We made it to the E-X-U-M-A-S!! Our sights have been on this place since the beginning! After a week in Nassau, it was good to finally be on the move towards these beautiful islands. We had a new crew member join us from NYC, who made the crossing with us over to Norman’s Cay. Rough ride over but happy with our first stop and anchorage!

Normans Cay is 55 miles southeast of Nassau, about 7 hours total. We anchored here two nights but only because we got in around 6pm. Perfect time to settle in, make cocktails, and relax with our new guest! Norman’s has quite a colorful history. From 1978 – 1982, it became the Caribbean’s main drug smuggling hub. Carlos Lehder chased away the locals and began buying up as much property as he could, where he ultimately took control of the island. In the glory days of his operation, 300 kilos of cocaine would arrive on the island every hour of every day.

Next afternoon we dinghied over to MacDuff’s, the only restaurant on Norman’s, but it was unfortunately closed the day we went (they should update their signage out front) and headed out to explore the infamous smugglers plane wreckage at low tide, a C-46 twin engine transport plane. The story of its demise is that the plane was too overloaded with kilos to fly and crashed. The water conditions however were too rough for the dinghy to make it all the way. So we turned back and had a relaxing beach day instead. As we left for Big Major’s + Staniel Cay the next day, we got up early to move our boat closer to the lagoon, anchored, and then dinghied over towards the plane site. Worked out perfectly! 🙂

A dream come true…

Cheers from the Bahamas!