If you want to channel your inner Miami Vice, or just explore one of the smaller islands in the Bahamas with absolutely gorgeous waters and a pristine white sand beach, then put Norman’s Cay on your go-to list.
It’s not hard to get there. Norman’s is in the northern Exumas, about 55 miles below Nassau and 220 miles from Miami. It’s small, just a few hundred acres, but it has a new marina that has plans to grow, and it’s also an official point of entry for the Bahamas.
And Norman’s has a unique history, even in the Bahamas. It once was a base for the Medellin cartel, a transshipping point for planes flying cocaine from Colombia to the United States. One of those planes, a Curtis C46, now serves as a dive site; it crashed in shallow water off the east coast of Norman’s in the ‘80s.
Starting in 1978, Carlos Lehder, one of the most notorious of the “cocaine cowboys” and a leader of the Medellin cartel, basically took over Norman’s, extending its short (and remote) air strip to 3,300 feet for his fleet of drug-running planes. He hired armed guards and attack dogs to protect the island; radar detected any unwanted planes and boats.
Lehder ran the island as a drug-smuggling and party center for several years until the Colombian police arrested him in 1987 and extradited him to the U.S. He was released from a federal prison in Florida in 2020, after serving 33 years, and he flew to Germany, where he held a dual citizenship through his father.
Now you can stay at Norman’s peacefully at the Norman’s Cay Marina, which has 37 slips for boats up to 210 feet LOA and a 10-foot approach depth. It plans to expand to 63 slips plus a fuel dock before long. You also can arrive at Norman’s via your private plane, landing on Lehder’s old airfield.
If you want to stay on land, MacDuff’s Cottages sit on the beach, and the restaurant there has both a rustic appeal and local food (and drinks). Meanwhile, the bone fishing on the flats is almost outside the door, and the Bahamian waters beckon all around. Read more:
https://www.bahamasmarinas.com/normans-cay-marina
