Friday, March 18 to Monday, March 23, 2009
After our wild sailing “whichever way the wind blows” day on the Exuma Banks, we were mighty happy to anchor up behind Normans Cay where we had been about a month before. It all looked very familiar and we knew that it was a good place to anchor. Also, this is the very place that the giant spiny lobster came out of its hole to greet John during our previous visit. Of course, nothing is ever the same. The wind was from a different direction than before and it caused the waves to pound us all night so we decided to move the boat to anchor west of the cay the next day. But before we moved away from that lobster hole, John had to go visit. We don’t think that ospreys catch lobsters, but this osprey and his mate glowered at us as John snorkeled around trying to find his lost lobster. Guess we were just disturbing their little windswept island.
Having found no lobsters, we were really hoping to find the one restaurant at Normans open this time. The new anchorage was very close to the restaurant—just a short dinghy ride to the beach and a short hike up the path through the trees. The restaurant—MacDuff’s—was our best discovery here—a delightful place. We hung out in Norman’s Cay for four days hiding from the strong winds and waiting to sail to Eleuthera eventually. Time spent on the boat was very bouncy—even in our second anchorage—so we were mostly at MacDuff’s. Hopefully, you can tell from these pictures that it was a very pleasant place to be as the food was excellent, it had free internet connection, and we got to watch some of the early March Madness games on their TV.
Many of the restaurant customers fly in from Nassau or nearby islands. The air strip was right beside MacDuff’s and was always busy. Pictured below is a float plane that almost landed on top of us as we dinghied over for Sunday brunch. No kidding—we were just motoring from our boat to the beach when this guy swooped down and landed right beside us. Then the pilot climbed out on the pontoon shouting something to us. I thought it was perhaps an apology, but it turned out that a couple of his passengers weren’t good swimmers and did not want to wade through the chest-high water to the shore. Funny, huh? I stayed on the beach and John motored out to the plane to bring the grandparents ashore. The other folks waded ashore with their kids riding on their shoulders and pocketbooks on their heads. The pilot later explained that he had planned on landing on the airstrip, but had blown a tire—good thing he also had pontoons! Then he had not realized that the shore was so rocky that he could not motor the plane right up to the beach. We must tell you, all his passengers seem happy to have this unexpected adventure as they had on bathing suits and water sandals. It seemed like a lot of trouble for brunch, but when we thought about it we had to admit that it was much less effort than sailing to MacDuff’s!
The rest of our MacDuff’s pictures are below. We have featured the unique bathroom at MacDuff’s. It was not one of several bathrooms or just the men’s room—no-this was the ONLY bathroom. We think you can figure out what’s what in all the pictures!
Next we’re going to back to Warderick Well (Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park) and get in a good position to head north to Eleuthera when the wind direction becomes favorable.
Great pictures! I would love to go to Norman's Cay soon.
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