We lucked into good weather for a slow roll through the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park (ECLSP) this year and it was such a treat! We revisited old favorites, stopped at two new spots, and met some new cruiser friends. The ECLSP was established in 1958 and covers 112,640 acres of land and sea in the central Exumas. It is managed by the Bahamas National Trust (basically their National Park Service) and is patrolled by park wardens and Royal Bahamian Defense Force officers. The park is a no-take zone and as such boasts some pretty phenomenal marine life. The park does charge nominal fees for mooring or anchoring within the boundaries, but for our vessel it's not much--$30 for a mooring or $20 to anchor. You may be wondering why we would ever take a mooring then! Well, in some spots there just isn't any anchoring space or anchoring allowed so moorings are the only option. Moorings are also used in areas where the bottom ecology is fragile and anchoring would damage the environment. So if there are moorings, we use them as we feel it's a relatively small price to pay. Fees can be paid online (IF you can get cell signal!), by cash via pay boxes on various cays, or via cash to the Warden who comes around via boat. The park doesn't have fuel, water, trash service, or stores (except for the small gift shop at the headquarters on Warderick Wells Cay), so spending time there requires one to be self-sufficient and well-provisioned. But it does have an extensive network of trails on several cays, pristine beaches, and glorious reefs! Our journey this year took us to...
Shroud Cay
A dinghy ride through a mangrove creek, accompanied by turtles and baby nurse sharks, lands you at a powdery soft beach on the eastern shore. We grabbed a mooring just outside of a little lagoon that doesn't get many visitors (making it one of my favorite spots there!). The north entrance to the creek is pretty deep and large yacht tenders can get in (and set up their music and tents, unfortunately), but the southern path out is so shallow that high tide is helpful! There is also a southern mangrove path on the island that doesn't allow motorized vessels...it's on my "to do" list for a future visit!
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| Shroud Cay is a fabulous place to enjoy those "Exuma Blues!" |
Hawksbill Cay
This was a new stop for us this year! We tried to edge our way into the northern moorings, but needed about another foot of water to make it work so we hit the southern moorings instead. Reviews noted uncomfortable surge there, but conditions were good and we had a very cozy night! We were also the only ones there until late in the afternoon. We took a dinghy ride to a northern cove and hiked up to the Russell Ruins, home to Loyalist settlers in 1785. From there we hiked out the eastern beach. While it was littered with plastic trash as it is a remote windward beach, it was beautiful. Trent and I swam while Frank explored the shoreline and found us a great piece of driftwood for our boat sign (more on that at the next stop!). On the way back to the boat we tucked into a mangrove lagoon right by our mooring. It was beautiful! And the entrance framed our boat perfectly. Conditions were so nice that I swam from the lagoon back out to the boat. While several tour boats stopped at the beaches near the mooring fields, it wasn't crazy and they were all gone well before sunset. Really, really enjoyed this new stop!
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| Hawksbill Cay was so beautiful and peaceful! |
Warderick Wells Cay (ECLSP Headquarters)
While at Hawksbill we spoke to the Warden who told us all the Warderick Wells moorings were booked up until after the new year. We still headed that way on New Year's Eve and radioed the office to try our luck and we were lucky! Not only was one available, but several were and we were assigned the only mooring we've ever been on there, good 'ole number 8! As we entered there was tons of people traffic in the narrow channel! Paddleboarders, swimmers, snorkelers...it's a very tight channel with strong current so it was a little exciting for a few minutes, but we finally made it to our mooring and tied up with ease. Almost immediately I swam over to the shore because it is so close at low tide! We spent two nights here which allowed us to meet several new cruiser friends, reconnect with a crew we had met briefly in Great Harbour Cay, celebrate NYE on the beach with friends (and tons of biting bugs!), go snorkeling a few times, and take a few hikes around the island. We were the first folks to hike Boo Boo Hill in 2022 and left our new boat sign there, then I managed to get Frank to hike up to watch the sun rise the next day. It's really a great spot to enjoy the land and the sea!
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| Warderick Wells Cay is always a hit with our crew. So much to do and it's inevitable that you'll meet other cruisers in the mooring field! We loved ringing in the new year with new friends! |
Hog Cay/Pirate's Lair
This was another new stop for us and it very quickly went towards the top of our "favorite places in ECLSP" and "favorite places in the Bahamas" lists. With four moorings on the southeast end of Warderwick Wells between WW and Hog Cay, the Pirate's Lair is by design peaceful. It can also be a bear to get into if conditions aren't right. While it is well protected, the current rips through so wind, swell, and current direction all need to be considered when making the approach. Knowing there are limited moorings we went there with time to execute a backup plan if it was full. Lucky for us, it was completely empty as we entered and I immediately felt like I was in "Treasure Island!" We grabbed a mooring, only to realize it was the "big boat (>100')" mooring, so we cast off and moved in further. A little later we were joined by friends on S/V Echo. It was just the two of us for a night, just us and M/Y Magical Days for another night, and on the final night, we were alone. There are seemingly endless trails (thick with poison wood!) on the south end of Warderick Wells Cay that you can easily get to with a one-minute dinghy ride that will take you to numerous beaches, the Pirate's Lair, and plantation ruins if you really are up for a long hike. And you can hike the spine of Hog Cay, too...check out Active Captain for a fun bit of treasure while you're here! There is a small yet beautiful reef right along the shore of WW and just outside of that is a fantastic field of stromatolites (we only have one crew member that is always in awe of stromatolites, but that's ok!). Because of the stromatolites you really can't anchor in this area--if it's full, move along! I didn't want to leave...everything about this place just worked for me. I could swim at slack tide, hike and hit the beach, see my reef fishy friends, and ogle stromatolites to my heart's content. I really hope the weather cooperates the next time we are passing through!
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| Pirate's Lair was AMAZING! Can't wait to return! |
Cambridge Cay
This was an old favorite for us from our first year of cruising. From the moorings at Cambridge Cay you can do a little hiking and hit Rocky Dundas, the Sea Aquarium, a sunken plane, Tom's Elkhorn Garden, and Rachel's Bubblebath via dinghy. The elk horn coral were in pretty rough shape compared to our last visit, and we skipped the bubblebath because conditions were so calm it wouldn't have been "bubbling," but otherwise enjoyed revisiting some spots. The vibe was different this year...there was some generator/noise drama between two boats...but we still like it here. I think after the serenity of Pirate's Lair it was tough to compete! We also reconnected with some boats we'd met along the way and had some friends over for dinner as their stove was awaiting parts and I was happy to cook up a huge vat of curry for some fellow vegetarians! They spoiled us with gifts and wine in return, but the real treat was sharing the time and stories with them. It's one of the best parts of this lifestyle!
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| We love the snorkeling sites around Cambridge Cay (and the cell connectivity to catch up on weather reports!). |
While there are still more sites we want to get to in the park someday, we decided to move along and continue our journey south. It was definitely our best visit to the park yet!
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| Trail and site maps are still available at the headquarters on Warderick Wells Cay. |
For videos from our time in ECLSP head over to my Instagram account, @mariner99.
~Jo, 1st Mate
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