After waiting in Nassau for a weather window and enjoying exploring the Atlantis Resort at night we were ready to head southeast to the Exumas. By the way, we explored the underwater aquariums at Atlantis Resort and loved it... it is the biggest and best resort we have ever seen. After five o'clock the guards go home and instead of paying $35 to visit you can explore for free. And as cruisers, we decided to go the free route, which I think was better because the place was empty.... guests getting ready for dinner or gambling at the casino. We walked through the huge aquarium and enjoyed the sharks and rays...wow... fantastic resort.
The next day we woke early and headed out for Allen Cay, which is 35 miles southeast of Nassau. Leaving Nassau harbor was tight with many shallow spots to navigate. We made is safety through the shallows and had wind at our beam. With all our sails up we were moving at 7 knots under sunny skies feeling good and free. We arrived at Allen Cay an uninhabited small island, except the only residents are large iguanas (when a speed boat showed up in the afternoon the iguanas came out for the daily feeding...). It was quite interesting to watch as the boat came up to anchor on the small beach for the tourists to see the "prehistoric iguanas". All the cruising guides mention that the iguanas should not be fed because they can become aggressive possibly nip at your ankles! I am sure the real reason is because the iguanas would not come out as predicted as the tourist boat comes ashore. Watching from our boat, it was like the iguanas have learned when they hear the boat approaching they start coming out on the sandy beach one by one to greet the tourists! Initially we could see two iguana sitting waiting patiently as the boat was nearing the island, then approximately twenty more came out as the boat was beached and the tourists embarked. Tourists then began throwing out pieces of food to them; you could see the iguanas scrambling to get their treat!
The anchorage wasn't the best with strong current and shallow spots throughout the area. We anchored and enjoyed another beautiful sunset. After getting a deceit night's sleep and contemplating about the predicted storm, we decided to head south in the morning. All the weather reports showed another storm heading our way with west winds expected. The usual winds are from the east - southeast so there is very little protection for westerly winds. After reviewing the charts we decide to head south for an area with better protection. Getting a later start then we normally would when we set sail, as well as not exactly sure where our next destination would be to hide out from the strong westerly winds. We scoped out an area called Big Major Spot on the charts that appeared to be a possible area to anchor and wait the storm out. Our concern was that we would have to sail 7 knots or more to make it by dark...and when you are sailing there's no guarantees that you can maintain that speed. As we set our wave point to our next destination, we noticed that we were not the only boat "out there" heading for a protected spot! We found out there was a closer area, Exuma Marine Park, that had one last mooring available that we reserved but once we got to the wave point to turn in, the wind was at our nose at 25 knots, along with steep seas and we were expected to go through a narrow cut to the other side (windward) to get to it. We decide to bypass the mooring and head to Big Major Spot. At that time we were able to motor sail with all our sails up and keeping a speed of 7.5 nm, resting assure that we were going to make anchorage well before dark.
We also had heard that there were pigs that swim out to the boats.