I JUST WANT TO LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER EVERY NOW AND THEN. —JIMMY BUFFETT Luxury Charter Vacation Proposal Bahamas: Exumas Paradise Island Rock Allan’s Cay THE Nassau Iguanas Highbourne Cay BAHAMAS Norman’s Cay T Shroud Cay Dead Head Wall EXUMA ISLANDS O Hawksbill Cay N EXUMAS N G NATIONAL LAND ne U & SEA PARK Warderick Wells Cay nw E Hog Cay O Nurse Sharks F Compass Cay E W T Staniel Cay H Swimming Pigs Bitter Guana Cay E se sw O Thunderball Grotto C Black Point Great Guana Cay S E A Big Farmer’s Cay N Little Farmer’s Cay Darby Island Lee Stocking Island Barreterre George Town William’s Town SALT BEACON THE HERMITAGE Suggested Itinerary BAHAMAS: EXUMAS Day 1 Arrival into Nassau, cruise to Allan Cay Day 2 Highbourne Cay Marina Day 3 Norman’s Cay Day 4 Shroud Cay Day 5 Waderick Wells Day 6 Cambridge Cay / Little Bells Cay Day 7 Staniel Cay Yacht Club & Big Majors, Pig Beach Day 8 Compass Cay Day 9 Departure from Nassau This is a generic itinerary of the destination. Please consult with your Captain should there be any specific areas you wish to visit or avoid. The itinerary may change due to weather. Featured Destinations BAHAMAS: EXUMAS The Exumas are a 120-mile-long island chain-within-the-chain of the Out Islands, with the Exuma Cays scattered in a long line extending north-east toward New Providence from Great Exuma. DISCOVER TRANSPARENT TURQUOISE WATERS The Exumas are a 120-mile-long island chain-within-the-chain of the Out Islands, with the Exuma Cays scattered in a long line extending north-east toward New Providence from Great Exuma. The Cays are the most exotic of the Out Islands, a collection of tiny jewels set in the aquamarine and sapphire of the most beautiful water you’ve ever imagined. It’s no wonder this has been named one of the top 10 things you absolutely must do in the Caribbean. Its reefs and island environments are so pristine that Bahamian government set aside a 176-square-mile section as the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, one of the world’s most successful marine parks. The Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park is the first of its kind in the world and is famous for its pristine beauty, outstanding anchorages and breathtaking marine environment. Under its transparent turquoise waters are beautiful natural gardens of coral teeming with fish and lobster. The rarest living creatures of the park are stromatolites, blue-green, reef-forming algae, which are the oldest living evidence of life on Earth; some of them on Exuma Island and Stocking Island are believed to be 2,000 years old. Fossil stromatolites date back 3.5 billion years. The Exumas are a dream destination for boaters, fishermen (flats, reef and offshore), divers, snorkelers and kayakers. The private islands are custom-designed for those seeking the ultimate escape. The Exumas are magnificently tropical, with average daily temperatures of 78 degrees. ALLAN’S CAY HIGHBORNE CAY The Cay has a lot to offer both Allan’s Cay is one of the last homes There are 9 beaches surrounding the snorkelers and divers. The entire of the rare Bahamas rock iguanas. island. On the eastern shore you will eastern shoreline is strewn with They were once common on find a mile long, curving beach, one numerous shallow reefs and offers most Bahamian Islands, but early of the most beautiful in The Bahamas. good snorkeling just off the beach. settlers nearly hunted them into A Philadelphia businessman who Just off the NW shore of the island extinction. As you approach the immediately began developing the lies the remains of the `6th century beach, watch for iguanas crawling islands with a marina, houses, and Bahamian shipwreck first discovered out of the woods. They are looking paved roads purchased Highborne in 1965. Wrought iron ordinance, lead for handouts of bread or fruit from Cay in the 1950’s. The cay was still ammunition, small guns, rigging, chain, the guests to their island. You will owner by the same family until 1996. anchors and a wooden knife handle get a kick out of these indigenous There are 9 residences on the cay, inlaid with gold, pottery and numerous iguanas on Allan’s Cay! Feed the 5 occupied by staff and one rental pieces Of hardware and ballast stones iguanas and take lots of pictures house available. There are some ruins were removed from the wreck and since you can only see them on two on the old Highborne Plantations dated to the 1st half of the 16th century. islands on Earth! Allan’s Cay is one dating back over 100 years toward The wreck lies in approximately 20’ of the few places on the Out Islands the northern end of the island. It will of water and is in an area of swift total of The Bahamas where you can see take some searching to ding these currents and sometimes reaching 3 iguanas. Looks can be deceiving. ruins, as even the staff are unsure knots. Although the identity of the While they may look fierce, iguanas of their whereabouts. Watermelons vessel is unknowns, it was not a lightly actually are a gentle lizard. once grew in such abundance here built vessel as the salvage expedition that the Nassau market could not son learned. It is estimated to be over absorb them. 65 feet long & 20 feet wide. Just what caused it to sink is unknown. INTERESTING FACTS Nurse Sharks: Shaped like predators (big and with a dorsal fin), these Bahamian creatures are benign and catfish-like. Frequently fed by marina workers at Compass Cay, nurse sharks are friendly, and happy to swim up to greet visitors and be photographed. Compass Cay: Home to the Bahamian nurse sharks and a short boating distance from Staniel Cay. LAND & SEA PARK The park is alive with color and as a refuge for several rare and Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park activity as fish of every kind swim endangered Iguanas, marine birds is a natural wonder waiting to be before your eyes. The efforts such as Terns and the long-tailed discovered. Exuma Cays in the made to protect the population of Tropicbird, and a small mammal Bahamas is renowned world-wide for creatures in this park have resulted called the Hutia. its great beauty and friendly people. in the increased growth of important Bahamians are very proud of this It is not only an attractive tourist species such as queen conch, spectacular park and are always destination because of its sheer Nassau grouper and spiny lobster. delighted to share their enthusiasm beauty and slow-moving pace, but this When visiting this water world, you with you. The best experience is to incredible island also boasts of the will most certainly want to bring an rent a kayak and allow a guide to world’s first land and sea park. underwater camera to capture the wonders of marine life all around steer you across the sapphire-colored This natural wonder was you. waters and atop coral reefs teeming established in 1959 by The with exciting and mysterious marine Bahamas National Trust. It There is a beautiful beach right next life. The Exuma Cays land and sea stretches for 176 square miles and to the park headquarters. While park is truly one of the great natural is a popular destination for diving there aren’t a lot of fish right off the wonders of the world. enthusiasts. Although divers are beach, you can swim or snorkel permitted to swim amongst the around to the headquarters’ dock cays and reefs in the park, the area where schools of grunts, jacks and and its vast population of marine snapper swarm. A resident lemon life are protected. In 1986, the shark may also appear. Do not be area was established as a no-take surprised if you see a beautiful fishery reserve to ensure that the sea turtle swimming amongst the numerous ocean creatures were coral reefs. Although this park is protected. characterized by water, the land area is as fascinating. It serves NORMAN’S CAY SHROUD CAY HAWKSBILL CAY Norman’s Cay served as the Shroud Cay, an uninhabited cay Hawksbill, an uninhabited cay owned headquarters for Carlos Lehder's owned by Exuma Park, is an by Exuma Park, has numerous drug-smuggling operation from archipelago of cays and rocks soft sand beaches on both the 1978 to around 1982. In the harbor surrounding a shallow tidal western and eastern shores of the of Norman’s Cay lies a DC-3 in 3’ mangrove salina which serves cay. Particular highlights for visits of water. This plane crashed in the as a unique nursery for conch, here include the Layalist Ruins, 1980's while smuggling drugs. It lobster, sea turtles, birds and many the spectacular beaches, and the is a popular spot of underwater varieties of fish. The tidal creek amazing harbors and bays. This field photographers. The plane is to the north of Shroud Cay is very runs along the long sandy beach surrounded by large schools of fish. shallow and should be explored (Adler Beach) and is just south of the Cave enthusiasts will enjoy the 3 only at Idle Speed/No wake on a entrance to the trail to the old Loyalist caves at the entrance to the pond rising tide to avoid being stranded settlement that populated the cay on the western end. Divers will want in your dinghy. The beautiful white in the late 1700’s.