Distant Shores TVvideo
Ep 268 | Where is our favourite cruising area?
October 25, 2025 · 20 min · 18K views · Exuma Island Group
Sailboat glides over turquoise water with crew at helm
What this video covers
Paul and Sheryl Shard cruise the Exuma Island Group in the Bahamas aboard their variable-draft Hank Sail Orion 49, sailing north from Georgetown with guests Scott, Lisa, and their daughter Sienna.▶ 1:02 The Exuma Banks require raising the 11-foot keel to navigate water as shallow as seven feet; with the keel up, the boat records roughly five to six degrees of leeway in 18–22 knots of easterly trade wind.▶ 5:44 They enter the banks at Cave Cay Cut — flagged as dangerous when a large incoming swell meets an outgoing current — then cover seven to eight miles to Staniel Cay, picking up a mooring ball because tidal currents make anchoring difficult there.▶ 2:37 Thunderball Cave, filmed in the 1960s James Bond movie, is best visited at slack tide to avoid strong currents in the grotto.▶ 7:18 Compass Cay requires entering on a rising tide at least an hour before high water, in daylight, via a narrow marked-and-dredged channel; boats drawing more than six feet should call ahead for piloting advice.▶ 8:28 The $10-per-person landing fee funds the privately owned marina, where nurse sharks tamed by owner Tucker Roll can be approached in the water.▶ 9:21 Wardrick Wells Cay, inside the 176-square-mile Exuma Cays Land and Sea National Park, offers hiking trails and a sperm-whale skeleton on the beach.▶ 12:22 At Shroud Cay, they anchor in shallow water using a Lumar V4 windlass and 20 meters of chain with a snubber, then dinghy the mangrove creeks at high tide.▶ 14:58 April and May bring reliable easterly trades after winter cold fronts taper off in March.▶ 4:03
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