Oh, yes!  Resort life is the life for me!

…unfortunately, the cost is beyond our means!  Still, I enjoyed our three days at Highbourne Cay probably more than any place down here in the Exumas.  I know that doesn’t say much for my hardiness as a sailor and cruiser!

There are lots of beautiful places in the Exumas.  I just did all the hard bits first, so a bit of luxury at a resort really impressed me.

There were numerous beaches to visit, and all but one had thatched umbrellas with Adirondack chairs underneath.  Two of the beaches were raked everyday… I kid you not... so that there would be no unsightly high tide line of seaweed and other debris.  I wonder how many men it takes to rake a mile of beach, and what time of day do they do this?  We never saw them! I spent a good deal of time each day sitting on the beach under the umbrellas reading…. then walking along the beaches for a bit of shelling.

There were wheeled carts and little shopping baskets for getting one’s provisions onboard easily. You can just leave these on the dock and they would mysteriously return to the market.  The fresh vegetables looked quite tempting, and I got a cucumber as well as a head of cauliflower!  No avocado though…sigh. The restaurant was on a higher elevation with a balcony overlooking the beach and endless miles of the Great Bahamas Bank….beautiful waters that shade from pale aqua through turquoise and on to deep indigo.  Every table in the open air restaurant and bar had a wonderful view, but I liked being on the balcony most!

We passed through the storm with no fear and no discomfort either.  We heard that one of the nearby inlets measured winds at 200 mph!   We saw lots of wind, but hardly felt much in our protected little harbor.  The palm trees were bending dramatically, and there was a non-stop lightning show for hours, including a number of sideways strikes.  Just before sunset we saw a water spout north of Highbourne Cay.  I was very happy to be tucked inside such a small and well protected harbor. The weather router we use had warned that this storm would come from almost all directions, making it almost impossible for boats to find a safe haven.

The day after the storm was stunningly clear and perfect.

During our post-storm visit to the restaurant I mentioned to our waiter that I would not want to experience a hurricane in the Bahamas after seeing the force of that storm!  Yet he said that he’d much rather go through a hurricane in the Bahamas than in the US.  After listening to him, I realized he is right.  The islands are pretty well protected by all the reefs…certainly better than the coastal towns and cities of the US. And these islands are mostly limestone with a bit of sand right at the edges. We lose entire cities in the US, but here even the little houses built of ‘found objects’ manage to only lose a few roof tiles or windows.

Typical of many Bahamians who are devoutly Christian, this man told us it was because God loves them so much, and loves the islands of the Bahamas so much, God would never let them be destroyed.  I know that sounds arrogant, but that’s not the tone I hear when people talk freely about how much God loves them. I have never been anyplace where religious belief is so fervent and so openly displayed. It’s really quite endearing! In spite of their economic problems, political problems, and a lack of so many things (things I struggle to live without while down here), Bahamians seem to feel very blessed.   How refreshing to be among such people who are happy in the face of hardship, thankful for their simple lives with so few amenities….people who count their blessings.

We have now left the Exumas and have traveled for two long days to get to the Abacos.  It was over 40 miles to Royal Island at the top of Eleuthera, through a maze of coral heads that Bob navigated with no help from me…
The black spot in the central background is a coral head where the depth would definitely be too shallow for Pandora.  The shadow in the lower right corner is Pandora’s shadow on the water.

…and then another 50+ miles yesterday to Little Harbor and Lynyard Cay in the Abacos.  That 50-mile ocean crossing was particularly uncomfortable, and I spent eight long hours being more seasick than previously on this trip.  Remembering how pampered I felt at Highbourne… now we are here!

We’re three days into April and there is no sign yet of gentle spring weather down here.  In fact, it’s going to get a lot worse before there is any hope of calm seas and light breezes…

We spent Easter weekend in the Exuma Land and Sea Park at Warderick Wells.  It is a land and sea life refuge so it is teeming with lots of sea life on beautiful coral reefs, beaches full of beautiful shells, banana twits that are so tame they will land on your hand, just to name a few what constitutes abundant life down here!  There are lots of trails to walk which change from fine sugar sand to the strange, lava-like limestone that looks and feels more like walking on rusted iron.   The limestone islands of the Exuma cays have been created through a build-up of calcium carbonate from the rise and fall of sea levels, along with wind and rain.  Over thousand of years these conditions have eroded the limestone into pits that can be quite large and deep.

The park ranger Andrew and his partner Jennifer hosted a wonderful Easter dinner at midday on Sunday, and one of the visiting boaters held a sunrise service on Booboo Hill, the highest place on the island.  It is not a high summit, but the walk still has its challenges due to the nature of the limestone crags.

About 40 people went to the Easter dinner held in the park ranger’s lovely house that has stunning views of both the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Bahamas Bank.

There are other islands in the Exuma Park, and on Monday we sailed north to Shroud Cay where I have now seen my first Tropical Long Birds!  They are stunning!  I hurled myself all over a bouncing Pandora to try to capture them on film!  They make a wonderful squeaking call that I have enjoyed hearing!  In fact, I tend to hear them before I can see them!

Shroud Cay is known for its mangrove swamps, and at high tide we took the dink through the maze of mangroves and eventually made it out to the ocean side of the island where we walked along a 2 mile deserted beach.  This is the stuff of daydreams…

But back to the weather… weather is the defining force of our trip down here.  According to more seasoned sailors who have spent many winters down here, this has been the most challenging winter in about a decade.  There are almost no harbors that offer 360-degree protection in quickly changing weather, so each day sailors must gather what information they can and try to pick a destination that offers the most protection.  There is a big storm coming Friday that will give us sustained winds of 50 knots with gusts going to around 70 knots.  Yikes!

We’ve got our plan in place and hopefully we’ll be snug and safe in Highbourne Cay.  The frosting on the cake (for me) is that there is an excellent restaurant there, so at least I’ll be dining in style during the blow.

There is internet at Highborne, so I’m looking forward to catching up on blogs I love to visit and checking on what friends are posting on Facebook, and making phone calls!  And I will make my travel plans for heading home….37 days to go!

You can track our location here.