Friday, April 17, 2009

Day 217

This morning we got up and lazed around waiting for slack tide. It was a beautiful calm morning and I really think Karen and Dave lucked out with such perfect weather.

When we headed over to the sea Aquarium Maria and I went with Denis and Karen in their dingy while the rest of the gang brought up the rear. We got almost all the way there and I realized that I had forgotten the camera batteries! I had charged the batteries specially for this! I tried in vain to raise Papa on the VHF hoping I’d catch him just as he was heading out to tell him to grab it but he came into sight just as I tried a third time. It was a long dingy ride and I wasn’t allowed to go back for the batteries and we were at the Sea Aquarium which is across from a beach where Johnny Depp’s Bahamas home is and I didn’t have a camera! Needless to say I was upset!

The Sea Aquarium was very pretty once I got over forgetting the camera. It was a small reef but there was an abundance of life and we even saw a Trumpet fish! The only problem with this spot was the current. Papa had been swimming looking at the fish and coral and got swept up in the current and Larry and Kathy had to take their dingy to go rescue him. Not too long after a big powerboat came over with several passengers, including two young boys. With the strong current the powerboat group didn’t stay long but the two boys did get in and swim. When it was time for them to go the youngest of the two boys couldn’t fight the current and couldn’t get out to their boat only 15’ ahead of him so Uncle Dave helped the boy swim to the boat.

When we got back to the butt I made sure the first thing I did was put the battery in the camera! We had some chips and munchies as sort of a lunch and then we were off to snorkel Rocky Dundas. Rocky Dundas is an island that along its edge has some great coral but the real attraction was the two caves in the island. The south cave was everyones favourite. In the south cave you swam into the cave under a low opening and then you could stand up in 2’ of water and climb up onto a large platform.

When we were on the way back to the boat (again I was traveling with Maria, Denis and Karen due to the lack of room in our dingy) we stopped at a little beach that had hundreds of juvenial conch. We found all sorts of shells and Denis even found a mature conch but since we were within the Exuma Park boundries it’s illegal to take even a pretty shell off of the beach. When we were heading back to the dingy I cut the bottom of my foot on a buried conch shell. Of course not wanting to bleed in Denis’s dingy I kept my foot overboard on the way home and Denis couldn’t resist making shark jokes *rolls eyes*.

Once I got back and had my shower off on the boat I headed over to Sinn Fein to make Easter eggs with Maria. If it was anyone other than Kathy I would be shocked that someone would bring an Easter egg decorating kit with them all this way on the boat but when Maria asked me to make Easter eggs with her I wasn’t the least bit shocked.

We decided to have another get together on the sandbar. We now know it’s actually called Mailbox Cay but the only part that shows at high tide is maybe 16’long and 8’ wide. It was a fun evening and we knew we had to go back to Staniel in the morning because tomorrow is Karen and Dave’s last day =[ time has been flying.

Niki

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