Norman's Cay

Norman's Cay is a low island in the northern Exumas with an airstrip, a beach bar and a wrecked Curtiss C-46 lying in shallow water off the northern end, wings just under the surface. The aircraft crashed in the early 1980s during the period when the cay was controlled by a drug-trafficking operation that used it as a transshipment point, an episode the island has never quite shaken. The wreck is now a snorkelling site in two or three metres of water.

What you actually see

• The sunken aircraft - a Curtiss C-46 in shallow water, snorkelled from a boat.
• The beaches - quiet white sand along the eastern shore.
• The airstrip - the strip that made the cay useful, still in use for light aircraft.
• The shallows - clear water over sand flats around the northern end.

When to go

November to April is the dry season and calmest. The wreck is best snorkelled at slack water and in sun. Winter fronts stir the shallows and cut visibility.

Honest expectations

The wreck sits in shallow water and the metal is sharp and corroded; it is a look rather than a swim-through. Much of the cay is private property and going ashore beyond the beach bar is not welcome. The trafficking history is often sold as glamour and was not.

Nearby

Allan's Cay is north, and the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park is immediately south.