We're still here in Black Point Settlement today along with 32 other boats. The wind is blowing around 18-20 knots and after cleaning out the V-berth to make room for Ryan & Kelly I remembered that I forgot to post some pics of the unreal world that exists out there......that of the super rich!
To us, there really is a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow. Some of these beauties are for rent at a mere US$330,000 PER WEEK. The smaller ones are going for about US$200,000 PER WEEK. Man I don't even know how much money that is.
As we left Big Major's last week we came upon these little beauties.
Right off there stern was this one.
Equipped with a helicopter and if you notice near the stern, there is a garage door on the starboard side that raises to expose the jet skis, sport fishers, all the toys you could imagine, and much more. Why not .... there is about 250 feet of hull to use for something.
This one was called "CAKEWALK".
You have to think that the cake business is doing pretty good these days.
That "little" sport fisher across the stern was bigger than our sailboat.
Oh to be rich and famous. I guess we'll just have to keep playing the lottery.
Getting back to our kind of reality ..... it was back to the same old boring thing....navigating the beautiful waters of the Bahamas into Cambridge Cay and making sure you gave those sand bores a wide berth.
The opening at the end of this one was about 20 feet wide with 7 feet of water between the bore and a rock......with current. As you can see, Breeze Hunter had already made it through.
As our route took us around the north end of Belle Island we passed the ocean cut. It was a little on the rough side with the persistent easterly winds. As we cross the cut we saw the "Bahamas Sphinx" guarding the entrance and standing as proud as could be.
The anchorage inside twas the usually crystal clear water in 10 feet. The Exuma Park has placed a number of moorings here to protect the bottom. There were about 10 boats in there including our little group.
So, we're all here .... now what? Oh yeah, lets explore the beach and take in another wonderful sunset. Jackie and Roger were the first to set up shop and greeted us on our arrival to the beach. Oh the life we lead!
The next day was taken up with snorkeling on a spectacular reef and a sunken airplane followed by some beach time and shelling by the girls as George & I went off in search of conch for supper. Shhhhh! You're not supposed to do that inside the Exuma Park boundary.
As we approached the beach, the tide was falling and when we anchored the dingies we were in knee deep water. What a surprise we got 40 minutes later when it was quite the walk out to them.
During our time on the beach we were hit with a huge rainstorm ..... HOORRAY .... FREE SHOWERS !!! What could be better? Here we were in our bathing suits, n a pristine white sand beach, and now we're getting free showers to boot. All is good.
n the way back to the dingies, Jan found this beautiful Bahamian starfish and we couldn't resist the photo op .... so here it is.
Day two was taken up with more exploring as we all headed down to Rocky Dundas, a pair of huge rocky outcrops that contain large caves that you can access by dingy.
The caves are reported to contain large stalactites and stalagmites and was once used by the Lucayan Indians as a sacred place.
Unfortunately, they face to the east and the sea conditions made it too dangerous for us to attempt to enter either by dingy or to snorkel in.
After a long day of travelling about in the dingies we all headed back to our boats in Cambridge Cay only to find this big guy who had tried to enter and took the wrong channel…… YUP!!! Hard aground, and I’m hoping for the crew’s sake that the owner wasn’t aboard.
We were astonished to see his prop wash fly some 25 feet through the air as he tried to get off the sand bank. He was successful after some thirty minutes and left. Guess he wasn’t going to try that again,
If you look close just off the point of rocks, you see a darker blue line just above the light blue. That was the narrow channel that we had to follow to get in there……. Yeah…. Good luck to him!
Departing Cambridge Bay the next morning, and passing the south side of Belle Island we were all amazed at this site.
How do you completely destroy a pristine island in God’s country?
You are the Aga Khan, the head of the worlds Suni/Muslim religion in Iraq. When the civil war forced his VERY QUICK departure from Iraq he apparently showed up on Belle Island, gave the Bahamian government a token US$1 million dollars and started to develop his own personal marina. We called it raping the island or its beauty.
You have to remember that this is inside the Exumas Park…… a no take, no discharge, protected area and they let something like this happens. I gues money does speak.
Well, another side trip had come to an end and as I said in my earlier emails, the rest of our friends all departed northbound to the Abacos while Wind Warrior 1 headed south to Black Point Settlement.
Have a great evening
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