Flying the Exumas Island Chain

The next morning we had breakfast by the pool, then loaded up the plane, checked out and went flying. We circled around Hawk's Nest a couple of times for a photo op.

A good look at the marina from the air.

You can really see the lengthy displaced threshold in this picture.

OK, enough of the Hawk's Nest photo-op. We turned to a southwest heading for George Town in Great Exuma. It was 30 or so miles away.

The Exumas are really a chain of 360 islands (cays) running roughly 100 miles northwest to southeast. The largest cay is Great Exuma where the capital George Town is. From my flight planning, I expected flying the entire chain at low altitude would be the most scenic of the entire trip. I was not wrong. We flew it in the morning so the sun really lit the islands and water up for us.

Land ho! The plan was to start the sightseeing just northwest of Great Exuma.

Looking south at Great Exuma.

Looking northwest. From here for 75 miles or so are nothing but little cays. And lots of beautiful water.

Before I had left, a friend had told me that the water was so clear, it would look like sand dunes from the air. Here it is!

We descended down to 500 feet, throttled back, and just wove in and out of the cays.

About halfway up the chain is Staniel Cay, where we would stop on the way back for a few hours.

Me taking a picture. Wait, who's flying the plane?!

Little Fowl Cay which is a private airstrip. It's only 1300 feet long with no overrun as you can see! You better be on airspeed with working brakes if you are going to land here.

My favorite picture of the entire trip.

More underwater sand dunes.

Flying in paradise.

The Exumas are popular with the boating crowd.

There are boats and then there are boats. Now that's a nice boat.

All these great beaches, empty.

A little freighter carrying supplies between the islands.

We flew to the most northwestern cay, then made a U-turn and came back down the chain to Staniel Cay.

A closer look at Little Fowl Cay.

Sailboat enjoying a fair winds.

Overhead Staniel Cay.

A good look at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club and marina. We would have stayed here for the night at the Yacht Club but they only have a small number of rooms and they were all booked. So we stayed overnight near George Town. But we still landed here and spent about four hours enjoying the island.

On final at Staniel Cay.

The runway runs north and south and I read that there are often strong crosswinds here. But we were lucky and it was right down the runway for an uneventful landing.

On the ramp at Staniel Cay. There were four RV-10s on the ramp as well.

Our goal at Staniel Cay was to snorkel the famous Thunderball Grotto.

There was an outfit at the airport that rented golf carts and stuff but they were closed. But it was a small island and we had a map so we hoofed it to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club where all the action was.

We walked by these colorful cottages that were available for rent.

A little beach on the way to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club.

Entering the Staniel Cay Yacht Club area.

We had wanted to stay overnight here -- the Yacht Club has six or so rooms -- but they were booked and there was really nothing else on the island that you could get just for one night. Too bad. The Club has a neat bar/restaurant and it looked like there were a lot of things to do on the island.

We rented a little zodiak boat with an outboard engine and cruised over to Thunderball Grotto a short distance away.

Unfortunately the current had kicked in and made swimming the grotto "challenging" according to Coral, who had rented us the boat. I'd been humbled doing some snorkeling at Great Guana Cay so I decided to stay in the boat. Jack, who is a stronger swimmer than me, went for it. Basically you transverse that big rock you see below. At this time of day, in places there was only a foot of air between the surface and the roof of the grotto. At some places, there were no air. But Jack said the fish were spectacular. Still, he said it took everything he had to work his way back against the current. If we'd only been an hour or two earlier, we would have hit it at slack tide, and I could have snorkeled it myself.

They filmed scenes for the 1965 James Bond movie Thunderball here, although most of the movie was show at Nassau and Paradise Island.

It doesn't look like "Club Thunderball" is open anymore.

After Thunderball Grotto, we cruised around the beautiful waters in the boat. I think to really enjoy Staniel Cay you would need a boat.

I'd like to make a shout out for Coral Lowe of Island Rentals on Staniel Cay. She went out of her way to help us rent the boat. They rent boats, golf carts and cottages. Recommended.

This is the view from the Island Rentals dock. Coral's mother Marty gave us a ride back to the airport in a golf cart.

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