Ashley Saunders explaining how he built the house with only local materials

Some of the material found on the beach

Ruddy Turnstone on the rail of the boat

Escapade under sail Kurt and Jane

Beautiful Beach

Shroud Key

Conch in water

looking out into Exuma Sound

Highborne Key

First and last underwater photo before camera died

Sharks don't fall off the dock

Highborne Key

Sunset in Paradise

Remnants of loyalist settlement on Wardrick Wells

Sound Side of Wardrick Wells

Hiking on Wardrick Wells

Blue Crab

Sea Spray

Relaxing at Pirates Lair

Aqua Blue Water

Bananquit

I hate this computer!!!!!!

Highborne Key to Blackpoint settlement

I spent an hour this morning on the boat writing this blog entry and am now on shore to get the wifi to post it  but the document I had written disappeared into thin air.

Off to the Exuma Land and Sea Park. This covers a large area and includes many islands. It is a Bahamian National Park.

We left Highborne Key for Shroud Key which is really a conglomerate of multiple islands connected by areas of mangroves. There are several passages that bisect the island and connect the Bahamas Banks to Exuma Sound. With favorable timing from the tides Diana and I joined our friends Kurt and Jane for a dinghy adventure to the sound side. We were presented with a magnificent beach. It is totally devoid of development however we saw the beach was littered with plastic and glass debris. I believe this debris is from far far away not local.

After 1 night at Shroud we sailed to Wardrick Wells the headquarters of the park. We spent 4 days hiking and snorkeling. Both activities were very special. One of our hikes ended up longer than we expected. We had planned to walk to the park ranger station where we would meet some friends. It should have been a 30-minute walk, 2 hours later we arrived after multiple wrong turns on a poorly marked and very rugged trail. We managed to put ourselves into a large stand of Poison Wood trees; fortunately none of us were effected.

The snorkeling was fantastic! We saw countless species of fish many displaying vibrant bright colors. We also saw a Caribbean lobster for the first time. There were also lots of different hard and soft coral.

After 4 nights at Wardrick Wells we sailed to Black Point Settlement; a small town on the northern tip of Great Guana Island. The people here exemplify the friendly Bahamian. Yesterday we did our laundry while looking out at crystal clear aqua blue water while eating fresh home made carrot cake, 1$ per slice. Thought I died and went to heaven. We expect to be here for several more days and then slowly make our way to Georgetown.

The sailing in the Bahamas has been second to none. Nice wind in the right direction and no seas. Yesterday’s sail was so magnificent. Clipping along at 7-8 knots with almost no heel.