Perfection in The Park!

 Well we just finished our first ever Land & Sea Park Sailing trip and it went so well that it is time for me (Dallas) to personally write my first ever blog post!

This trip was about flawless from day one and ranks in my favorite trips I've run so far!  The Park was gorgeous and the weather was about perfect for the entire week.  We started with a small surprise of having to find a second person to help run the trip and thankfully my brother-in-law Kevin was able to come down on short notice and help out.  THANK YOU KEVIN!  You were so much help and you made the long days on the boat much more enjoyable for me!

 Our four guests for the trip, John, Geoff, Margaret and Carol were the perfect fit for this trip!  Their sailing expertise along with the fact they own Sea Pearls took so much extra work off my shoulders for the whole week as they knew exactly what to do from the first day and required hardly any instruction during our long and beautiful sailing days.

Our first day had us leaving Staniel Cay shortly after breakfast, and before we knew it we were feeding the pigs leftover Doritos. We all got on the beach with them and got lots of pictures. Meanwhile three big ones charged Carol looking for more food, and I think John got one with an apple in one of the pigs' mouth, ready for the roast!

 From there we sailed through the beautiful Pipe Creek area and landed at Compass Cay where we swam with the Nurse Sharks and had delicious home-made chicken salad, thanks to Tamara!  Although we only camped on four different beaches they were all very unique and perfect in their own way and we never had to share our space with anyone else! (except for the Ospreys on Osprey Cay of course).  Our first site was the always lovely Cambridge Cay where Kevin and I had the small challenge of not being able to get the boat near the beach because of low tide!  It made for a longer unpack on the first day, but once the stars came out that night it was all worth it!  

I downloaded a new App for my iTouch (Star Walk) which allowed me to see all the constellations, name all the stars, and basically know anything about the night sky that I wanted...best two bucks I've ever spent!

 The sailing on this trip was great!  We had everything from no wind to almost too much.  Downwind to tacking upwind and everything in between!  Carol and Margaret took turns skippering the new and improved red "Feather" while John and Geoff took the tiller of the classic "Lucayan" and gracefully worked their way through the small Cays and rocks throughout the entire park.  It was as if the wind were listening to our prayers every night as the following morning it was always blowing in the right direction and the right speed to get us where we needed to go!

 The conditions were so perfect at one point that I was able to do something I have yet to do on a sailing trip: sail on the ocean side!  On our second day we worked our way from Cambridge Cay in the South all the way up to breathtaking Hawksbill Cay, almost at the Northern tip of the Park, nearly 20 miles!  That full day of sailing allowed us to spend two nights at Hawksbill Cay and spend a day cruising around in "Overdraft", the support boat.

 Let me give praise where praise is do and say that our new boat did everything she was asked to do and more!  Plenty of storage room...check!  Power to plane and cover ground while loaded down...check!  Comfortable for day snorkel trips...check!  Tow back to Great Exuma quickly...Check Check Check! Kevin and I made the tow (2 Sea pearls) from Staniel Cay to Barraterre in less than 3 hours!  (Would have taken 7 with the old boat!)

 The support boat also allowed us to have "The Perfect Day" as I have been calling it!  We left camp on Hawksbill after breakfast in the support boat and made our way through the Mangroves of Shroud Cay all the way to the ocean side because high tide was at the perfect time.  The weather that day was so nice!  The seas were glassy calm and there wasn't a cloud in the sky!  The beach on the ocean side of Shroud is something that I'm sure we are all going to remember for a long time!  Everyone was calling the ocean the "Endless Pool" because it was so warm, calm, and clear!  I even managed to get a group shot by setting up the camera with a 10 second timer and running into the water and sprinting out to the group before the shot went off!

 After Shroud we continued North to Norman's Cay to see the sunken airplane.  Along the way while cruising over about 8 feet of sandy bottom we came across a big Hammerhead Shark!  It was at least 8 feet and didn't seem too concerned with us.  I should have jumped in to get a good underwater picture but decided to keep going instead (Tamara was happy with this decision).  Before returning to camp we stopped at a nice reef just outside the boundaries of the park (I promise) to see if Kevin and I could manage to snag some dinner.  

I quickly noticed a rather large grouper staring at me who obviously didn't get the memo that he was not within the safety of the park as he barely moved while I speared him and threw him in the boat! Soon after, I saw a good sized Reef Shark swimming around the deep side of the reef, he must have smelled our dinner.  After making sure everyone was safely in the boat (nice swimming there Carol!), we decided to clean the grouper and feed the shark right there while anchored, dinner and a show!

We stayed another two nights at Osprey Cay near Johnny Depp's Island.  This campsite was the unanimous group favorite and I must say that I agree.  With tons of space, Ospreys nesting nearby, sandbanks, caves, and even some old chairs and tables, there wasn't much to complain about while at Osprey!  We noticed a pretty big Reef or Bull Shark swimming in the shallow sandy waters around the back of the cay one day and he barely noticed me wading out there to get his picture while the ladies stood on the shore yelling "That's close enough! We need you!"  Haha! Made for a great picture, don't you think?

 We found the plane wreck near Little Halls Pond Cay. I got Kevin to take a picture of me swimming through it, after checking that there were no Lionfish or eels inside of course!  There were tons of fish near it on the healthy reefs and I saw four crawfish under one reef!  The Park really did offer great snorkeling opportunities.  There was clearly more life there and the fish were not at all afraid of  people.  The water actually seemed to get warmer as the trip went on and even topped 80 degrees a few times!  For the first time in months it felt good to swim without a wetsuit!

 The Park was really beautiful, as are the rest of the Exuma Cays, but it makes me sad to see that so many cays in the park are already privately owned with little hope of ever being returned to The Bahamas government.  It is good to enjoy these things while we can because we never how long they will remain this way, and I was so proud to show the beauty of my country to John, Geoff, Margaret and Carol who were fantastic guests and, I believe, got to see the very best that The Bahamas has to offer!

Here's to a great week sailing and camping in The Exumas!  Our Facebook page has many more pictures from this trip on it, check them out!  Kevin, you are welcomed back anytime for any other trips we might run in the future!  Thanks for all your help!