Publish Date: Monday, December 22, 2008
Location: Norman’s Cay, Exumas, Bahamas
Coordinates: 24° 36.21′ N 76° 49.317′ W
Our visit to Norman’s Cay was the highlight of our cruise thus far for me. Our anchorage was large, protected, and had “good holding” (we were in the west anchorage). The weather was beautiful, with sunshine, light winds, and temperatures around 80 degrees. And most satisfying were the people we met: we experienced true Bahamian hospitality from several wonderful people.
Stefan runs the Norman’s Cay Beach Club (formerly MacDuff’s), which is a restaurant and bar just off the beach. This is a great place, and if you’re ever cruising in the Exumas, you must go! We took our dingy in for dinner the night we arrived, and we were warmly greeted by Stefan and the other guests at the bar. The food was wonderful (I’m sure Kathryn will describe it in her blogs, so I’ll spare you my lame description here), and the drinks made us feel like we were in the tropics. Stefan is a native Bahamian whose family lineage goes back nearly 500 years to the founding of the Bahamas. He has lived in man places in the world, he has done the “white-collar career thing” in New York and other cities, but he is clearly most at home as the host and proprietor of the Norman’s Cay Beach Club.
Sitting at the bar with us that evening were a Steve, Wanna, and Conner, and family of three who have a home on Norman’s Cay. Like Ayla, Conner is being home-schooled using the Calvert School, so there was an immediate connection. Steve and Wanna built a home that is nearly carbon-free (note that I did not write “carbon-neutral”). We were planning to ride our bikes around the island the next day, and they invited us to stop by and see their off-the-grid abode. Their home is truly an engineering feat: they get their water from the clouds; they get their electricity from the sun and wind; they heat their water with direct sunlight; and they have an electric car to get around the island. Only their propane stove consumes fuel and emits carbon. As we sipped sun-brewed iced-tea and looked out at the ocean, I began to envision our own island outpost after we have finished our cruise… 🙂
After exploring the island on our bikes, we returned to the Norman’s Cay Beach Club for dinner again that evening. We met another gentleman at the bar who was there with his family and another family (I regret that I can not recall his name). They are all from Nassau, and they are renovating a home on the island. We had a great conversation about Norman’s Cay, the Bahamas, and life in general. He was intrigued by our cruise, and we laughed about the fact that his boat could get to Nassau from Norman’s Cay in about 40 minutes, while it would take Three@Sea several hours to cover the same distance. At the end of the evening when we were trying to pay our dinner bill, we learned that this gentleman bought us dinner just to say, “Welcome to the Bahamas.” We were overwhelmed and humbled by this act of generosity and kinship.
Our experience on Norman’s Cay is why we wanted to travel the world on a boat: To see beautiful and historic places, and to connect with people. And no matter how different our lives may be, any differences are dwarfed by the humanity we share.