Rockin' and rollin' in Big Majors Spot with pigs on the beach

As mentioned a couple of blog entries ago, a failed hose clamp caused us to lose a day or two of our fresh water capacity as we sailed from Shroud Cay to Warderick Wells. That left us with about three days of fresh water to see the jewels of the Exuma Land and Sea Park, Warderick Wells and Cambridge Cay. We had originally planned to spend two days at each place (or maybe more) but the water situation mean that we had to cut our stay short by a day at one of them. Since we hadn't been to Cambridge Cay before making the decision, we decided to cut our stay there from two nights down to one.

So after spending two wonderful days in Warderick Wells and wishing we could stay longer, we sailed and motored the 10 nm over to Cambridge Cay which is the southernmost part of the Land and Sea Park. Cambridge Cay is one of the best anchorages in the Exumas. Protected on all sides, the anchorage contains several mooring buoys with lovely beaches and deserted islands all around. The mooring field is right in the middle of what the guide books say are the best snorkel spots in the Exumas. Unfortunately, our dinghy is so underpowered and slow, we were able to enjoy only the nearest spot which is about a half mile from the mooring field. The best spot, "the Sea Aquarium", is about 2 nm away which is beyond our dinghy's cruising range.

The spot we did go to is right at the southern entrance to the mooring field. It is a field of soft coral interspersed with rocks and coral heads in about 8 feet of water much the same as the field we snorkeled in Warderick Wells. We thought that we had timed our trip to be at slack tide but arrived there to find a one knot current flowing out to sea. We were fortunately at low tide which exposed a sand bar next to the coral field. That allowed us to walk up to the head of the field, swim out, and then drift down to the bottom end. All the typical reef fish were there, only in much bigger sizes than usual. Some of the parrotfish were more than a foot across. We also saw our first barracuda for this trip - a big strapping fellow maybe 4 feet long.

We really regretted leaving Cambridge Cay after only one night. The snorkeling opportunities and the beauty of the anchorage itself deserve more than one day but the water situation forced us to keep on going to Staniel Cay. Leaving the mooring field around 10am in a fresh breeze , we arrived off Staniel Town around 1pm to find the fuel/water dock at the Staniel Yacht Club tied up with another customer and a dark cloud approaching. Deciding it would be folly to wait, we swung a couple of miles over the anchorage on the east side of Big Majors Spot and dropped the anchor. We had just enough time to eat lunch before the wind began to pick up and the skies darkened. The clouds passed over without dropping any rain, but left us bouncing around in the chop stirred up by the brief 25 kt winds. The sea calmed down after an hour or two so we headed back to the fuel/water dock. We took on 44 gallons of water at 40 cents/gallon and 9 gallons of diesel at $5.40/gallon. Then back to the anchorage.

Besides being a favorite anchorage, Big Majors Spot is known for its swimming pigs. The island sports feral pigs that have learned that cruisers will feed them if they swim out to the boats. Ann was hesitant about meeting these pigs close up and personal, so we stayed far enough out that they ignored us.