Exuma Park & Glenn's Gashed Knee

Around 0800 on the 13th of May, after a few relaxing days anchored off Staniel Cay (near Thunderball Cave), we pulled anchor to sail on. The nurse at Staniel Cay would not give Lori clearance to sail on until then as she was suffering from cellulitous (sp?) infection. I am now preparing Seawing for departure towards the Cambridge Cay area. We are planning to snorkel at the famed Sea Aquarium and the caves at Dundas Rocks.

0840 sees anchor raised and off to Cambridge Cay. No one else up until we were underway, then a very sleepy First Mate (Sue) appeared in the companion way.

At almost 1245 hrs we anchored off the west side of O'Briens Cay, near the Sea Aquarium/Coral Garden in the Exuma Land & Sea Park. We had tried to go to Dundas Rocks, but found it was high-tide with some waves from the nearby exposed cut to Exuma Sound. It seemed to not be the best time to dive in the caves, so we moved on. WE cruised by Bell Island, rumoured to be owned by Johnny Depp (turned out to be false and owned by Saudi zillionaire) ... this was entertaining for everyone and we passed armed with binoculars.

Our plan, is to dive today and move-on tomorrow to Shroud Cay tomorrow and on to Nassau Friday.

[some hours later] We went diving today at the Sea Aquarium. It is absolutely amazing, the fish you see are incredible and the coral amazing. Sue did find that she ventured a little to the one side and the current began pulling her out to sea. With much effort, I was able to drag her back into the calm area. I watched over our group the rest of the time we were there to be sure no one ventured too close to that area ... was all I could do to swim towing her back. The fish were colourful and huge, but no fishing (bummer).

As we were finished diving for the afternoon (thinking of going again later) I climbed into the dingy first so I could pull the others in. As I heaved my bulk in, my left knee landed on an oar-lock, driving a bolt deep into my knee. I examined it briefly (seeing scary white bits) and figured better get busy helping everyone else into the dingy, before the pain set and I was unable. Our God was providential and had the park ranger and two marines zipping by us as we were half-way back to Seawing.

These kind folks quickly loaded me (& the kids as they wanted to come along) onto their fast boat and zipped me off on the fifteen-minute high-speed ride to the park office at Wardrick Wells. This boy knew these waters and expertly piloted this craft at very high speed over waters MUCH too shallow to navigate at low speed (i.e. high speed means skipping over top of water) & even through cuts in the coral rock ... very exciting.

At the park office they examined me and determined that my injury was too much for them, so after radioing the nurse back on Staniel Cay (becoming regular customers now) we all loaded in the boat once again and blasted back to Seawing (for my wallet and clothes) and then on to Staniel Cay, a fast forty-five minutes away. The nurse carefully stitched me up, gave me a prescription and charged me only $48. These kind folks dropped us once-again back at Seawing, no charge of any kind. It was a great experience to get to chat with the ranger and the two Bahamian marines. The boat-ride to the park office and to Staniel Cay and back was very cool. The park ranger was driving the boat and knew the waters very well. If you've not been to this part of the Bahamas, you will not quite be able to imagine how much unbelievably shallow but crystal-clear water there is, punctuated by coral, rock, tiny cuts and very swift tidal currents. The open, centre console boat we were riding in was powered by a pair of 225hp engines and was blasting along in water so incredibly thin that the boat would not have floated (or at least the engines would have been grounded) if we were not going so fast, and skimming over the surface of the water. On top of that, we were actually in the deepest parts of the water as some was too shallow for us to navigate even at high-speed. One particular rocky cut between two cays was surging with an outgoing tidal current and as it was very narrow, the ranger slowed, lined the boat up and cracked the throttles wide open to get through ... apparently a normal day at the 'office' for him.