When we left Little Farmers Cay, we had a great sail out in the Exuma Sound down to Lee Stocking Island. The Exuma Sound is not like NC sounds. It is pretty much open to the Atlantic Ocean and is very deep just a little ways off shore. There is an underwater “shelf” that we sailed along where the water depth drops from about 60-100 feet to much deeper depths. The water color in the deeper water is this amazing Noxzema blue glass jar color! One of the boats with us, our friends Richard and Michelle in Runa, caught a Mahi-mahi on the sail. Michelle called on the VHF radio saying “we caught dinner.” And then a few seconds later, “There’s blood everywhere. It’s all over the boat.” Apparently they didn’t know about the trick of pouring alcohol in the fish’s gills to stun it and stop its breathing. We still have not caught a fish to have a chance to try this trick ourselves!
Back inside the Tongue of the Ocean (yep, the body of water is really called that), we anchored off the deserted Caribbean Marine Research Center that was operated on Lee Stocking Island. This center was operated by the Perry Institute for Marine Science and closed in late 2012. Its purpose was to conduct reef and fish studies at the center and in the surrounding waters. There were about 10 buildings that we were able to wander through with almost nothing locked up. The labs were filled with huge aquariums, nets, pipettes, glass jars, lights and all sorts of equipment everywhere. There were offices, living spaces, a dining hall, scuba dive center, boat house, reverse osmosis water maker and power plant buildings. It was so interesting to wander around. Seems such a shame it is closed. The buildings were still in pretty good shape with lots of nice landscaping, screened porches and beautiful views. It must have been an amazing place to live and work. There was quite a bit of infrastructure there including paved roads, rock walls and even an air strip.
We found yet another gorgeous white sand crescent beach on the north side of the island.
I suspect funding dried up. In another ten years, it will probably be all overgrown. There is already water damage in many of the buildings, but no vandalism. While it was very interesting to see the place, it was also sad to see such a nice facility where people worked, lived, and played just abandoned.