Just a bit of feed back to all those who assisted us with
advice on this thread ... we are in fact nearing the end of our time in the Bahamas although we intend to visit two or so islands on the way out as we depart for our journey to the Pacific.
We eventually sailed as the
wind direction and
weather allowed and started at Mayaguana, Plana Cays,
Rum Cay and then George Town in the Exumas. From here we worked our way up through the Exumas to
Nassau and then worked our way back down through the islands to
GeorgeTown again. The Exumas proved to be stunning and my personal favorites were O'Briens Cay (Coral Gardens,
diving on the drug smugglers plane, the botique beach on the south with a stream leading to a huge sand pan and speaking with the
skipper on Johnny Deps boat, Vajoliroger, anchored off his neighboring island) and Normans Cay (especially the southern part of the
lagoon area which is
remote and beautiful).
Interestingly enough, we had written some islands off as not being worth a re-visit but went back anyway and learnt something we had not factored much in during our travels previously ...
weather.
We found that even with the lighter winds in the wrong direction, the islands were unpleasant and unattractive to us but when we returned in calm smooth
water conditions, these same islands were spectacular in every sense of the word. A major example to us was Great Guana Island which at first had no appeal for us at all, however when we dropped anchor on our southbound
route off White Point, I must say the entire place was awe inspiring with its stunning long white beaches and crystal clear waters.
Little Farmers Cay also proved to be very quaint on our return journey when the
water was 'glassed over'.
We departed George Town with about 10 boats at anchor off Stocking Island and returned to 180 boats ... quite something! Thanks again for all the input ... very much appreciated and I may start a new thread asking for
advice and recommendations on
Cuba next!