We decided it would be a better idea to start heading back to the north towards home and visit some of the Exuma islands we had not been to before. We have never been to the Exuma Land & Sea Park, so that was our next stop.
Inside the Land & Sea Park is the one area in the Bahamas were they charge you to anchor, 50cents per foot, or you can pick up a mooring ball for not much more. We decided we would use the mooring ball and avoid anchoring.
We stopped at Emerald Bay anchorage area where there is reported to be excellent snorkling. We hadn't done any snorkling at all this trip. We had skipped Thunderball Grotto at Staniel Cay because it was way to windy and rough.
We went ashore to checkout the area and Mark climbed the nearby high hill for a view. Sue and Rivah stayed down on the beach as dogs are not allowed to walk around the park trails, even on a leash.
The view was pretty impressive, with water to the East and West and islands to the North and South.
One of the cruiser pasttimes at the park is to build rock cairns. There are several fairly impressive ones in the park.
This was a cute iguana sunning himself on a cairn. He sat there the whole time we toured around the beach.
Rivah had to pose for a photo in front of the cairn, with the iguana still sitting atop.
In the afternoon, we went snorkling around the island you see here and then to an area down the beach farther.
At the island there were several coral outcroppings and lots of fish. I saw two Hind fish that are excellent eating but there is no fishing in the park areas.
Down the beach, we saw the largest Manta Rays we have ever seen in the wild, at least 8ft across from wingtip to wingtip.
I collected GoPro video of the snorkling trips and need to edit those videos into shorter segments.
