An Archipelago
Drawn for One Guest
Eighty-five miles southeast of Nassau, a magician built the closest thing the modern Caribbean has to a private kingdom — eleven cays, forty beaches, and a guest list that can only ever hold one name at a time.
There is a particular quiet that arrives the moment a yacht clears the last channel marker before Musha Cay — a silence that has less to do with engines cut than with the world simply running out of audience.
The Exumas behave that way. Three hundred and sixty cays strung loosely between Nassau and the southern Bahamas, most of them empty, a few of them owned, and one of them rearranged thirty years ago by the illusionist David Copperfield into what is now called The Islands of Copperfield Bay — an eleven-island private archipelago of roughly 700 acres, surrounded by three smaller cays that exist, principally, to keep the world out.
Musha Cay itself is the centerpiece — a 150-acre island ringed by white sand, fringed by reef, and laid out as five residences that together can host up to twenty-four guests. The architecture, by Howard Holtzman, reads as colonial-tropical rather than resort: mahogany porches, thatched pavilions, four-poster beds under high ceilings, a quietness more residential than commercial. The island does not rent rooms. It rents itself, in its entirety, to one party at a time.
That single-occupancy rule is the through-line. There is no other group on the next beach. There is no other yacht in the anchorage. The bartender at The Landings is your bartender; the thirty-some staff are your staff; the eleven cays of the bay are, for the length of your stay, your archipelago. It is the operating model of a private estate, run with the discipline of a small hotel, and it is one of the reasons the property continues to attract the kind of guest list that doesn't appear in the press of its own accord.
A bay drawn around eleven islands, not a coastline
Most private islands are exactly that — one island. Musha Cay is something rarer. Copperfield purchased the surrounding cays over time, assembling a contiguous water territory that functions less like a resort footprint and more like a small, self-contained sea. The result is a bay defined by what is inside it rather than what borders it: a two-mile seasonal sandbar that surfaces with the tide and vanishes again, sea caves carved by the reef, a protected deep-water anchorage able to receive yachts up to 200 feet, and ten uninhabited cays that exist as day-trip destinations within the property itself.
Geographically, the bay sits within the southern stretch of the Exuma Chain, 85 miles southeast of Nassau. From Miami or Fort Lauderdale, the journey runs roughly ninety minutes by air to Exuma International, then a short charter flight to Musha's 2,200-foot private runway — or, for those who prefer the slower approach, a forty-five-minute boat transfer that takes guests through some of the most photographed water in the Atlantic.
This incredible kind of cleansing sorbet of creativity.
David Copperfield · Owner, Musha CayTwelve bedrooms, five houses, one island
Each residence stands alone — its own beach, its own architecture, its own register. Together they hold twelve bedrooms and thirteen and a half baths.
Set on the crest of Musha's highest hill, Highview is the property's principal residence — a soaring living pavilion under high ceilings, two grand master suites, two kitchens, a private steam room, and a 360-degree view across Copperfield Bay and its ten uninhabited neighboring cays. It is the only house on Musha that sees the whole archipelago at once.
An artfully drawn cottage whose front door opens directly onto a private beach and a long wooden pier that runs out into the bay. Two master suites, an airy living and dining room beneath a thatched ceiling — the most direct interface between residence and water on the island.
Perched on a rocky outcrop steps from its own private beach, Blue Point is built around a shaded, mahogany wraparound porch that catches the trade winds from every angle. Two master suites, a generous living and dining room, an intimacy that the larger houses can't reach.
Five bedrooms across two floors — two master suites upstairs, three additional bedrooms below — laid out for multigenerational stays. Expansive gardens, a spacious living room opening onto the patio, a mahogany porch wrapping the building. The most flexible of the five houses.
A single-bedroom thatched-roof cottage on a crescent-shaped beach gated off from the rest of the island. Open-air bathroom, open-air living room, no neighbor in sight. The most intimate of the five residences — and, by reputation, the most requested for honeymoons.
Beach Residence · AerialA magician's house rules for an island night
Dinner here is rarely set in one place. The kitchen team — led by a resident chef who builds menus to each guest's preference — works across a handful of dining venues: a candlelit table on the main dock with the bay beneath your feet, a hand-carved table beneath the timbered roof of the Balinese-style beach pavilion, an open-air lunch beside the freeform pool, or a setup on a private beach reached by tender.
After dinner, the evening typically migrates to Dave's Drive-In — a beachfront outdoor cinema with a two-story silver screen and a soundtrack tuned to the surf. Guests pick the film. The popcorn is house-made. The credits roll under whatever the Exumas have decided to do with the sky that night.
The Landings · ClubhouseWhere the island gathers itself
The social hub of Musha Cay is The Landings — a clubhouse perched at the top of a staircase rising from the main dock, with a sunset bar, a guest office for those who can't quite let go of the outside world, a library, and a billiard room built around a vintage table that once belonged to Harry Houdini.
It is also where the day is loosely orchestrated. A few hundred feet offshore, a two-mile sandbar surfaces with the tide; tender service runs out at the right hour. Sea caves around the reef receive snorkel parties. A 500-bottle cellar runs tastings on request. A lit championship tennis court sits behind the beach. Mornings begin with coffee on a wraparound deck; afternoons end wherever the wind has put you.
A private kingdom by air or by water
For all of its remoteness, Musha Cay is straightforward to reach. From Miami or Fort Lauderdale, scheduled and private flights arrive at Exuma International Airport on Great Exuma in about ninety minutes. From there, a short charter flight delivers guests directly to Musha's own 2,200-foot private runway — or, for a slower approach, a forty-five-minute boat transfer cuts a long blue line southwest across the Exuma Sound.
Yachts arrive on their own terms. Copperfield Bay offers protected, deep-water anchorage and dock facilities capable of receiving vessels up to 200 feet — a rare combination in the southern Exumas, where most cays in this size class lack the draft or the infrastructure for boats of that length. For owners cruising the chain on their own bottom, that detail matters more than it sounds: it is what allows a stay to begin from the tender, not the runway.
The estate operates as a single-booking property, available only to one party at a time and with a five-night minimum stay. The published rate begins at $57,000 per night for up to twelve guests, scaling with party size up to the twenty-four-guest maximum — a figure that includes all meals, beverages from a 500-bottle cellar, and unlimited use of the island's water and land amenities. Treasure hunts, fireworks displays, fishing expeditions and certain transfers fall outside the base rate.
Musha Cay · Fact sheet
Eleven cays, forty beaches
01 · Aerial
Beach & Pool
02 · Sandbar
Seasonal · Tidal
03 · Cave
Reef · Sea cave
04 · Cinema
Drive-In · Beach
05 · Detail
Sandbar · Chaise
06 · Dock
Quiet hour
07 · Residence
Pier House · Aerial
08 · Water
Bay swim
09 · Interior
The Landings
10 · Light
Sunset · BayThere is no other group on the next beach. There is no other yacht in the anchorage. That, in the end, is the product.
USA Onboard · EditorialAn eleven-island archipelago in the southern Bahamas, run as a single-occupancy estate, accessible by private runway or deep-water anchorage — the quietest version of paradise that money can presently lease.