Back in Italy from 3 weeks now, we keep thinking back to our wonderful week with Cpt. Mark sailing the Northern Exumas Cays.
It took just few minutes with this man and we immediately knew he's the one ! Skillful, discreet, patient with our little ‘troop’ and extremely nice.
Stray Cat is a comfortable and well equipped 45 foot catamaran, which accommodates up to 8 guests. We were a party of 5 friends, including me, my husband Stefano, Randy from North Carolina and another Italian couple, Elena and Alessandro. Therefore...room was not missing at all.
We first spent about one hour shopping food and beverage in Nassau for the week, and then...ready to weigh anchor !
There is plenty to sail in the Caribbean, but the location we chose is amazing for sea lovers: Exumas Cays are an uncontaminated corner of the Bahamas islands. Forget luxury resorts and ordinary tourists places, think to a myriad of almost deserted little islands (the Cays) scattered in this unbelievable Caribbean pool blue, miles and miles of transparent water which call you jumping in every minute !
If you like the naturalistic part of a trip, the delicate smell of the sea, the thousand shades of blue, if you like to be in the middle of nowhere just with your friends, fins, snorkel and your camera, that's a place to be at least one time in your life.
Spots we liked the most: Allan Cay, where a group of iguanas and seagull's are a natural frame of a pinkish sandy beach;
Staniel Cay, were we did a wonderful snorkeling at Thunder ball Grotto, a cave where the light gets in from a hole in the top of dramatic walls, with an incredible number of tropical fishes such as parrots, angels, yellowtail snappers, butterfly fishes and so; Pig Island was an experience: imagine a group of wild pigs swimming and trying to climb in your dinghy expecting you'll feed them !!
Though the marinas were we stopped by for fuel, ice and some more food, such as Highbourne Cay and Sampson Cay were very nice, and we loved snorkeling at Northern Rose Island in our way back.
Last day we had to come back to Nassau few hours earlier than forecasted, since after 6 sunny days weather was promising anything but good. This has been an occasion to have a nice walk downtown and to stop at the local handcraft coloured market in the main street. For whoever is around, take the time to get an ice-cream at Ice Cream Parlor...it's simply delicious.
Special thanks to our Captain Mark, for welcoming us in his boat and guiding us through these beautiful islands.
We all appreciated your company and we hope to spend another vacation together aboard soon !!
A presto,
Elisabetta & Stefano
PS Just few days after our return back to Italy we heard about hurricane Irene hitting Bahamas. Well, for the little we have known Mark, we had no doubts about his capability to face difficulties, but nature can be very rough...and we were relieved to know that Stray Cat and its captain were safe !
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