It’s Time for some awesome adventures!

Wow.. I am so excited; we decided to do more exploring. We came into Square Rock Cut off the Atlantic from George Town.  After crossing the Andros, and seeing how the actual depth is different from charted depth, we decided to cruise the inside route of the Exuma’s.  Now remember we draft 5’9” feet; so with that said, if you draft 5’9” feet you should be able to do the same route.  I have been wanting to do this. I am so happy.

After we came into Square Rock Cut, we had to go between these two points to get to the anchorage. It was like threading a needle. There are shallows which we have to keep an eye out for.  But look other sailboats are anchored there too; so no problem right?  We anchored the night behind Rat Cay.  This was a narrow anchorage with shallow water behind us.  Not the best anchorage.

After we anchored for the night, we decided to pull up anchor and head towards Lee Stocking Island.  We took the inside route from Rat Cay to Lee Stocking Island.  Charted depth on this route is about 5 feet.  The lowest depth we saw at high tide was 10 feet.

What an adventure, here at Lee Stocking Island in the Exuma’s we snorkeled and investigated an awesome research Center. We drove our dinghy over to a beach area near the facility and walked up to the Ghost town of the Marine Research Center. You are asked apparently by the ground keeper to not tie your dinghy’s up to the dilapidated docks that have been beaten up by nature and is unsafe to walk on.  

Just off the path from the beach to the street we found this old… Well not sure what it was. I started laughing and called it an outhouse until I noticed this ladder on the back side.

We reached the road.  This was first view of the area. It is not a long walk

The First building was full of lonely old aquariums that held fish and crustaceans. I can just imagine all of the great research that was done here.

 

There was a huge salt water pond and a number of large reservoirs for the research center.  We had seen the same types of huge water tanks that held fish at the Put-In-Bay Research facility in Ohio.

This is a cute little bridge that connects the research center to the housing and other work areas.  This bridge covers a small inlet of pipes that connected the pond to the ocean.

What an interesting place. Although it would be nice to have a tour guide or pamphlet to use for a guide.  Numerous deserted homes dotted the area.  We did not go into them.

We believe this is the pantry. The silver box is a huge refrigerator box. And the shelving seems like a place to store food.   

Sheila noticed this flower brush. She said it’s called a  Bougainvillea. It has a soft sweet smell.  

At first we thought this was a grave yard; however, after looking at it, it appears to be a foundation for a building.

The area was full of what looked like really nice homes and storage buildings.

Bryce found the generator building that once created electricity for the facility.  It was a large Volvo engine.  It appeared to be still usable.  We is in heaven with all that stuff.

Power house once held electrical panels that apparently had been scavenged.

Sheila touched the white sandstone; some of it crumbled to soft sand.  

We wanted to explore more so we took a walk. Wow.. This must have been quite beautiful in its heyday.

Sheila found this cute little shell..

Look what we found: an airport.  If you land here, you may have to dodge a few trees as you land.

We headed back and on our way back I took this photo of the water side view of the research Center.  The whole town was surrounded by beautiful palm trees.

The day was still early so we took our stuff to the beach and enjoyed a few hours of playing.  Our anchorage was one of the best we have had in the Bahamas.  We were protected on three sides in a bay that had a charted depth of 3 feet.  Actual depth was 8 feet at low tide and 10.5 at high tide.

Sheila and Bryce were keeping an eye on me so I didn’t float away.

I enjoyed my floating chair very much. We went snorkeling and the fish were so beautiful.  It was like snorkeling in a salt water aquarium.

Sheila did not want to snorkel so she investigated the beach area. 

This is Joe, Bob, Tim and De. They are renting a Catamaran out of George Town and are three brothers 

Okay enough playing time to head back to Beauty and relax before dinner.

I did a tiny bit of research on the research Center here at Lee Stocking Island. During 1984 to 2012 the island was the host to NOAA marine research center for Stormatolites that are found off shore of the island. I spoke with a local guide who told me a hurricane came though and destroyed the research center. The Island was rented to the Americans or owned and they didn’t want to rebuild the center. How sad is that.

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