Hawksbill Cay

This was our first visit to Hawksbill Cay which is within the boundaries of the Exuma Park. Most of the islands in the Exumas don't have a lot of development but the ones within the park are particularly natural and undisturbed. We had Hawksbill truly to ourselves and enjoyed some solo family exploration and discovery with little guidance besides some dots dropped by Makai on our Garmin Blucharts. One of the dots Makai dropped was called "trail to space trash" so we were on a mission. We followed the long trail to the Sound side of the island and walked the length of the beach until we found what did, indeed, look like a big hunk of aeronautical debris. Then the kids practiced pretend javelin throwing and sword fighting and other general boat kid weirdness. The next day we visited an endless sand bar and hiked a trail to the ruins of loyalists to the British Crown who fled the American Revolutionary War. We pretended to be archaeologists and found bits of pottery, glass and metal that I'm sure others before us have found and left for the next island explorers. We did the same so the next crew could enjoy the feeling of discovery!

Tangent alone in the anchorage

The kids are natural explorers and have become much heartier than they were on land. They never complain of being tired, hot or hungry. But they still leave their shit everywhere. Drew left his flip flops on Norman's Cay so we had to share when we went over the sharp rocks.

Another solo shot of Tangent in the distance. We often embrace the solitude because it's so rare in our part of the world but then find ourselves longing for company. We've been able to strike a good balance so far. 

What the heck fell out of the sky? Eric said he compared his pictures to the real thing when they visited the Air & Space Museum in DC and he's convinced this is NASA goods. Cool! 

Close up of fabric layer

Natural born peaceful warrior

We may not have organized sports but have plenty of opportunities to improve physical skills and coordination during our recreation. 

Evelyn still loves horses and hopefully she'll get a chance to ride in the Caribbean

A beautiful, expansive sand bar

This was very helpful!

Evelyn loves air plants - especially these tiny ones

We don't see a lot of wild life beyond a few birds and lizards so this guy was a rare treat and not easy to spot

Digging for loyalist artifacts

Some of our finds that we left for the next explorers

That's our dinghy, Cosine, which is basically our family car 

Sometimes you just really, really, really need a f&cking chicken nugget. These are authentic Bahamian Loyalist nuggets. Since we rarely have the chance to eat out anymore, if we want it, we have to make it.