Bahamas National Parks

A New Cruising Agenda

Warderick Wells, Exumas Land and Sea Park —Paul Harding photo

By Sara Lewis

What’s on your list of cruising destinations and stopovers in The Bahamas? Are you looking for a different route plan instead of the popular race to George Town or the winter marina “condo” in Abaco? How about the unsurpassed scenery and unspoiled natural settings of some of the National Parks of The Bahamas close to your traditional route? Embarking on a different purpose for cruising The Bahamas may open you to more beautiful places and create a personally tailored voyage for your particular passion, whether it be adding birds to your Life List, or opening up underwater vistas of sealife. See how many pristine preserves you can add to your list!

The Bahamas National Trust has set aside many national treasures, both on land and at sea. The largest land park is Andros’ West Side National Park, which has been recently expanded to house over 1.2 million acres. The Exuma Land and Sea Park at 176 square miles (112,640 acres) is the world’s first area designated as both a land and sea park. Probably the most remote land park is on Inagua, slightly smaller than Andros’ park at 183,740 acres.

Each of the 27 parks has a slightly different purpose. The land parks are set aside to protect various types of vegetation such as pine and hardwood forests, wetlands, mangroves, rare palms, beaches and dunes. These are secure places for seabirds, The Bahama parrot, land crabs, iguanas and the West Indian flamingo (The Bahamas’ beautiful national bird).

Your list path will take you to the sea parks where you can anchor or pick up a mooring nearby and travel by dinghy—not by car—to observe the natural beauty above and below the clear aquamarine water. How many underwater caves, blue holes, tidal creeks, coral reefs and stromatolites can you fit in? How many sea turtles can you spot?

For many cruising yachts, the first landfall is the Abacos. Proceeding to the southernmost preserve in the Sea of Abaco, the Pelican Cays Land and Sea Park makes for an easy visit by providing a mooring for your dinghy just east of Sandy Cay. You are only a short swim away from visually striking coral reefs and undersea caves with a rich diversity of sealife.

From there, it’s time for a big ocean leap for your next sea park experience, the oldest in The Bahamas, the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park. You’ll want to spend some time here to see and do everything and perhaps even volunteer at the Park Headquarters to help with the chores that require many hands to protect the environment. From Wax Cay Cut in the north to Conch Cay Cut in the south, this is the world’s first park that encompasses both land and sea. At Warderick Wells Park Headquarters (and also at Shroud, Hawksbill and Cambridge Cays), you can pick up an environmentally safe mooring as a base for your explorations as you check off the Boo Boo Hill blowhole, iguanas, hutias (large nocturnal rodents), stromatolites and sea turtles. Don’t forget the daily fish/shark interactions at HQ. Unquantifiable is the number of exquisite shades of blue of the surrounding waters. See how many variations of cerulean you can identify on your palette. You may find it hard to leave here unless you remember that there are more exquisite places to see “down de way.”

Since George Town in Elizabeth Harbour is one of the most popular destinations in The Bahamas, it will be easy to follow the parade down to Great Exuma. Just past the eastern end of the harbour are some of the most exquisite waters and islands you will see—Moriah Harbour Cay National Park at 13,440 acres of beaches and dunes, mangrove creeks and sea grass beds, coral reefs and sandbores. It includes not only Moriah Cay but also Elizabeth Island, Guana Cay, Fowl Cay and Whelk Cay, plus lots of little rocks and islets in between. (Elizabeth Island and Guana Cay are privately owned with dwellings onshore.)

After your exploration of Moriah Cay and its environs, exit Elizabeth Harbour’s eastern cut and set your course for another visual treat, Conception Island, believed to be one of the three islands that Columbus visited. It is a sanctuary for many migrating birds, among them the spectacular long-tailed snowy tropicbirds, and a nesting area for sea turtles as well. Nearby Booby Cay is a haven for sooty terns and brown noddies. The ornithologist might find his or her Life List growing at that point!

Does your schedule say it’s time to go north again? If time permits, you can work your way back up the Exumas and take the Decca Channel over to Andros so that you don’t miss the world’s third largest barrier reef and the highest concentration of blue holes. Andros’ Northern and Southern Marine Parks and the Blue Holes National Park preserve a significant part of this ecosystem.

In the interest of keeping you on a more direct route, some alternate but enticing prongs have been left out. You can augment the route above by first adding a stop at Peterson Cay off Grand Bahama; Walkers Cay in the northernmost Abacos; Black Sound Reserve Cay off Green Turtle Cay; Fowl Cay Preserve off Man O’ War Cay; and Clifton Heritage National Park at West Bay on New Providence.

You’ve completed the loop of the most accessible sea parks in The Bahamas. However, now you might need to go back and re-visit because you’ve only just begun!