Hawksbill Cay

2/17 - After doing a few boat chores we released the lines to our mooring ball and were on our way by 10:00. Our proposed destination today was Hawksbill Cay. We had passed it by on our way south with the intention of catching it on our return trip. We pulled into the southern mooring/anchorage area around 12:30. The trip had been in choppy seas, but the ride wasn’t all that bad. After settling in and a quick lunch, we hopped in the dinghy, picked up Michael and Jana, and headed out to explore.

The cay is now uninhabited, but during the period between 1780-1900 it was home to a group of Loyalists (Colonists who had relocated primarily from the eastern Florida area because of persecution by the Patriots during the American Revolution). There are still several ruins that remain along with a beehive oven that was used for cooking as well as incinerating conch shells for use in making mortar for their homes. We struggled to get from one ruin to another and it was hard to imagine anyone actually living in this rugged terrain.

Along the trail (and I use that term loosely) we saw several gumbo limbo trees. The leaves on these trees are used as an antidote to poison wood. We have definitely learned to identify poison wood because it is everywhere and it’s something to be avoided. Unfortunately, Michael had gotten in the middle of some and immediately began itching ….. so he took some leaves from the gumbo limbo, crushed them up and rubbed them on the area. Itch gone. About the same time the mosquitoes descended on us so we tried the same treatment for any bites we’d gotten. Seemed to work – no itching – so we picked a few small branches and brought them back to the boat for future use.

We took a trail that went from the beach on the west side to the Exuma Sound side. The Sound side was also quite shallow close to shore with lots of reefs and the water was more aqua instead of the usual deep blue. We walked the beach for awhile and then returned to the boat for a quiet evening.

2/18 – During the night it rained a little and the wind picked up some so there was a bit of surge in the anchorage. After breakfast we decided to move to the northern anchorage area as it seemed to be more protected. We were able to get pretty close to shore, but still in 8 feet of water.

We took the dinghy and explored the south end of the island where there were some charted nice reefs. However, there was too much current and wave action to snorkel so we used the look bucket instead. Later in the afternoon we took the beach trail again and this time went the other direction. While we were on our walk, it rained a little but it didn’t amount to much.

Back at the boat, we had a nice quiet Friday night.