THE EXUMAS: Highbourne, Allen & Norman Cays

Here’s a map of the trip so far which has taken us from Key Largo to the north end of the chain of islands known as the Exumas. The first stop in the Exumas is Highbourne Cay, about 30-miles from Nassau, but eventually we will continue down the dotted line to Georgetown.

 

Highbourne Cay seems to be a playground for holiday vacationers from Nassau as well as winter cruisers. There is a marina there and it’s the last place to get fuel at a good price for many miles. There’s also lots of room for anchorages, but New Year’s weekend was probably not the best time to be there. I counted 23 vessels, most huge yachts with lots of toys, especially jet skis whose owners had absolutely no sense of a “no wake” zone through the anchorage.

The better view was toward the nice long beach. Good snorkeling offshore on a reef with outcroppings with a variety of corals and fish, including huge brain coral and one nice parrot fish, my favorite.

After the holidays, it was much more quiet and we were rewarded with a beautiful sunset.

About 2 miles north is Allen’s Cay which is known for its iguanas. In Florida, iguanas are exotics and at Bahia Honda State Park they are routinely and humanely “relocated” and used as bait for a wildlife center in Marathon. In the Bahamas, iguana are native, reside on only a couple islands and are highly protected. And they seem to know it! The moment on of several tour boats arrived about 30 iguanas came out of the vegetation like the “meet and greet” committee. They hung around for pictures (it is illegal to feed them but I’m not sure that rule is always followed) and when the boat left, they sauntered back into the green. I spent an hour on the beach one afternoon and at first it was like something out of a horror movie with all the big ugly critters, but we soon came to an agreement and they left me alone.

 

Iguanas are vegetarian, but this one was trying out a live fish that washed up on shore. Check out the gecko on the lower corner too.

 

Down from the iguana beach was the ruins of another house. These ruins are becoming commonplace. Probably another of the many privately owned islands that are not kept up.

Here’s the view the owners might have had if they’d been home.

In case you are wondering what we’re eating when we go 2-4 weeks without a grocery store, sometimes the grocery is a local fishing boat that hails you down when you’re in the dinghy. We got one big grouper that was great with hush puppies one night and just as good in grouper nuggets the next night with cole slaw from a huge head of cabbage purchased in Nassau.

Heading on south, the next stop was Shroud Cay, a cay that is almost entire mangroves.  You can kayak or take a dinghy through the red mangrove creek and the route we chose was about a mile long.

I love the way mangrove prop roots look like they are walking through the water.

Inland there were large “lakes” and deep sand at low tide that you could sink into.

Over a dune and out to the ocean was another lovely long beach to walk.

Happy hour at Shroud Cay and another good sunset.

We spent one peaceful, calm water, no wind night off the coast of Norman’s Cay which has a somewhat notorious history. The people who live in the house on the left were on their deck in the morning looking at us with binoculars, so we called them on the radio. They are “Full Moon” and keep a log of boats that anchor out. We had a great conversation in which I asked about the run down house next door. It was destroyed in a hurricane and made worse by last October’s Hurricane Matthew, but the story is that it belonged to drug lord Carlos Ledher of the 1970s-80s.

Next stop, Exuma Land and Sea Park, Warderick Wells.