SAMSON CAY

The next day we set off North to go to Samson Cay, place we had been told not to miss. We anchored at the entrance to the Marina, which is beautiful. It is definitely a place for the rich and famous. The boats there are beautiful, and the cay itself, the prettiest we have seen so far. There is a lagoon with the most incredible colors, where the sand becomes exposed at low tides, so one can walk from one side to the other. At the docks, there were dozens of nurse sharks waiting for the fishing boats to come and feed them. It is a magnificent sight. The water being so clear, the fish are very easily seen. We took the dingy, tied it up and set off to see the place. There is a lovely restaurant, a beautiful grocery store-boutique, and a few lovely houses with their own private beaches facing the lagoon. They belong to the yacht club. This island in our opinion, was the most pristine we have seen. In the afternoon, we hopped a few miles to the next island, Compass Cay that unfortunately we never did get to see. It was very tricky getting in, and the current a bit treacherous. We anchored outside of the marina along with two other boats, and when we woke up, the tide had gone out and the depth was barely 4 feet, which is the draft of El Mico. We had called Warderick Wells Park, a protected Zone in the Bahamas, to reserve a mooring spot for one night. We got on the radio around nine to see if they had a spot for us. They called us and assigned #18, so we left around ten in the direction of the Island. It was Libia’s birthday and we wanted to celebrate it in a very special spot.

When one sees so many beautiful spots on earth it is very hard to say what is the prettiest because every place has its unique charm and attraction, but to me, this place topped it all off. As you go into the island with the boat, there are about 20 mooring spots in the darker color water. They are all on the north side of the island placed in a crescent shape at equal intervals. The width of the canal is no more than 30 feet, so everything on both sides of it is of lighter colors, very pale towards the center of the lagoon, which just like Sampson Cay exposes its sand at low tide.

We took our snorkeling gear on the dingy and went into the shallower areas for Libia to give it a try. She had never snorkeled before, but with Pablo as an instructor, she soon felt comfortable and did not want to get away. The water was warm and clear, and as we got into the deeper areas there were a wide variety of fish and beautiful corals varying from yellow to orange, red and purple. I got so relaxed doing it, that I did not realize the current was pulling me away far from the dingy. It took some effort to get back to the dingy, but it was well worth it. After our snorkeling adventure, we left the dingy on the beach and went to the Park office to pay for our mooring and buy a few things at the park boutique, The building, a wooden island house is set up high on a rock overlooking the whole lagoon. As we stood there, I was truly out of breath. What a magnificent spot! The park warden gave us a map of the trails to follow to go to the caves and to the
Mangrove creeks. Unfortunately, it was getting close to sunset, so we could not do any more exploring on the island. The next day, we had a long way to go back to New Providence, Lyford Cay, where we had been before, so we could be in Miami by Easter Sunday.

When we got back to the boat, we witnessed an incredible sunset. When it got dark, we turned on the underwater floodlights on the boat and we had an instant private aquarium. There were yellowtails, jacks, snappers, needlefish, and even 3 nurse sharks swimming around. To top it all off, around 9:30 pm, the moon came out from behind the island to complete the most beautiful picture one could possibly imagine. As we were witnessing all this beauty, I could not help but think how very lucky we have been. This has been an incredible few weeks for us, and we know we definitely want to see these islands again.