A NEW LEAF

Lee Stocking, Exumas 23º46.28N | 76º06.32W

Small cove on northwest corner of Leaf Cay.

Sometimes guidebooks lead you to wonderful places, enticing you with the amazing things you'll find there.

Sometimes they lead you to wonderful places, where you find none of what's promised but fall in love with it anyway.

This was the case with Leaf Cay, a wisp of an island north of Lee Stocking Island owned by Nicolas Cage and completely uninhabited. The guidebook prattled on about shy pink iguanas, an oceanside beach awash with sea beans and a small pond "alive with butterflies."

Butterflies: Not even one
Sea beans: Zero
Pink iguanas: Check, but they were not shy.

Pink Iguana on Leaf Cay. Large. Fat.

The cove we pulled up in would make a perfect movie set (Nic), brilliant turquoise water lapping on a crescent-shaped white sand beach (see first photo).

The water was so buoyant with salt, that I could sit in it.

Sitting in salty water.

From the rugged oceanside beach, a short walk around the northern tip, you can see hue after hue of blue water strewn with rock islands and Exuma Sound in the distance.

Looking northeast from Leaf Cay.

No sea beans? No worries.

I'm sure the day the guidebook author visited Leaf Cay, there were indeed butterflies and sea beans, and, in retrospect, I'm glad about that for it was those very things that even in their absence, made me visit this little slice of Nic's paradise.

SIGHTS OF LEE STOCKING

Lee Stocking, Exumas 23º46.28N | 76º06.32W

Clouds reflected on the still water, sand showing underneath.

As we pass through island after island, I have come to realize that "favorite" is a relative term. Lee Stocking, for now, has sprung to the top of my list, and I'm guessing it might stay there for a while. The sheer magnitude of its vistas from Perry's Peak, the highest point in the Exumas, might be enough on its own, but the purity of the water, the powdery-white sand, the sweeping, coconut-laden palms, the red starfish, paradise.

Underwater shot of red starfish, the size of a dinner plate.

The path to Perry's Peak, highest point in the Exumas.
123 feet if I remember correctly.

Looking northeast from atop Perry's Peak. Is it just me or does this look like Hawaii?

Clouds reflect on perfectly still water looking south on Lee Stocking.

CUTTING TO DEEP WATER

Lee Stocking, Exumas 23º46.28N | 76º06.32W

At least we all agree this is a good time to head out! Cave Cay Cut, Exumas.

A "cut" in the Bahamas is the slice of water running between the Exuma Islands connecting the shallow Exuma Bank with the deep Exuma Sound. When the tide is flowing in or out, these cuts funnel dangerous amounts of water through a relatively small space. If the wind and tide are opposing, all hell can break loose, better known as a rage, the conditions that caused the fatality in the Bahamas a few months ago. Cuts are to be treated with caution.

We followed a procession of boats out of Cave Cay Cut heading to Lee Stocking Island. As you can see from the photo above, the conditions were the opposite of a rage. Everyone made the same call: leave during slack tide on a day with 0-5 knots of wind. 

While light winds are great for threading a cut, they are crap for sailing, but since our destination was only two hours away, we decided it was worth the price of fuel to escape Cave Cay.

Dozens of boats were out on the water today. At one point we could count 18 sailboats around us.

At the end of the run, approaching the cut into Lee Stocking Island, a funnel cloud dropped out of the squall clouds ahead of us, hovering ominously. A cut and a funnel cloud seemed a bad marriage, to say the least. Had it started approaching as we entered the cut, our plan was to turn back out toward deep water.

We turned in, the funnel disappeared. Crisis averted.

Northwest approach to Lee Stocking Island.

We motored around the northwest tip of Lee Stocking, stormy clouds hanging above still, turquoise waters, our first glimpse of the beauty to come.