North of Staniel Cay

Staniel Cay is the central hub of activity in the northern Exumas. There is a large settlement here, a great restaurant, 3 small groceries, and a good anchorage. Wonderful cruising grounds lie both north and south of Staniel. Many cruisers decide never to make the long trek to Georgetown--instead preferring to spend the entire winter in this area alone--it is certainly more interesting and varied. We decided to spend our first week here exploring anchorages and cays north of Staniel, to return for provisioning and then repeat the experience with the southern cays.

Sampson Cay is only a few miles north of Staniel, and it was here that we “holed up” with friends to ride out a “blow”. Once inside the marina we ran into “Oconee” who we had first met in Swansboro NC and so we had lots of news to catch up on. There was a great party planned for the night we arrived. The “general manager” of the marina had gone off to Lauderdale for the weekend and, “while the cat’s away, the mice will play!” In this case it was a big celebration in honor of the Bahamian office manager’s 50th birthday. Everyone was invited to this “freebee” with a big buffet and drinks all night long “on the house!” When the general manager returned 2 days later, he found over $3,800. worth of liquor unaccounted for and all the Bahamian employees baffled and in denial claiming there was no party at the marina--according to them, it had been held off island at the Thunderball Club on Staniel. We wisely stayed out of it, leaving for the day with 5 other dinghies in a convoy to go snorkelling in Pipe Creek. We had a glorious afternoon together, swimmming over coral heads and seeing lots of colourful fish. That night some fishermen came into our achorage with fresh lobsters and so we had a delicious dinner. The next day we returned to the Pipe Creek Cays but this time to check out the beaches, look for shells and venture further into area by dinghy. And it was another marvellous day.

The next morning we pulled up our anchor and headed north for Compass Cay. This is one of the most interesting islands in the area with one of the prettiest beaches in the Bahamas. We tied up at the small marina there where we were welcomed by “Tucker Rolle”--the black Bahamian owner of the marina and caretaker of the cay. He is a colourful character with an interesting history who claims to have fathered 54 children both inside and outside of marriage. While we were there he was entertaining his latest girlfriend and her German family while awaiting the arrival of his next child. At Compass Cay a dock has been constructed that is about a foot underwater at high tide. Tucker has trained a group of nurse sharks to swim onto this platform for feeding. We summoned the courage to walk among them while giving them pieces of fish and even got to pet them after Tucker assured us it was safe to do so. Just don’t pull their tails.(Duh! I guess not!!) After feeding the sharks we set off across island trails to one of the most beautiful beaches I had ever seen located on the other side of the island. We had hoped to have it all to ourselves but there were two other couples there who had dinghied over from a neighbouring anchorage and so we all hung out together, swimming in the crystal waters, beachcombing and just kicking back on loungers under a thatched cabana. Paradise!

After almost a week of toodeling around in the Sampson/Pipe Creek/Compass Cay area in ideal weather conditions, we decided to head for Staniels and civilization once again to provision and top up with propane before heading south. We pulled up beside our old friend “Higheeled” where we dropped a hook and then headed into the village by dinghy. We ran into Jackie and Chris (Higheeled) at the marina and invited them over to Fortnight for drinks and a visit later in the afternoon. Then it was off to Isles General Store for groceries and propane followed by a great lunch--fish for me, a burger for Vince--at Staniel Cay Club. After a quick nap and good visit with our friends, we settled down to a quiet evening in a calm anchorage where we planned the next leg of our trip.