CODA : exploring the Exuma Islands, Bahamas.
12 February 2025
Monument Beach, Elizabeth Harbour, Georgetown, Great Exuma Cay, Bahamas
Today we discovered a new Bahamian National Park without trying.
Marc- We have been doing lots of exploring here. We want to know all there is to see and do so we can show our guest, arriving February 21, a good time. He is a former National Park Ranger, and he loves to hike in wild places. We started off checking out a local hotel and marina, The St. Francis. The place is known for its restaurant and bar as well as having moorings in interior lagoons immune from foul weather. They also have special activities for the boating community. We went over and were treated nicely by the staff. All reservations are done online. Marina and mooring reservations are done through Dockwa (a marina reservation App). I try not to use Dockwa since we prefer anchoring and if needed I try to speak to the people at the marina in person. In Bimini I spoke directly with the dock master and was charged $2.50 per foot. Another boater indicated they had booked through Dockwa and paid $5.00 per foot. In any case here at the St. Francis all rooms appear to be rented out for the season. The only "rooms" available are 25 foot houseboats tethered to the docks. We toured one and found more space than expected. A queen bed, bathroom, kitchenette and sitting area inside and out. The boats appear almost new but are not allowed to leave the dock.
Nice vibe here at the St. Francis Resort Marina. We will definitely come back for the pizza.
The St. Francis houseboats.
Our second exploration was to head over to Sand Dollar Beach* on the southern end of Stocking Island. We found a beautiful beach and a tree to tie our dinghy to. We first stumbled upon a kids encampment (without the kids). Sue and I decided it was a good place to sit down out of the sun and have lunch. The kids had really decorated the place well.
Then we found the Art Trail. This is a well kept trail that crosses over to the ocean side. Boaters have made art and left it along the sides of the trail.
Nice beach let's find a tree to tie the boat to.
This looks like a good spot.
We walked only a short distance and found these swings.
I immediately zoomed in on this construction detail. Proof that this set of swings was built by boaters.
This cool place was behind the swings. It was a good place to stop in the shade for some lunch. This place was most certainly a boater design.
Complete with some cool art. Did I mention there are boats from many different countries here.
(312 boats anchored the harbor this morning.)
ET phone home.
It is hard to miss the start of this trail.
As you enter the forest, art appears.
The trail does start at sand dollar beach.
Is this Herman Munster?
This rock solid person looks comfy.
Even a stone garden.
And then we came upon this Atlantic beach. So we just walked out on it (my old online trail map indicated that we could make a loop around the southern end of the island).
Stunning shoreline.
I think we need to come back and snorkel on this reef.
More reefs to explore.
Where did the sandy beach go?
Ah here it is. It hit me that this end of the Island has zero development.
Then we came upon a rather well built pavilion with signs.
This one indicates that Moriah Harbour Cay National Park starts where Sand Dollar Beach ends.
Lots of reefs here.
We have seen sea turtles.
We spent quite a bit of time traversing tropical forest today.
Oh well there goes another day. (Only three miles today on foot. We traveled some by dinghy as well).
*Sadly the beach was sand dollar-less.
5 comments:
Have there been any Conch music @ sunset?
Sounds like you are enjoying exploring! How has the coral been?
Mark, are there mooring balls in the harbor? We heard a rumor that they were trying to replace anchoring with mandatory moorings.
yes, there are about 100 mooring balls around. They have still left plenty of room for anchoring. For example, you can put an additional row of anchored boats between the moorings and the beaches.
We have seen lots of coral from the big boat that we successfully avoided. We have gone over the coral by dinghy and saw some sea turtles. We have picked up some nice coral fans on the beaches from time to time. No snorkeling yet just swimming. When this wind drops off we are headed off to do some snorkeling next week. It is blowing 20 knots here today.
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