When we left the Berry Islands, we cruised to New Providence Island where Nassau is located. During our cruise today, we moved from a 10 foot depth of water to over 10,000 feet deep. Our depth finder quit after a 100 ft or so. All four of our Krogens continue to cruise together. We enjoyed a nice 9.5 hour day. We anchored in West End Bay away from Nassau & town but it was close to the trash dump because as soon as it grew dark, they began to burn trash, which smelled awful.
The following day, we cruised 10 hours to our next destination: The Exuma Chain of Islands. The winds were not conducive to us stopping at a few of the northern anchorages so we continued to The Exuma Cay Land & Sea Park. We grabbed moorings, (luckily there were 4 available) at Emerald Rock. The water is amazing, like floating in a well maintained pool. While under way, we did see a few dolphins but they didn't swim with us and they seemed very shy & smaller. On the east side of this chain of islands is what they call the Sound, which is the Atlantic Ocean-deep and expansive. On the west side of the Exuma Chain is what they call the Bank. The Bank is shallow, has sandbars & coral heads to navigate around but is protected from the prevailing winds. We traveled the Bank most of the way south today.
The Exuma Land & Sea Park was established in 1958 to preserve & maintain the delicate ecological balance of marine life in the Bahamas. It is a no take zone by land & sea, meaning no fishing, hunting or shelling, do not take or leave anything. They do allow snorkeling & diving and have placed moorings so tourists do not hurt the coral reefs with anchors. There is a wide variety of marine life on the reefs; coral, tropical fish, lobster, sting rays, barracuda and the occasional shark. We saw lots of varieties & colors of fish, a Nurse Shark, the biggest lobster ever & a scary barracuda. The coral colors, especially the deep purple fans were stunning. We are now proud members of this beautiful and ecologically minded park.
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| Our 40th Wedding Anniversary Beach Party |
The Park office was a short dinghy ride away from our mooring at Emerald Rock. There is a small gift shop & wifi available here but no water, food or electricity. The mooring field: Warderick Wells located adjacent to the park office is very picturesque but very narrow & we are glad we moored close by at Emerald Rock. We hiked & snorkeled all around both of the mooring fields. We did have rain & winds for a few days but we made the best of it as a group. On our 40th wedding Anniversary, it was a beautiful day of snorkeling and then a beach party with the gang complete with music and dancing to celebrate. The beaches were exquisite with fine white sand and the water clarity & color amazing. BooBoo Hill is a place to hike up to, that has become a monument to fellow cruisers. The tradition is to find a piece of driftwood or something from the beaches or woods that you can write your boat name on to commemorate your visit. While Doug & I were walking the beach on the Atlantic side, he found a great piece of Bamboo and he took the time to write all four of our boat names on it, copying the font the way that each boat has their name inscribed on their transoms. He also inscribed the year of our visit. All 8 of us, hiked back up to BooBoo Hill the morning we were leaving to place our piece of the monument to commemorate our great time here.
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| Doug's happy cuz he's making something |
Some of the wild life:
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| Remains of A Sperm Whale which had washed up |
All four boats continue to cruise south together as a great KK fleet. Today, we moved 10 miles along the bank, staying within the Land & Sea Park. On our way, we passed the island that Johnny Depp owns & visits occasionally. Jeff called Johnny on the VHF radio but he must not be home because he didn't answer Jeff, lol. We moved to another mooring field: Cambridge Cay. Our Krogen friends, Bill & Lisa on Changing Course have been here for over a week, volunteering as park reps to collect for the mooring fees & give out helpful info. Another Krogen: Sweet Ride with Christopher & Alexandra arrived earlier in the day. Some of the loopers who we originally met in Longboat Key & ran into in Marathon & Bimini are also here. Then Erben Renewal, another Krogen couple, Steve & Julia pull in the next day. It's like old home week! Kadey-Krogens are taking over this mooring field. While we were getting settled in this picturesque spot, Lisa & I witnessed a big Ray jump totally out of the water, exposing his white underbelly. 
This is truly a beautiful spot with interesting, fun places to visit like: The Aquarium: where a variety of fish swim up all around you, A sunken crashed plane, Rocky Dundas Caves, Elkhorn coral snorkeling spot, Rachel's Bubbles & Compass Cay Marina. We didn't make it to all these spots, saving some for next time we visit. There also is a lot of hiking available with some good elevation for great shots of the mooring field and beautiful vistas.
We celebrated Ellen's birthday on Changing Course. We snorkeled the Aquarium twice, our first visit, the current became very strong & I was pulled by it and needed help getting out of it-luckily David was close & is my hero. The fish were very pretty there & we saw a lobster. We also snorkeled the caves and Doug & I did venture into one of them for a quick look. Bill & Lisa led us by dinghy to Compass Cay where Rachel's Bubbles exists. It was great fun jumping off the rocks into the effervescent water that rushes through a narrow opening from the Atlantic into a small cove. At low tide, we hiked up to Greta's Rock (Bell Island) to get a great view of our boats. This cay has beautiful fine white sandbars, a big deep area close to shore that's like a swimming pool and a conch nursery.
