Exumas - Allans Cay

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

A major rainstorm came through Nassau as we made our preparations to leave and I was afraid that we would be traveling with limited visibility for awhile.  But just as we pulled away from the dock the drenching rains stopped and the sun came out.  We obtained approval from the Nassau Harbormaster to leave the eastern harbor entrance and turned south towards the Exuma Cays.

Allans Cay is one of the northernmost Cays in the Exumas chain and only about 30 miles south of Nassau.  It's actually a group of unihabited cays, the closest settlement is Highborne Cay about 5 miles away (and about the only thing there is a small marina).

Here we are at anchor in the small harbor between two of the cays.

I don't think the pictures can accurately portray the color of the water.  There was great snorkeling along the cay behind us in the picture above.  One of the unique features of these cays is that they are about the last remaining habitat of the Bahamian Iguana.

They seemed shy so we kept our distance.  The larger ones stayed back in the undergrowth.

Some of them were 4 feet long or more.

Luckily they are vegetarians as I'm not sure I could outrun one.

We took the dinghy over to Highborne Cay and got some ice and eggs.  The marina has a small store with a modest but good selection of essentials.

We stayed two days here before moving south to another anchorage at Normans Cay, our next destination.