Norman's Cay

On Sunday, January 19th we left Highborne Cay in the morning and cruised a short 10 miles south to Norman's Cay.  We had some issues getting our anchor to set properly.  We decided to use a poly ball to mark the anchor as there are quite a number of other boats in many of the anchorages.  Marking our anchor seems prudent so no one would accidentally set their anchor over ours.  Getting the marker buoy on the anchor and getting the anchor set correctly took two tries, but we got it and now we know what we are doing for next time.

Once the anchor was all set, we headed into shore to check out the one and only little lunch spot, MacDuff's.

The dinghy at shore with Southern Style anchored in the background.

Southern Style through the trees at Normal Cay

Follow the signs to MacDuff's

Pengi needed a beer after working on the anchor

After lunch we headed out again with the dinghy to explore the waters around the island.    Back in 1979, a large portion of Norman's Cay was purchased by a newly registered Bahamian company, International Dutch Resources Ltd.  The controlling shareholder of this company was a South American entrepreneur known as  Carlos Lehder.  Lehder was a Colombian of German ancestry.  His mother was Colombian and his father was said to have been a Nazi who escaped to Columbia after the war.  

Lehder was a smuggler who began moving Medellin Cartel cocaine from Norman's Cay to airstrips in Florida and South Georgia.  Armed guards patrolled Norman's Cay by helicopter and with dogs in jeeps to keep the curious and authorities away.  It did not take long before the DEA began an investigation of the activity on Norman's Cay with a task force called Operation Carib.  Agents disguised as boaters feigned mechanical breakdowns in the anchorage, while other agents set up surveillance from the next island to the south as well as a Coast Guard cutter offshore.  Famous names such as Fidel Castro and Manuel Noriega were allegedly associated with Carlos Lehder.  There was a failed raid on the island by Bahamian police and accusations of  bribes being paid to people in the Bahamian government.  This seemed to be how Lehder was able to continue his operation unimpeded.  

Eventually, however, the DEA began to choke off Lehder by arresting his pilots and confiscating his drug shipments before they reached Norman's Cay.  Lehder left Norman's Cay and went back to Columbia in 1986 and in February 1987, he was captured by Colombian authorities and extradited to the US.  He was convicted in May 1988 of multiple charges and sentenced to life without parole plus 135 years.  Thus ended Lehder's lawless days on Norman's Cay and nothing much remains on the cay to remind one of those days except the wreck of one of his drug running planes.  The plane was doing a routine fly-by when something went wrong and it crash landed in shallow water just off the southwest tip of the island.  The remains are still visible, although it is slowly being reclaimed by the environment.

Carlos Lehder's plane wreck

From the plane wreck, we picked our way up into what is called "The Pond" with our dinghy.  This is a deep water anchorage surrounded by salt flats and mangroves at the base and the island along the rest of area.

Heading up into "The Pond"

Mangroves along the base of "The Pond"

Once in "The Pond" we could also see some of the limestone caves that are along the land edges of the island.

You can just make out one of the caves along the edge of the water up ahead

This is a closer view of two of the caves

We had quite the busy day exploring.  Sunset on Sunday evening

 Luckily MacDuff's also serves dinner and so we decided to take advantage of this and had dinner there.  We met a nice couple in MacDuff's and talked with them about what they did.  Turns out they manage airplanes and he is a pilot.  They invited us to a beach fire after dinner and we stopped to chat a bit before heading back to the mother ship.  What a nice evening.

Beach bonfire