We spent the month of February as volunteer mooring field hosts for the Exuma Land and Sea Park. Our primary duties were to collect mooring fees, explain the park rules and provide information on snorkelling and hiking in the park. We also cleared trails and picked up trash. And despite all the work we managed to do a fair amount of hiking and snorkelling ourselves. All in all, a very nice way to spend a month in the park.
Every day we travel throughout the mooring field to collect fees. Usually a mid-day trip and then one more before happy hour. takes about an hour a day. The field has nine balls for cruisers and three for mega yachts.
The mega yachts in the park are sort of a mixed blessing. They bring much needed revenue, paying $100-150 per night, but sometimes bring more noise and activity than some folks would like. For the most part, they behaved themselves, but we probably don’t need the jet skis.
The land is rather arid but the vegetation still manages to overgrow the trails so we spent a few days hacking back the sides of the trails and adding markers to make them easier to find.
We are also often the social directors for the anchorage. All that means is that we announce a happy hour on the beach. Easy to get a crowd.
We maintain a 24 hour radio watch, just in case some emergency arises in the field. Mostly pretty quiet for the month but these folks had a problem with their batteries and could not start their engine. No TowBoat US down here. Or anything remotely resembling a boatyard. Luckily we carry a set of battery cables and we were able to jump start his engine with a spare battery he was carrying.
We also rescued a “dinghy in distress” trying to row back from Rocky Dundas. Took us 20 minutes just to tow them back so no telling how long it would have taken them to row against the current.
We are part of a study of fish migration sponsored by the Smithsonian. Whenever we anchor we put a sensor overboard that responds to RFIDs on tagged fish. We wont find out what fish we have tracked until the finder is returned next spring.
We spent lots of time in the water “harassing” the green turtles. After a while they just ignored us and if I was in the water I could get pretty close for a photo.
This is one of our favorite beaches on the island. Not really a blue hole as it is only 30 ft deep or so, but the colors are special. Kayaks were a perfect means of transportation because the area dries at low.
One stunning view after another. Just when you think you have seen everything in the area you get a view like this.
Spotted eagle rays came by most every day. Occasionally they would leap entirely out of the water. Pretty impressive for a beast with an 8′ wingspan.
Sting rays are everywhere and rely on their coloration to hide in the shallows. We were careful to shuffle our feet when wading. In the kayaks it was possible to go right on top of them before they would spook. This one reminds me of the F117 stealth fighter.
One of our favorite snorkelling sites is called the sea aquarium. Just a small indentation in the rocks but after years of folks feeding them, the fish are quite friendly. If you don’t feed them they finally get bored with you.
The fish will get close enough that you can even touch them.
This guy was a little less friendly.
Queen conch is endangered throughout the Bahamas due to over-harvesting, some of it legal and some not. The park is a no-take zone and has become a critical part of protection and regeneration of all sorts of marine life. These conch would be easy picking outside the park and the fact that they are even here at all suggests that the park’s efforts to protect the wildlife is working.
In our snorkeling we have seen spiny lobster, Nassau grouper, and many other species of over-harvested wildlife that are rarely seen outside the park but are doing well inside the boundaries of the park. There are a number of marine protection zones in the Bahamas besides Exuma park but Exuma park is the only one with the resources to combat poaching. Hopefully more will be done in the future.
While we are at Cambridge there is little opportunity to replenish stores. Once a week or so someone from the park staff comes by and takes Lisa in to Staniel Cay for a little grocery shopping.
Nurse sharks are constant visitors to the anchorage. They are pretty harmless. Caribbean Reef sharks come by as well and are less docile. They pretty much ignore swimmers, as long as they aren’t being fed. Unfortunately some visitors to the park dont understand this and we have had to admonish a few folk.
Most visitors cant distinguish from one shark species to another and feeding nurse sharks is a popular tourist draw at some of the local marinas. So visitors come to Cambridge and feed the sharks that come under their boat. But they are feeding Reef sharks while other boats have kids swimming near by. We have also seen Hammerhead sharks in the park and others have seen tiger sharks. Lets hope nothing happens.
The colors of sand and sea and sky in the park are just incredible. Every time we think we have found the ultimate beach, we find one more. This is on the northern tip of Obrien’s Cay, just around the corner from the sea aquarium
This is not from Cambridge, but from Hog Cay, another park mooring field. We spent a week there, hiding from a significant cold front. We were the only boat there for the entire week. Lots of current, but excellent mooring ball.
When we visited the park last year the moorings were in a state of disrepair. Joe and Nicola Ierna had just taken over as park administrators and were focusing on replacing all the gear. None too soon as we saw at least two boats break their moorings in the month we were there. For our month of volunteer work that year I dove and installed my own line to the anchor post on the bottom.
The new mooring gear is beefy, to say the least. Mega yachts lay on the same size gear as the cruiser boats so we can feel pretty safe. The down line is now all chain and the pendant is 1.5″ nylon. Also, the ball itself is not part of the system, a significant improvement over the old design.
Speaks for itself. Another day well spent at Cambridge. We were sad to leave but will likely return next year.
This was our second year to volunteer at Cambridge and it was equally rewarding. We met hundreds of cruisers passing through, collected neary $10,000 in mooring and anchoring fees, and did a bit to clean up our little part of the park. And managed to have some fun doing it.
Having visited the park a number of times over the last few years, we are excited about the revitalized efforts to improve the park now that Joe and Nicola, along with Brent the warden, are on board. The new moorings, the increased policing, the upgrade of the facilities, all are much needed and much appreciated. We are blessed to have them running the park and equally blessed to call them friends.
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