The Baths & More
30 March 2010 | The Baths, Marina Cay
March 30th - Tuesday
Off the can @ 6am, and running north thru a pretty hefty southerly swell - 4 to 5 feet easy and taking spay over the bow. But certainly worth a trip...as we are about the 3rd boat moored up here, right in front of the starting point. After a brief breakfast...ok...and we had to drop the mooring we were on, since it SAID commercial...and picked up a red day buoy...then a rough snorkel in to the beach as the swell is running HIGH! And oh, what a day - there is no one here and we climb thru the trail virtually alone to the opening at the Devil's Bay! It is gorgeous, special day but with the swell running so high snorkeling is out and we spend some great time on the beach at Devils bay, while Kev plays king of the hill on the rocks to the far west, before hiking back thru the crowds to the beach. Then donning our gear and making the big swim...which was much easier on the way out back to the boat.
What a great day! Oh wait...it is JUST 11:00am! So after a quick lunch we cast off...after a small problem with the starboard engine...Note to the crew: ...after stopping the engine...push the engine stop ALL the way back in...or the kill is still on! - Duh! We felt much better after getting both engines started...only to shut them down again to sail under the jib alone over to Marina Cay! 5 knots downwind...bliss.
So, after picking up another mooring ball, we all don the fins and snorkels, again for a more in depth perusal of the reef. We had quite the experience...4 squid, dozens of spiny urchins, a huge green & Red starfish, a live conch we picked up to have a look at, and on the way back, a huge snailtype thing and the resident stingray. Just for good measure, when we got back to the boat there was a 4 ft shiny grinning fish hanging under the port hull What the ... is That! ...hmm, maybe we'll go around! As it turned out, he wasn't interested in any of us, but he did bring a friend back to visit us later! We could easily see them thru the escape hatches til the sun went down. And a sea turtle decided to pop up and join us for a brief breath of air.
We went up to sunset bar for the pirate show and it was quirky and fun! A crazy one man band and entertainer and all the Pusser's Rum one could drink! What's the first letter of the pirate Alphabet? ARRRRRR!