Our Travels

First, a forgotten tidbit. While walking the beach some time back, Susie found a tiny bit of something that looked like a little plant/flower. She’d found a green one of these earlier in our trip but without the stem. This one she carefully guarded during the rest of our explorations that day by tucking it into a compartment in the dinghy. And then she forgot it. Weeks – and many dinghy rides – later, she remembered the little “flower” and (hopefully) opened the compartment to retrieve it.

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Now back to the weekend: to stage for a Sunday crossing to Cat Island, we moved from Big Majors to Galliot Cay Saturday morning. We’d read of a good area to snorkel nearby, so we grabbed the gear and headed out. What a spot! Just off a small island, there is this smallish (50 yards square) area of the most beautiful stuff.

First things first. Susie snagged the underwater camera to get a shot of our “Jacques” (Todd), who loves being in the water and swims like a fish!

Once the camera was returned, he happily headed off to capture images of the large reef while the rest of us continued exploring.

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Sprinkled in were some really beautiful corals. What’s still amazing to fathom is that they are living, growing organisms, not rocks…

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He captured so many beautiful fish and other critters………

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We also found more Christmas Tree Worms:

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Not much was found on the beach, but in the shallows, our group still found interesting things!

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Sufficiently dried out, we went home to shower the salt away.

We bailed out of Big Majors and moseyed down the Exumas past the busy Black Point and settled on the side of Great Guana, Exuma to wait out a bit of a blow and do some chores. Have to say “Great Guana, Exuma,” because of course there is another island with the same name in the Abacos. That happens frequently in the Bahamian islands.

We know “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Well, “all play and no work” just isn’t realistic. Naturally we have tasks to conquer. Servicing the boat systems, housekeeping, sorting pictures for posts, polishing this that and the other thing, etc. Unfortunately, photos of chores are, well, dull.

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We were in Jack’s Bay for four nights. The first part of our stay did allow for a bit of exploring before we hunkered down for a couple days of wind and caught up with some of those chores.

First up, if there’s a pretty beach nearby, our group is definitely heading that way.

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Another cruiser anchored in Jack’s Bay told us about Jack’s Cove, which was nearby but hard to spot from the anchorage. Quick ride over and voilà!

After our not-dull boys enjoyed the swings, we took the path over the island to another cove on the other side.

A staggering amount of garbage gets trapped in that little cove. Some enterprising folks used bits of the trash to create those hefty swings. Most of the trash is, sadly, destined to be there awhile.

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Most of the time we have a good phone signal in the Bahamas, but it can be iffy. Fortunately, we had an excellent signal in Jack’s Bay, so we were able to chat with family.

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One afternoon, Terry & Lynn were surprised by a couple of visitors that also hail from Texas and happened to see Longview on Finish Grade‘s transom. The couple was vacationing on a mega yacht anchored “around the corner,” and that night, the crew set off fireworks from the shore!

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Some fun and some chores. And with that, the weather is clearing, so the plan is to move a little way south to position for an Easter Sunday crossing to Cat Island!

We left Pipe Cay and its goats for Big Majors Spot (per the chart [“Big Major Cay,” per the Bahamians]) and its stores and pigs…??? Yes, pigs. We’ll get to that in a minute.

After finding a couple of spots (pun intended) in the anchorage off Big Majors Spot, the first order of business, was a dinghy ride to nearby Staniel Cay for some “coordinated” provisioning. We both needed gas for the dinghies, Finish Grade needed a bilge pump for their dinghy, and as always, we all needed a few grocery items.

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After provisioning, the draw of the tourist spot, “Pig Beach,” got the better of us. The pigs are the only inhabitants of the island and have been there for years. How they got there? No one is fessing up. Today they are fed by tourists and cared for by locals on Staniel Cay. If you’re on a tour boat you pay to see them; cruisers on dinghies, not so much.

Big hogs and sows right down to a passel of piglets:

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The other thing about Big Majors is that it’s a good, fairly protected anchorage, and so…. it attracts boats. Lots and lots of boats. And lots and lots of charters and mega yachts. We’re talking really BIG boats.

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In the end, it was a successful stop. We purchased some very high-priced groceries, found the necessary bilge pump for Finish Grade‘s family truckster, i.e., dinghy, and refueled both dinghies and their related back-up cans. With those things accomplished, in the morning, we scooted out of there!

Time to go somewhere less crowded! Next stop, Jack’s Bay to ride out a few windy days.

Although the Land and Sea Park has plenty of hiking on some of the larger islands, Cambridge Cay, aka Little Bell Island, appeared to have only a short trail across to get a closer view of a promontory called Bell Rock. The pushy gal in the floppy hat made sure we took said path across the island to get a gander at said rock.

She did not, however, select a very good time. Note the storm clouds…bet you can guess how this walk was going to get cut short. That’s right, with a kind of rare event in the Bahamas this time of year. A much-needed rain shower!

Our house got a bit of a rinse sans hoses and hard work by the owners! Yeah! Next day was back to sunny, so we repeated our steps across the island for the missed-out-on beach combing. While the ladies wandered to the iron shore, they happened to hear a “whistle”! Nope, not the boys signaling but the call of an interesting bird. One we have never seen. Susie was able to zoom in enough to get a shot. With that captured, we headed back home.

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After four days in this very nice setting, it was time to move on!

Enter our next lesson in this cruising life. We rotated around the mooring ball four times a day with the tide changes, and you can see from the photo above, all was holding nicely the night before. Well, when it came time to release from the darn thing, it was clear our bridle line was wrapped without hope of coming undone. Just what went on last night? Who knows, but after almost 25 minutes of trying from above (and the loss of one boat hook), Todd had to go into the water to untangle the mess. We will have a new strategy next time we take a mooring! (And thank you, Terry & Lynn for retrieving the boat hook during the “show.”)

Finally free to move, we headed to Pipe Cay, a whopping 7.6 nautical miles. We stayed at Pipe Cay on our previous trip to the Bahamas. Some of you may remember the night of misadventure on Little Pipe last February. Just because we’ve been here before though doesn’t mean we aren’t going to explore. We won’t anchor at Little Pipe, but we will explore. Ha!

So, out we went, for a walk. A fairly long walk.

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We hoofed it back to the dinghy and set out to find our favorite dinky little island that’s home to our favorite little mangrove that’s trying hard to claim a corner.

Hey, found it, we’ve totally been here before!! The photographer hatched an idea to attempt a recreation of one of her favorite shots of us in the islands (and she wasn’t even wearing the pushy gal floppy hat). Going from memory, we tried to get into the same spot. Close. No worries, we can try again next year! And the year after that. And the year after that…We’ll capture our aging in front of that little mangrove. Ha!

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With the impromptu photo shoot wrapped up, we continued wandering.

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We explored for a while then donned snorkel gear and spent a couple of hours scrubbing the fuzzy bottom of the SaltyMare. Yep, salt encrusted above the water, fuzzy beneath.

After that bit of fun, we took a late afternoon dinghy ride with Terry & Lynn to dry out a bit.

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While looking for treasures, we were surprised to hear the bleating of a goat from across the cove.

On that note, we’ll call this post done. Next stop, Big Majors! From goats to pigs…

The Aquarium

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Imagine our delight at slipping below the surface into this magical world:

He got so many wonderful pictures! It was difficult to select which ones to share.

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And on special request, Christmas Tree Worms, located by Uncle Todd!

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The Plane

After practically dragging Jacques out of the water so other folks could take a gander at The Aquarium, we moved to the site of a plane wreck nearby.

This spot also had a mooring for dinghies and some nice fish, as well as a dozing Nurse Shark we inadvertently awakened, and a passing Southern Sting Ray.

The waters near the plane were teeming with tiny Sea Thimble Jellyfish. We didn’t mess with them; they didn’t mess with us; and we didn’t stay very long.

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Rocky Dundas

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Marked with dinghy moorings, there are a couple of places along the rocky edge where you can swim under the ledge and into the caves.

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The caves themselves are lit by holes open to the sky above.

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And finally, Elkhorn Coral!

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And that’s a wrap!