The Exuma Guide: A Cruising Guide to the Exuma Cays

Stephen J. Pavlidis cruised the islands of The Bahamas and the Caribbean aboard his 40-foot cutter IV Play beginning in 1989. In 1993, he met Ray Darville, then the Warden of the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, who drew Steve into a working relationship as a volunteer Deputy Warden. In this role, Steve quickly gained an intimate knowledge of the waters of the Park and the Exuma Cays.Realizing that the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park deserved a bit more recognition than is given in even the best guides to the area, Steve and Ray produced A Cruising Guide to the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park. The favorable response to that publication led to the publication of The Exuma Guide in 1995, covering the entire Exumas island chain in addition to the Park. The Exuma Guide has been thoroughly updated for this new edition. Steve's books are different than most other cruising guides in some very significant ways. All of the charts in Steve's books were created using data personally collected while visiting each area using a computerized system that interfaces GPS and depth soundings.

Don Reynolds whose sketches grace this publication, was born in 1944. Don's love of the sea began at the age of 18 months while crossing the North Atlantic Ocean from England to America aboard the HMS Queen Mary. Subsequent voyages continued from Puerto Rico to New York via transport aboard the Pvt William H. Thomas and across the Pacific Ocean aboard the USS Yorktown and continuing on with his home-built 36' Roberts cutter, Ppalu.Don met Steve during a shakedown cruise to the Exumas in 1996, sharing sketches and knowledge of the area. Ppalu eventually took Don &Lynn (wife) up to the coast of Maine and back before sailing for the Med the next year. Having always worked as an artist, a dream was fully realized in Italy by sculpting marble in Pietrasanta while living aboard Ppalu for three years.The return voyage out of the Med and down to Cape Verde and across again to the Windward Islands began the island hop back through theturquoise and blue waters of the Bahama outer islands. Private and public art commissions consume the present-day activities, but the next dream voyage is still alive and with luck, should come true...while Ppalu patiently waits on her mooring.