The beach on Musha Cay
We are heading back to George Town on Great Exuma to get food. We are running out of all sorts of things since we have been in the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park (ECLSP) for so long. We made a stop in Staniel Cay for some basics: bread, potatoes, tomatoes, more Cuban cigars, rum etc. This little shopping trip should take the pressure off and allow us not to rush back to George Town. We can take our sweet time heading south and stop along the way. One of the great things about sailing in the Exuma islands is the next island is only a couple of hours away under sail. We can just hop about.
After we departed Staniel Cay, we decided to stop at a small anchorage we spotted on the way north called Hetty’s Land. At the time, when we were going north to the ECLSP, there was a large mega yacht parked there. We decided to stay away. We are not mega yacht haters but, they tend to be a little annoying. Most are chartered and the chartering guests run about on jet skis most of the day. They do not respect or care about other boats anchored nearby. I am sure they are very nice people and they probably just don’t realize the noise and wake caused by the jet skis is bothersome. They are just people on vacation having fun. At nighttime, the yacht is lit up like a Manhattan skyscraper. We are use to sleeping with the curtains open under the ambient light of the moon and stars. And of course, since they have the whole boat brightly lit up, they need to run the noisy diesel smelling generator all night. So, we just give them some space. We intended to stay at Hetty’s Land for a few days while we used our water maker to top off our tanks and catch up on laundry (we have small washer/almost dryer aboard). We sometimes use a local laundromat to wash things like comforters. But for our clothes, we can wash them in our cute little French washer/almost dryer. This plan didn’t work out. The wind shifted on our first night and the anchorage became quite roily. We needed to move.
Lighting – a storm brews South of us
We decided to backtrack north to Black Point. It was three hours away and although we were heading south, it was the closest safest harbor with more protection than Hetty’s. We needed the additional protection from the prevailing winds. We dropped the anchor in the harbor and let out a sigh of relief. It felt good to once again be in calm water. We settled into Black Point in a nice area all by ourselves and went about our business. We noticed on day two a boat anchored next to us flying a Swiss flag. After a closer look, we realized the man and woman aboard were naked, very naked. I have nothing against naked people. In fact, I think more people should be naked. Power to the people and all that. It makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Being naked most of the time saves on clothes and laundry. And, on a small sailboat where fresh-water is a precious commodity not doing laundry saves water. Although. I imagine they might have challenges when cooking bacon while naked. Or, perhaps Swiss people don’t eat bacon. Anyway, we enjoyed the naked people and went about our business. At sunset we thought we heard music. Well, not really music in the normal sense of tonal music. Really more of the badly played musical instruments type of music. It was our Swiss neighbors. They treated us to a naked rendition of Yankee Doodle played on a snare drum and fife. I’m serious about this. Ya just can’t make this stuff up.
We decided we should continue to push south after making a big decision on where to spend hurricane season this year (more on this in a later post). We thought it would be nice to visit David Copperfield, you know…. the magician. We pulled up the anchor and headed off to Musha Cay. Musha Cay is a private resort island owned by Dave. We had a wonderful sail south and for once the wind was coming from the right direction. We picked out a small anchorage behind Musha Cay and dropped the hook. Holy cow!!!! This ain’t your average resort.
One of Dave’s houses
Another one of Dave’s houses
It turned out that Dave owns eleven islands (yes – you read that correctly – eleven) and has renamed the area Copperfield Bay (although this name isn’t reflected on any of our nautical charts). In the Bahamas, the water is public and the beach is public to the high water mark. However, we didn’t push our luck by going ashore and setting up beach chairs with a cooler full of cheap Bahamian Kalik Beer at low tide on his beautiful beach. While hanging out reading a book in our cockpit, I could see some workers busy on the beach. They had some dredging equipment floating off the shore and a mini dump truck. They were pumping seawater into the bin of the dump truck. It took me a little while to realize what it was they were doing. Again, I just can’t make stuff like this up. They were making sand for the beach! You see, rich people staying on this resort can’t be seen lying on regular sand. They need special fresh organic sand recently plucked from the ocean.
Harvesting sand
In addition to freshly harvested sand, Dave treats his guests to underwater works of art. He commissioned the British underwater art sculpturist Jason deCaires Taylor. Don’t worry; I didn’t realize there was such a thing either as an underwater sculpturist. But apparently, this guy makes a good living doing underwater art. See, it just keeps getting better and better. I’m tellin’ you, I just can’t make this stuff up. Mr. Taylor made a stainless steel piano complete with mermaid and sunk it just off Rudder Cay, one of Dave’s islands. Dave’s guests, along with other cruisers can visit this sculpture. It is located at: 23° 52.174′ N, 76° 14.171’W.
Underwater Art
I researched Musha Cay on the Google machine. It turns out Dave paid about $50 Million for his islands and then spent another $40 million in buildings and renovations. You do not have to have a Cream Puff to visit Dave’s islands. You can go yourself. You just need a big wad of money or some very rich friends. The resort cost, well it cost an awful lot. The rates are posted on his webpage. I guess people with a lot of money to spend think this place is well…. let’s just say… magical.
