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Island hopping
WBN09 - Out Island - Island hopping
Island hopping
More to The Bahamas than New Providence
Although Nassau, Paradise Island and Freeport/Lucaya enjoy worldwide fame, the rest of The Bahamas remains terra incognita for most people. However, a few yachtsmen, scuba divers, sportfishermen and adventurous travellers have discovered the many splendoured things that the Out Islands, or Family Islands, have to offer. Every one is a little world unto itself, and each one beckons with its own siren song. Let us introduce you to a few of them.
Abaco
Big-game fishermen, yachters, sailors, scuba divers and everyone else who loves outdoor activities are all drawn to this 130-mile-long mini-archipelago, formed by the main islands of Great and Little Abaco and a sprinkling of about 80 lesser cays.
Known as “the sailing capital of the world,” the Abacos are the northernmost islands in The Bahamas. They lie about 200 miles east of Miami and 75 miles north of Nassau, but they’re a world away from the madding crowd.
The island group embraces six environmentally protected areas, including the Abaco National Park, Walker’s Cay National Park and the Abaco Wild Horse Preserve, home of the descendants of horses brought here by the first Spanish explorers.
Many of the islands’ 14,000 residents are related to the 2,500 Loyalists who relocated here with about 4,000 slaves after the American Revolution. Most of the population live in Marsh Harbour.
Acklins & Crooked Island
Only about 800 people live on the combined 192 square miles of these sister islands, most of them farmers and fishermen. Lucayan Indians lived here; Columbus stopped at Crooked Island for a few days in 1492; pirates had hideouts here; and Loyalists worked their cotton plantations until poor soil and a blight doomed their enterprise.
Located about 239 miles southeast of Nassau, these far-flung islands have been called “the remotest and most primitive spot in The Bahamas” by the tour company Fishing International, with “no hotels, no crowds, no taxis, no phones and no jet skis.” But the fishing is excellent. The boomerang-shaped islands hug a vast expanse of shallow-water flats—the Bight of Acklins—a prime bonefishing area.
The white-sand beaches, excellent diving and simple peace and quiet are attractions for the venturesome traveller.
Andros
Many devout anglers are also attracted to Andros, dubbed “the bonefishing capital of The Bahamas” by the media. Called “the Big Yard,” this is the largest (2,323 square miles), least explored and least densely peopled (pop 7,800) Bahamian island. It boasts a 140-mile-long barrier reef—the world’s third-largest. The jigsaw-puzzle island is veined with broad creeks and estuaries crowded with mangrove jungle, while dense forest and bush cover the higher ground.
Few people live on the marshy west coast, known as The Mud—the source of the sponge industry in bygone days. Most of the civilization clings to the east coast, which borders the Tongue of the Ocean, a trench of cobalt-blue water over 6,000 ft deep. Miles of unspoiled beaches and exceptional fly-fishing, diving and snorkelling attract many visitors.
One thing Andros has a lot of, besides space, is fresh water, about five million gallons of which is barged to Nassau daily. Also abundant are land crabs, known as “walking money” to Androsians, giving rise to the annual Crab Fest, held in June at Fresh Creek.
Bimini
Big game fish, not crabs, are king in the Biminis, a small group of cays dominated by North Bimini and South Bimini, an area of only nine square miles located just 50 miles from Florida. Most of the 1,600 residents live in Alice Town on North Bimini.
Juan Ponce de Leon came here to find the Fountain of Youth; rum-runners came for the fast buck during Prohibition (much like the pirates and shipwreckers before them); Ernest Hemingway and Zane Grey came to write and fish; Jimmy Buffett to chill out; and many still come here for similar reasons. Scuba divers are lured by the vibrant reefs and “the Bimini Road”—a half mile of submerged limestone blocks that some believe are remnants of the fabled Atlantis. Some seek out the reputedly curative waters of The Healing Hole in the mangrove jungle of North Bimini. Others are content simply to find the End of the World Bar in Alice Town, where they can mourn the demise of the famed Compleat Angler Bar, which burned down in 2006.
Berry Islands
The allure of this little bracelet of about 30 islands and 100 tiny cays is much more substantial than putative fountains of youth. Called “the fish bowl of The Bahamas,” the Berries are acclaimed for its fishing, which is second only to the Biminis, as well as for its relative isolation and unspoiled beauty. The islands also score high marks for sailing, snorkelling, scuba diving and beachcombing.
The main attraction for many visitors, though, is the seclusion and privacy. That’s what lures jet-setters and the rich and famous from all over the world, some of whom maintain second homes here or own one of the many small cays. During an earlier era, the likes of Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Cary Grant, Brigitte Bardot and other luminaries sported on the beach at the multi-million-dollar resort on Great Harbour Cay, the largest of the Berries. Most residents occupy this 3,754-acre cay—about 700 of them, but that number swells during the winter season when the cay boasts more millionaires per acre than any place on Earth, according to local legend.
Cat Island
Few tourists, wealthy or not, visit picturesque Cat Island, a narrow, fishhook-shaped cay located between Eleuthera and Long Island, 130 miles southeast of Nassau. Deserted beaches, gently rolling hills and dense woodlands extend along its 48-mile spine, which peaks at 206-foot Mount Alvernia, the highest elevation in The Bahamas. Its mild climate is cooled by the trade winds.
Like other Bahamian islands, it was once the scene of Loyalist exiles, cotton plantations and buccaneers (some historians say it was named after the pirate Arthur Catt). More recently, acclaimed actor Sidney Poitier grew up here in Arthur’s Town. Father Jerome, an Anglican priest who converted to Catholicism, was another notable resident—a recluse who built a hermitage on Mount Alvernia from hand-hewn limestone.
The magic of Cat Island flirts with the occult more than many other places in The Bahamas through the practice of obeah, a form of sorcery with roots in Africa. You may see empty bottles hanging from trees and porches to ward off evil spirits, but you probably won’t get any explanations from the natives.
Eleuthera
This popular island spins its magic from the stuff of history as well as its physical charms. A small group of dissidents from Bermuda—the Eleutherian Adventurers— established the first permanent English settlement here in 1648, seeking religious freedom. Their utopian experiment failed, but they gave the island its name—from the Greek word for freedom.
Today you’ll find more resort hotels here than any place outside the Abacos and the major developed areas of Nassau/Paradise Island and Freeport/Lucaya. Beyond the few larger settlements, such as Governor’s Harbour, many of the 10,000 residents are distributed along the 100-mile length of this splinter of land. So you can still enjoy unspoiled white- and pink-sand beaches, quiet coves and excellent fishing, diving and snorkelling.
Tiny Harbour Island at the north end of Eleuthera is a bit of Cape Cod in the tropics and a favourite of travel writers and celebrities.
The Exumas
If the beauty of Eleuthera seems like a grand illusion, this dazzling chain of 360 islands is just as dreamy. Trailing across 130 miles of picture-perfect crystalline sea, they’re a magnet for anglers, boaters and scuba divers, many of whom visit the 176-square-mile Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park, the first national park of its kind in the world.
Great Exuma and Little Exuma are the two main land forms. George Town, the largest settlement (population 1,000), was founded in 1793. Almost all of the other cays remain uninhabited or sparsely populated.
Lucayan Indians, Spanish conquistadors, pirates and cotton plantation barons are all part of the Exumas’ story. So is Thunderball Grotto near Staniel Cay, a location for the James Bond film Thunderball, and Sandy Cay, near Little Exuma, where beach scenes for one of the Pirates
of the Caribbean series were shot.
Inagua
The world’s largest colony of West Indian flamingos congregate on Great Inagua, the southernmost island in The Bahamas. Lake Rosa dominates the interior, most of which lies within the 287-square-mile Inagua National Park. The main industry here is salt making by the Morton Salt Company, which exports more than a million tons of it each year.
Visitors can climb to the top of the 1870 lighthouse on Southwest Point—one of only a few hand-operated lights left in The Bahamas—and see Cuba, only 50 miles to the west
Long Island
The dramatic topography of this 60-mile-long sliver of land is characterized by wide sandy beaches and shallow bays on the west coast, low, sloping hills inland and cliffs on the rugged north and eastern shores. Attractions include shark-feeding dives; cave tours; historic plantation ruins; two of the largest churches outside Nassau, both built by Father Jerome (one Anglican, one Roman Catholic); Dean’s Blue Hole (the deepest in the world); and Cape Santa Maria Beach, one of the most beautiful on Earth.
A low-key tourist industry has developed in Stella Maris on the north end, but most of the island’s 4,000 inhabitants are concerned
with fishing, farming and raising pigs, chickens, sheep and goats.
Mayaguana
You can’t get any farther away from the bright lights of Nassau and Paradise Island than this drowsy outpost. It’s also the least developed and the least visited island, even though the beaches are gorgeous and the fishing is good, especially in the summer months. The few tourists who come here enjoy bonefishing, reef-diving, snorkelling and duck-hunting.
The island attracts many nesting sea turtles and is home to more than 100 species of birds, including West Indian flamingos, along with iguanas and the Bahamian hutia, a rodent that was thought to be extinct until the 1960s.
The population of about 400, all noted for their friendliness, go fishing, farm the fertile soil and look forward to the weekly mail boat.
Ragged Island
This nine-square-mile island is as remote and rarely visited as Mayaguana. It dangles at the end of the 110-mile-long arc of the Jumentos and Ragged Island cays, ending just north of Cuba. The only settlement on the island is Duncan Town, where most of the population of about 80 live.
A modest salt industry developed here in the 1930s, with most sales to Cuba and Haiti. But after Hurricane Donna devastated the island in 1960 and Fidel Castro cut off trade, many people left. Bonefishing remains some of the best in the islands, anglers say.
Rum Cay
Time seems to have stopped on Rum Cay, located between Long Island and San Salvador.
The island’s economy has gone through a cycle of booms and busts since the early 19th century, when Loyalists settled here. The salt, sisal and pineapple industries have all had their day, but now a modest tourist trade is the main source of income for the 100 residents. Rolling hills, historic ruins, Indian sites, deep reefs and excellent scuba diving attract a growing number of visitors, some of whom call it the best-kept secret in The Bahamas.
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