Cambridge Cay and Staniel Cay

Latitude 24 deg 10.50N

To give you a prospective of that, Deltaville is 37 deg 55.48 and our furtherest point north in Maine was 44 deg 48.68. The Tropic of Cancer starts at 23 deg 5, with the equator at 0 degrees. We MAY get as far as the Tropic of Cancer... not sure yet :-)

After leaving Warderwick Cay, we made a short, “brisk” sail to Cambridge Cay, still part of the Exuma Land & Sea Park. We took the outside route, via the Exuma Sound rather than the inside Exuma Bank. Probably a mistake, as it was pretty rolly, especially in the "cuts", the passages from the bank side to the sound side, but we made good time and got there in only 3 hours.

It was windy (18 to 22 kts) and cool at Cambridge Cay, so we didn’t snorkel, although it’s supposed to be one of the best areas. Instead, we took the dingy to the beach and walked a trail took us to the bay side of the park, to Bell Rock. The protected bank side was fairly calm and quiet. Here is our anchorage area, with a pond in the island in the foreground.

The Exuma Sound side was definitely rougher.

Bell Rock is huge, with a hole in it. Here we are, in front of it.

The trail to the top of the ridge on the island was steep, but good exercise.

Today we make the short (2 hr) run from Cambridge Cay to Stanial Cay. Stanial is a populated cay, with a “yacht club” (aka bar), gas and diesel, water, a nurse, internet (again, $10 for 24 hours) and a phone relay station. Cute cottages for rent, too.

They also have nurse sharks, right here at the marina docks. We saw 6 of them swimming together – here are 4.
Look at this sneaky one… lazing under a boat…I think they actually like the shade. I think they are pretty hamless, but we definitely didn’t want to fall into the water as we got in our dinghy.

We also saw a big eagle ray, about 4 feet across, in about 2 ft of water.

One big draw at Stanial Cay is Thunderball Grotto. Remember the old James Bond movie, Thunderball? Yulp, same one ! It was shot here in 1964. Thunderball Grotto is a cave half under water, half above, that you can snorkel into. Just go in at low tide and there are holes in the rock above that allow light to flow in. Lots of fish and coral life. Luke snorkeled into it, but I passed on it. Here is the grotto. The main entrance is on the other side, where the dingy is headed.

I mentioned “reading the water”. A lot of the water area here is uncharted, meaning you’re on your own to watch for depth and coral heads. Here is a good example of reading the water. Starting on the left side, the green water is over sand, probably too shallow for us. Light yellow-green is very shallow, probably about 2 ft deep. Light green may be 5 to 8 ft deep. The boats anchored over the light green are shallow draft boats, probably with only 2 ft or so under them. The next, darker area is full of grass, rocks, and a little coral. Very questionable, but deeper than the green. The far right blue water is deeper,about 12 feet, and good for us to transit and anchor in. That is Thunderball in the background.

We will be here several days, probably until Thursday. The weather forecast is for high winds (20-25 knots) and storm squalls. Not good stuff to be out in. We are sheltered here and will be fine.