Staniel Cay

We arrived into Staniel Cay Yacht Club Marina on Wednesday January 29th.

Coming into Staniel Cay

At the dock in Staniel Cay

It was a pretty day and after some lunch we took off in the dinghy to see pig beach.  This beach is located on Big Major Cay, and yes there are pigs there.  Rumors abound that the pigs are descendent from pirates that left the pigs there back in the day.  The pirates intended to come back for them as needed for food, but never did and some remain.  Although this is a nice story, it is not true.  Apparently, the pigs were put there by some residents at Staniel Cay that wanted them off the main island due to their smell.  Regardless of how they got there, these pigs live along the beach and will even swim out to approaching dinghies looking for a hand-out.

Captain Keith with one of the pigs coming to greet him

If you give a pig alcohol, do you get pickled pigs feet?

This little guy was really "hamming" it up for the camera

These pigs take it for "grunted" that people will bring food for them.

These guys were going "whole hog" for the food bin

This momma and baby piglet found us utterly "boar"ing.  I could do this all day.

So pig beach was fun to see, but it was time to move on.  We rode around in the dinghy a bit, past Thunderball Grotto.  This is a cave similar to the ones we saw at the Rocky Dundas.  It is supposed to be very pretty, and there were several movies made at this location, most notably the James Bond movie of the same name.  We did not get to see this cave as the tide was not conducive at the time we were there and the next day the weather did not cooperate.  Maybe some other time.

Our second day in Staniel the wind was blowing out of the west again.  We got our butts beat pretty good at the docks.  We got off the boat during the day and spent time walking the island and did a run into the local convenience store called the Pink Pearl.  It had just gotten some provisions from the supply boat so we were able to get something green, a few cucumbers and a head of broccoli (hooray).

The Pink Pearl Grocery

We also stopped at a local spot for lunch.  It was noon and they had two things left; ham and pastry (like chicken and pastry but with ham and a red sauce) and lamb.  I had the ham and pastry which was quite tasty.  Keith opted to wait and grab a burger at the marina restaurant.  We met some other boaters at the bar in the marina restaurant and chatted for a bit, then took the bikes and rode to the ocean beach on the island.  There were no beach treasures at this beach.  However, I did get several treasures while we were in Compass Cay.

My stash from Compass Cay

I even found a small Scotch Bonnet, (take that Dave Hawley)

The wind finally calmed down in the evening on Thursday, thank goodness.  We are planning to anchor Friday just off Black Point on Great Guana Cay.  The wind is to be moderate, but from the east/southeast so we are hoping to be fairly well protected in this anchorage.  Everyone cross your fingers for a quiet anchorage for us.

Compass Cay

We spent 3 wonderful days on a mooring at Warderick Wells and then headed off to our next stop over at Compass Cay Marina.  It is a small marina with several docks and a dock office.  They will make hamburgers on request for lunch for any of the boaters staying at the marina.  They are also known for their group of friendly resident nurse sharks.  People even get into the water with them here.  Nurse sharks are a bottom dwelling, fairly docile shark.  They have tiny serrated teeth and generally only bite defensively.  They can grow quite large with some adults reaching 14 feet in length.

Nurse sharks at dock in Compass Cay

Southern Style in the marina at Compass Cay

Roof of the dock office with wooden plaques from visitors

During our first afternoon at Compass, we took the dinghy to do some snorkeling since the weather was perfect for it.  One of our stops was called the Sea Aquarium.  This reef has "tons" of fish and they are conditioned to have people bring treats for them.  Keith and I did not have anything along to feed them, but they still swarmed all around us.

The Sea Aquarium

Good thing these guys are not piranhas or Keith would be a goner

Another quick stop was an old, small plane wreck that is marked on the charts.

The final snorkel spot for the day was the Rocky Dundas.  These are two rocky islands with reefs along the eastern side as well as two caves at water level.  Since we were there at low tide, it was easy to duck into the caves for a look.  They are really cool.  15,000 years ago even more of these caves were out of the water.  The ocean level was some 300 feet lower at that time, and all the Bahamian islands were one large land mass separated from Cuba by only a few miles of water.  As the last glaciers melted the sea level rose and covered much of what is now called the Bahama Banks and left only the highest peaks sticking up above the water (what are now the many islands of the Bahamas).

Rocky Dundas

Caves at Rocky Dundas

Heading out of the caves

Snorkeling around the Rocky Dundas

There was also some Elkhorn Coral in this area we got to see.  This coral got its name from its appearance which resembles the antlers of an elk.  It has become quite rare and is considered by scientists to be critically endangered.  An unusual factoid is that Elkhorn coral can reproduce both sexually and asexually.  Fragments of the coral can break off in strong currents or storms and be displaced to another area where it will attach to a reef or other underwater structure and begin growing again.  They can also release eggs and sperm into the water usually around the full moon in the fall.  This is called broadcast spawning.  Fertilized eggs then hatch in the water and within a few days find and attach to a reef to start growing a new colony.

Elkhorn Coral

On our second day at Compass Cay we spent some time in the morning walking the beach.  We found some sea treasures and since we are no longer within the Land and Sea Park, we could keep these.


I did a long kayak paddle up into the mangrove creek in the afternoon.  There were numerous juvenile sea turtles, but they were too fast for me to get over them with the kayak for good pictures with the go-pro.

View into the mangrove creek

I followed it until I really could not get any farther.

We also did a nice dinghy ride around some of the neighboring islands, many of which are private.   We saw spotted eagle rays again from the dinghy.

Our next stop will be Staniel Cay.

Warderick Wells Cay

Thank heavens we have recovered from our storm trauma.  After getting into Highborne Cay Wednesday morning January 23rd and then spending the following day, Thursday there as well; we fully recovered from our anchoring nightmare.  We were refreshed and ready to finally take advantage of the beautiful waters of the Bahamas.

We headed back out Friday morning for Warderick Wells Cay.  This is the home office location for the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park.  There were some showers around the day we pulled into the park and this beautiful rainbow formed above our anchorage for the night.  This could only be a good sign for our two days to be spent at the park headquarters.

The brown, wooden building on the hill is the park office.  The lighter colored building is the personal housing and Bahamian Defense Force housing.

View of some of the moorings in the park

Once we got situated on our assigned mooring ball, we were off to hike up to the top of Boo Boo Hill.  This hill is the highest point on the cay of Warderick Wells.  Boaters have been leaving the names of their boats on wooden plaques here for years.  Legend has it that a boatload of missionaries wrecked off Warderick Wells and they were buried on Boo Boo Hill.  Two additional shipwrecks occurred off Warderick Wells back in the 1700-1800's.  It is said that on moonlit nights the sound of a congregation singing hymns can be heard.  It can make for some interesting nights at anchor or on a mooring ball.

View from atop Boo Boo Hill looking south

Southern Style from Boo Boo Hill

Looking North from the hill

Looking out across the mangroves from the hill

At the top there is a bench with this sign that Keith thought was very appropriate and profound.

These are the wooden plaques people leave at the top of Boo Boo Hill

We hiked along the northern part of the island, through the mangroves and along part of the beach.  I found some treasures, but could only take pictures in the park.  Collecting shells or anything else in the park is prohibited.

We also saw many lizards along the limestone rocks and some juvenile rays in the mangroves.

There were also tracks from the islands best known land mammal, the hutia.

The hutia is a plump, brown rodent without a tail (a cuter version of a rat).  They average about one and a half pounds in weight and are nocturnal.  They are the only land mammal native to the Bahamas.  Many years ago the Bahamian hutia was an important food source of the Indian inhabitants of the islands.  Over the centuries their population became depleted and they were believed to be extinct.  In 1966, however, hutia were rediscovered on one of the islands.  Since then their population has again flourished (they are rodents and known for their ease in reproduction).  They are still a protected species; and it is illegal to harm, capture, or export the hutia.  We got to see one come out after dark when we were on the beach with some other boaters and park personnel having evening cocktails.  The little guy wandered around the beach, I think probably looking for a hand-out.  It was too dark to get a picture of him, but I can say I’ve seen a hutia.

There are several blow holes along the beach that we also checked out.  The seas were fairly calm so they were not spouting very high but they were still pretty cool.

Blow holes on Warderick Wells Cay

On our way back to Southern Style we saw some spotted eagle rays in the mooring field.  These creatures are beautiful and big.  Their tails are longer than most common rays and have from 2-6 poisonous barbs.  They feed on sea creatures such as mollusks, crabs, octopus, and small fish.  They are social animals and often occur in groups.  We were seeing a group of 5 regularly in the mooring field.  The sharks are the main predators of the eagle ray.

There was also a friendly nurse shark hanging around our dinghy.
(Baby shark doo doo doo doo doo doo, baby shark)

On our second day we took the dinghy down toward the southern end of the island and hiked to some old Loyalist ruins.  The ruins of several buildings date from the 1780's and consist of rock and conch shell mortar walls.  The buildings were built by Loyalists living on the cay.  Loyalists were people living in America around the time of the War for Independence that sided with the British (losers).  They believed America should remain a colony of England.  When the new United States of America won its independence from England a number of these Loyalists fled to the Bahamas to live.  The Loyalists on Warderick Wells are said to have lived peacefully for many years; however rumor has it that they developed some ill will between themselves and some of the pirates that hung around these waters.  The rumor goes so far as to suggest the Loyalists were massacred to the pirates and possibly buried on the island.  Just one more reason the island has a reputation of being haunted.

Hiking up along a rock wall to the ruins

The foundations are still visible of the buildings dating back in the late 1700's.

In addition to hiking we went around the southern tip of the island and into a cove called Pirates Lair.  Here there exists a type of reef formation that is very old.  The formations are called stomatolites.

Reefs such as these are the oldest evidence of life on Earth.  Some fossil stomatolites date back 3.5 billion years and with Earth being around 4 billion (well you can do the math).  Stomatolites were the dominant reef forming material for some 3 billion years and helped to create the conditions by which higher life forms could develop upon the Earth. Earth 3.5 million years ago was not at all like it is today.  There was no oxygen in the atmosphere or in the water.  It would be 3 billion years before primitive animals such as jellyfish, corals, worms, and trilobites will appear.  The only living creatures where the stomatolites.  They could use carbon dioxide and liberate oxygen into the water and the atmosphere.  After billions of years the stomatolites produced enough oxygen to allow animal life to develop.   Stomatolites reefs are created by tiny blue-green algae or cyanobacteria.  Being plants, they require sunlight for photosynthesis.  As they grow they trap sediment and cement it together into tightly packed layers of limestone.  These flat, mounds are called stomatolites, a Greek term meaning mattress rocks.  The stomatolites reefs here in the Exumas are estimated to be about 2,000 years old.

Stomatolite reef formation.  They are not that exciting to look at, but very cool to think that they are living things some 2,000 years old.

There were beautiful traditional reefs along the edges of the cove.  Here are some of the pictures I got until the shark showed up and I decided to get out of the water for the afternoon.

My underwater shots

Once the shark chased me out of the snorkel spot, we went back to Southern Style to chill.  There was a sand bar that had formed at low tide so we took the dinghy and beach chairs to sit for a spell.

This is Keith and Pengi sitting on the sand bar.  (Pengi was too small to show up on the chair).

Pengi and I decided to do a little kayaking as well before dinner.  We saw some pretty beaches and found some treasures as well.

It looks almost like a Scotch Bonnet, but it is not.

It was a wonderful time spent at Warderick Wells.  We are continuing south along the Exuma chain of islands and our next stop is Compass Cay.