro dies just as he gets to the statue. What luck. Back at the surface, we debate whether to go back to the boat to recharge the GoPro or not. Ultimately, we decide it’s fine. We can always come back tomorrow.

Fortunately, I did still manage to get this shot:

Searching for sand dollars

Matt had read about some nearby sand bars that become fully exposed during low tide, and are supposed to be good for finding sand dollars. Thinking that we are already at low tide, we rush in that direction hopeful to find a sand dollar to add to our shells collected from Chub Cay. On our way, we poke our heads into a small cave that we’ve heard others talk about. That took a whole 30 seconds to explore, before we decide to move on unsure what the hype is about.

After carefully navigating some very shallow waters, we pull our dinghy up onto the beach. There is quite a lot of sand with only a couple inches of water covering it. We begin walking in search of our sand dollars. Initially, we’re feeling a bit duped as we don’t see a single sand dollar or even a piece of a broken one. I think that Active Captain reviewer must be wrong.

Tangent: Active Captain is a community driven app that integrates with our Garmin GPS maps. We use Active Captain for planning/navigating all of our routes and especially for choosing where to anchor or sites to see. Similar to Trip Adviser or Google, users leave reviews of the different anchorages among other things. We skim through the reviews to learn important information such as if there are navigational hazards to avoid or if the chartered depths are off, but even more so to learn about the fun stuff. Is there snorkeling nearby, or any hikes on land – the sort of things we really care about.

After some time walking the shallow sand bars, Matt reaches down and pulls out a dark brown sand dollar. Wow! We quickly realize that it is still alive. I think this is the first living sand dollar either of us has seen. Matt explains that he felt something with his foot, which was the sand dollar just buried under the top layer of sand. I realize I may have jumped the gun a bit getting angry about the false sand dollar review – since it isn’t false at all. We start to slowly shuffle our feet over the sand, and within a couple minutes we’re both pulling out numerous sand dollars. Most of them are a dark brown color, but some of them are a light grayish-pink. I think these may be close to dying, but I never was really able to confirm that with Google. We also found one spotted one!

We have a great time shuffling along, pulling up sand dollars for a quick peak, before placing them gently back under the sand. I desperately want to find a sand dollar to keep, but we don’t want to take anything that is still living. In addition to dozens of sand dollars, we also find a few (living) star fish, including the smallest little star fish I’ve ever seen that Matt somehow stumbled across. I got ridiculously excited when I thought that tiny star fish was already dead (which is quite morbid, actually). I was already envisioning where the star fish would go in my jar of shells when Matt informed me that it was still alive. Darn – but, I guess that’s good. We also found a several different (living) conch in gorgeous shells. Ugh – it’s like torture not being able to collect these items as souvenirs, but then also really exciting to see that they’re alive and thriving. I’m not sure if I’m happy or sad. I am glad we took lots of photos at least, though.

After some time, we realize we were wrong about another thing. It was not low tide when we showed up here. The tide is much lower now, with several bars of sand sticking up out of the water completely. We let Monster run around the sand, surrounded by water, while we take some silly photos. It’s all fun and games until we look over at our dinghy which is now stuck very far up on dry beach. We begrudgingly head over and try to pull it back towards the water. It takes a lot of effort and quite some time. Thank goodness Matt is much stronger than I am or we would have to stay and wait for the rising tide. We eventually get it back in the water and are able to walk it through the shallowest parts before hopping back in and heading towards home. – without a single sand dollar or starfish.

Views from Williams Bay

Late the next morning, we pick up our anchor and continue on our way south. We know that we will be navigating some shallow and tricky areas, so we leave shortly before high tide (or so we think; apparently we aren’t very good at knowing the tides). We are loosely aiming to anchor at Leaf Cay, as someone on Active Captain said that there is good snorkeling there. When we actually arrive to Leaf Cay, we notice the water looks a bit rough. There is a mono-hull anchored there already and they are rock’n and rolling. Tucking in past them, the water is a bit calmer but it’s almost 15 feet deep. That would require a lot of anchor chain and we would be so close to shore. It seems a bit dangerous if the winds were to shift directions. We decide to continue on to the next anchorage, which is at an old marine research center. The water here is still a bit rough and there isn’t even a nice beach to take Monster to. Next.

Off in the distance a bit, I see two masts in a nearby bay. Thinking that these boats must know something that we don’t, I suggest we continue on yet again. Looking at the map, we determine that those boats are anchored at Williams Bay. It has good reviews, seems like good protection from the current winds, and is pretty calm as we arrive. Looks like this is the spot. We nose our way towards the front of the pack, closer to the beach (actually there are two “twin” beaches) and drop our anchor. Shortly after arriving, we notice a fast power boat with several people pull up near the beach. Everyone tumbles out and then begins heading into the brush. A few minutes later, they appear at the top of a small hill – apparently there is a trail. Good to know.

We still have some time before dusk, so I decide to paddle board and Matt swims to shore. Monster rides with me, of course. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look there’s much to snorkel in the area and it gets shallow quickly as we approach the beach. Eventually, Matt joins us on the paddle board as it’s too shallow to swim, but we all have to walk the last few yards. We enjoy a nice stroll along one of the beaches before heading back to our boat to catch sunset.

The next morning we head back to shore in search of the trail we spotted others climb. It isn’t marked, but also isn’t difficult to find. A short 5 minutes later and we are standing up on top of the hill with pretty views of our anchorage and even more stunning views of the Atlantic ocean and Exuma shoreline. It is definitely worth the short climb.

After taking in all the views, we head back to our boat and start getting ready to move again. Our next stop will be Georgetown.