More Exumas!?!

I apologize if you get tired of reading about the Exumas, but we spent a lot of time there this winter.  What can I say, we were having fun, excuse me.  We left Great Exuma island with the plan of following the chain of islands all the way north, and stopping in Spanish Wells, before heading back through the Abacos on our way back to the States.  Unfortunately, the weather had its own plan for us...

We left the marina and had a grand sail up the chain of islands to Lee Stocking Island.  This island was once home to a NOAA research facility, but was abandoned some years ago when the funding dried up.  As near as two weeks before our visit, you could land on the island and explore through the old buildings and equipment.  Unfortunately, a new owner is planning some great development and no longer wants people trudging all over the place, and has placed some very unwelcoming signs around the place.  We traveled there with our friends, Ron and Judy, on Cetacean (their blog is here).  I mentioned before that they also have a Tayana 37, and it was great fun to travel with them on and off a few times on our way north.  Here is photo of the two Tayana 37s side by side, ready for the weather.

We ended up here for nearly a week, and had a few opportunities to explore some nearby cays.  On Leaf Cay and Normans Pond Cay, we discovered Bahamian iguanas, and enjoyed some fun photos.  

Tracks in the sand.

There were some lovely beaches here to explore and relax upon.

And mangroves to explore.

All in all, not a bad place to hide from some strong winds.  Once the weather lightened up a bit, it was time for us to move on.  We started our way north, and stopped at Staniel Cay to take in the pigs, where Kristen enjoyed feeding them a few carrots.

We were soon back at Exuma land and sea park, generally re-exploring some of the places we had been, and seeking out some new beautiful places.  Here we are back on a mooring ball at Cambridge Cay.

We found more fun places to explore by dinghy

And more mangroves.

And more lizards.

 

And generally, enjoying the heck out of this place.  What other pose do you do at a place called the Pirate's Lair? 

So you can imagine that we were ready to leave as soon as possible.

It's difficult to type that as I look at that last photo, but we actually were ready to head back to the states.  We had become saturated with beautiful beaches, and breathtakingly beautiful water.   I think we may have lost our senses somewhere in the Exumas.