Fantastic Snorkeling in Man o’ War Bay, Great Inagua, Bahamas

Yup, that's the reef right off our stern, a short swim away

Sand diver staring me down

Sun-lit seafan

Matthew Town, Great Inagua, is a great place to check in or out of the Bahamas and pick up some scant provisioning. The real beauty of the island, for us, is Man o’ War Bay in the northwest corner. Coming across the bay, it shallows pretty rapidly from no depth (greater than about 250 feet on our depth meter) to 90 to 80 to 40 to oh-my-God-we’re-over-the-reef. Thankfully, that’s still plenty deep. We pick our way through the reef and anchor in clear sand between the reef and the beach, laying back until our stern is over the corals. Just hop in the water to snorkel! And what snorkeling there is! The reef is scattered the entire length of the beach, so large that we can’t see the entire thing even with a couple of hours in the water. Clear, beautiful, and full of corals and fish, it’s always a treat, yet we’ve never seen another boat anywhere near here. Their loss.

Chris checking out the reef

Mr. Grumpyfish

Tour of Mayaguana

Lovely view from only house in defunct development

Another must-stop place for us in the Bahamas is Mayaguana. This island is not on the beaten track unless you’re headed to the Turks & Caicos or farther south, but it’s worth the effort to get there. First, it’s got a five-mile-long lagoon – Abrahams Bay – on the southwest side of the island that protects from most seas, especially if you anchor near the reef so there’s little fetch. Little patch reefs abound, as do lobsters. Snorkeling is delightful, and the people are friendly. Though we’ve extensively explored the waters here, we haven’t done much ashore aside from a bit of shopping and feasting on the great fried chicken at Reggie’s. This visit we treated ourselves to an island tour with Scully Cartwright, the go-to guy on the island for cruisers. After a drive around the settlement, he took us to North Shore Villas – or villa, if you want to be accurate. This was supposed to be a big development, but only one villa was ever built. It’s a beauty – beachside, with a pool and dock and incredible views. Then north to the Pirate’s Well settlement, named for a…well…a well. It’s small but always full. Though the island seems dry and scrubby, there’s apparently abundant ground water. After a sandwich lunch at Baycaner Bay Resort, we went on to Betsy Bay and did some tidal pooling. South again, on the ridge Abrahams Bay, we saw the monument commemorating the landing spot of the Thor missile packet, which contained the first color photographs from space. Also atop the ridge are the ruins of an old U.S. radar tracking station with a beautiful 360-degree view of the island from the roof. We recommend Scully – just call him on VHF channel 16.

The house itself, along with the saltwater pool and dock is lovely

Snails and urchins in tidepool

Abandoned radar facility

View from ridge top

Our Must-Stop Spot: Clarence Town, Bahamas

No fresh produce until the roof is repaired

 As always, in passing through the Bahamas, we stopped at Clarence Town, Bahamas. One of the great attractions there for us is the government packing house, where all the local farmers bring their produce weekly to be packed and shipped out to the other islands. You can get great deals on tomatoes, peppers, papaya, bananas, pumpkin, and more. This is a blessing, because otherwise, the fresh produce in the supermarkets is expensive and not-so-fresh, most being shipped in from the states. Unfortunately, the packing house lost its roof in the hurricane last year, so no fresh produce. We had to satisfy ourselves with our second-favorite C.T. attraction – the conch fritters and a drink at Rowdy Boys. The rum punch was on special that day, and yes, it packed a punch!

Always tasty

Fantastic Snorkel on Southhampton Reef at Conception Island

Beautiful tiger grouper, about three feet long

Deep, but look at that visibility!

The lack of wind that require us to motorsail from Georgetown out to Conception Island had a couple of benefits to offset our not being able to outright sail. First, it allowed us a great view of about a half dozen whales just resting on the surface of the slick-still water. Then, at Conception, it provided an opportunity to snorkel Southhampton Reef. This reef extends north for miles from the northwest corner of the island. It’s easily accessible, but often too rough to snorkel from a dinghy when a breeze over the long fetch from the east piles breakers upon the reef. Since we’ll go to just about any length for a good reef, out we went in the dinghy, heading north about a mile. First observation: it’s deep here. Though the reef crest is relatively shallow, it drops off precipitously, leveling off on a sandy plain probably 100 feet or so deep. Where we put in was 30-40 feet deep, though it shallowed as we swam south. Huge coral formations, loads of fish, and some of the cockiest (and largest) lobsters we’ve come across, marching right across the reef in broad daylight. Conception Island being a park and therefore a no-take zone, the critters show no fear in flaunting their forbidden tastiness right in front of you. A few highlights? Excellent visibility. Elkhorn corals with bases the size of tree trunks and enormous spreading arms. A half dozen tiger groupers, a new-to-us species at the time. Watching one of the lobsters leap from a ledge and float down to a sand flat amongst the corals. My camera’s battery died almost an hour into the snorkel (why, oh why, hadn’t I charged it!), so I missed many, many shots, but here are some that I got.

Face-off with a cocky spiny lobster

Lovely huge elkhorn corals abounded on the reef

I would love to walk a maze like this