Spellbinding Natural Beauty - Sailing the Northern Exumas (Ep 48 - Monday Never Sailing)

You see it? Turtle, turtle, turtle, turtle, turtle, turtle, turtle. That's right, that's a turtle. Ah, the Exumas. We had finally made it. All right, Bahama time, happy time, Bahama man, Bahama man time. How are you feeling? I feel great. It's kind of, kind of the point. That's why you save up all your money and grind away doing things you don't like to do. Which was easy to forget in the last five years. And even when we started, or since we've owned our boat in Florida and even done a little bit of cruising there, and at the start of this trip, still wasn't exactly sure what it was about our previous trip that I liked so much. But as soon as we got to the Exumas, it all came back together. And I realized, yeah, okay, this is the point. This is why we do it. This place just couldn't be, couldn't be prettier, couldn't be more idyllic. And certainly with the kind of weather and conditions we've got right now, it's just awesome. The Exumas are a stretch of tiny islands packed very close together. They are surrounded by the Exumas Bank, a stretch of water that doesn't get much above 20 feet. It's the stretch of islands that when you're flying over the Bahamas and you are spellbound by water that seems impossibly pretty, that's probably what you're looking at. After five years of saving to sail and two years of getting a boat ready to go, this was where we felt finally, finally, finally, like all the time, all the energy, all the effort and all the money was worth it. Our first stop was Highborne Cay and Allen's Cay to see the iguanas and play in the sand bars. I don't think we're getting over this hump. Well, it's not getting deeper. Do you want to go to the sand bar, sweetie? It's my clothesline of shame. Last night we were having drinks on our friend's boat that's anchored about 25 yards away from us and I somehow, no idea how, slipped getting into the dinghy and fell into the water. It was pretty embarrassing. We loved Shroud Cay. It has a super protected bay where we spent a lot of time enjoying water that was shallow with no current. But the main draw of the island and something you have to do if you ever get there is you can take your dinghy through the mangroves and emerge on the other side of the island into the most picture perfect secluded beach that you can imagine. But what we were most excited for was to get into the Iguazuma Land and Sea Park and spend some time in protected waters showing Maddie the incredible sea life. Made it to Wardrick Wells Land and Sea Park. We are feet from the beach so I'm gonna take Maddie on the paddleboard and and go do a little flying. Look at this! So Will had his oh my god moment. Gosh, I guess when we crossed Bimini and got into Highborne he was like Mr. Optimism Bahamas cruising man and I haven't gotten that yet. I'm stoked to be here. I'm excited to be doing it but I haven't had that like oh the past two years are worth it until right here right now. This scenery is insane. It reminds me a lot of the British Virgin Islands which is where Will and I met which is where you know our journey began. I've got a whale statue, skeleton, whale skeleton behind me. I saw an eagle ray. I saw a shark. I'm just feeling like very overwhelmed with how beautiful this is and how lucky we are. It's also January 1st 2022. The future seems bright. Maddie try standing! See we're doing circles. Pull it back towards you. You have to keep it right there until we're facing our boat. Take a look forward. Look forward. Keep your hand right there where it is. Look where we're going. That's a pretty good course. Okay so you're gonna paint. You're gonna use the paint and you're gonna paint your conch shell. Okay what color do you want to do? Red? What do you want to paint on your conch? Do you want to paint the right here? Do you want to do more? Good. So one of the things that people do here is they make boat signs and sacrifices to take up to Boo Boo Hill and leave in holding piles. So today's arts and craft is we are decorating conch shells to leave at the altar of the Boo Boo Hill gods. It's sort of a gray and rainy day. So a nice arts and crafts activity while Will is doing boat projects. Look at your face! All right we are atop Boo Boo Hill and we are going to give our offering to the Boo Boo Hill gods amongst this pile of beautiful beautiful artwork. Where do you want to put your queen conch? Right here? Next to the other queen conch? What do you think? Maybe like right here? More over here? Right there? Nice. Yeah where do you want me to put it? Next to it or do you want me to put it somewhere else? Right here. Right here? Like right here? Or maybe I could mount it on a post? That'd be cool. Do you like that? Hermit crab on a stick? It's a pretty big hermit crab. Queen conch on a stick? Yeah if a hermit crab could pick that thing up and walk around I'd be scared. Man it is buggy today. In the next episode we continue to slowly make our way south encountering sharks and pigs along the way. We also have to hide from some pretty nasty weather that has boats scrambling to find a safe place to stay. Okay so now we have come to the hilarious point in our story where one blow has passed not enough boats moved. Blow number two is coming tonight and every boat is frantic. It's 5 15 and this anchorage went from seven boats when we got here three days ago. Today it had maybe 40 this morning. Now it's over 50 and the charter boats are coming in in full swing. So all the boats who've been here for since the morning since yesterday the day before are all staking their claim and so many people are out protecting their spots. People are dinging trying to tell the charter boats where to go where not to go. More importantly to not anchor on top of their anchor and it is pandemonium.