We spent quite a bit of time in the park this season. A few days in the North field horse shoe, a few at Emerald Rock and nearly a month at the Cambridge Cay mooring field. We volunteered as mooring field hosts for the month. In return for a free mooring we represent the park in the field. Our primary duties include providing information about the park in general and Cambridge Cay in particular. Most importantly, we collect the mooring fees from the boats. We have no way of knowing how many of the visiting boats would pay voluntarily if we were not there, but I suspect we more than paid for our presence with the extra income we were able to provide to the park.
The park has a new administrator, Joe Ierna who, along with his wife Nicola will provide re-energized management to the park. We were able to spend some time with Joe and Nicola and the park wardens and learned lots about the park and their plans for upgrades. New buildings, new generators, etc. And most important to cruisers, new mooring ball systems. In the past, the park moorings had a great reputation for quality and maintenance. Over the last year or so, maintenance had lapsed and moorings were failing. We witnessed a large trawler break free from its mooring at Emerald Rock in a not so strong breeze. And when we moved to Cambridge I dove on the moorings in the field and found one so frayed it was ready to break. Good news is, while we were there the park wardens dove all the moorings and repaired or replaced the bad ones. I dont know the schedule for the new moorings but it shouldn’t be too long.
One good thing about the moorings in the park is that the water is so clear it is easy to dive and inspect the entire mooring system. I think most of the risk of a mooring failure is at the top of the mooring, where boats can damage the pennant. But the shackle can wear as well. This is a shot of me inspecting the mooring we sat on for a month at Cambridge. It was in about 25 feet, which is about my free diving limit. Everything looked good down there.
Most of the moorings are designed for cruising boats, 65′ or less. A few are for large yachts, up to 150′. The park collects as much as $150 per night for the use of these moorings so it brings in much needed revenue.
The big boat mooring is next to ours, so the boats need to pass fairly closely. Once they are attached, there is plenty of swing room. One yacht had their guests depart via sea plane. Quite the shock to see it land next to us.
The take off was even more exciting!
Sea plane departs Cambridge
One of the great pleasures of spending a month with the park was getting to meet some of the Bahamians that work there. One day Jay, one of the wardens, and Geo, a Defense Force soldier, came by in their boat en route to Staniel Cay and invited us along. Since Staniel Cay is the only resupply town in the area, and we had no other way to get there, we jumped at the opportunity. After shopping, we all stopped at the yacht club for lunch. A fine time was had by all.