Thursday 5-10-12, we headed up to Staniel Cay and anchored off Big Majors – right in front of Pig Beach! There are at least 4 pigs that live on this beach and if you drive by in your dinghy they will swim out to meet you. Of course they are expecting food so we brought a carrot. Some folks actually swim with them and we heard stories of them climbing in to dinghies of boats anchored close to the beach!! Staniel Cay claims 3 grocery stores-The Blue Store, The Pink Store and Isles General. We lucked out and the restocking boat came in on Friday so we were able to get some fruit and veggies and fresh milk ($8 per half gallon). We will not see milk again in the Exumas. You should have seen the line at the store waiting for them to open up!! We also ran in to SV Alborada who we have been crossing paths with since Grenada. Jay and his crew Jeff (his wife had already flown home) came over for happy hour and stayed for dinner. It was a nice evening!
On Saturday we snorkeled the Thunderball Cave. This has been in several movies included 2 James Bond movies. It is best to go at low tide so we had to be there about 8:30 a.m. There is an opening to swim in to the cave right at water level. When you get inside it opens up to a high cave with 2 big holes in the top to let the sunlight in. The cave and outside of it is full of fish-tons of fish and they want food!! It was loads of fun swimming around with the fish. It was quite a long dinghy ride over and I forgot my camera. Madeline and I went back on Sunday morning and did it again – with pictures. Then we moved up to Pipe Cay and anchored right by SV Elcie. They were gone exploring so we went around and hiked on the Cay. An old Decca station (used for tracking Apollo missions) was there and we met a couple on their big power boat who basically live there alongside the old cement sea wall. We watched a big stingray swimming around in the water. It still amazes me how clear the water is everywhere here!!!
Later Richard from SV Elcie swam over to say Hi and we heard a Man Over Board on the radio about 3-4 miles straight West of us. SV Elcie decided to pull anchor and go help. They can motor at about 9-10 knots with their 2 engines. We all sat by listening intently to the radio. I guess the guy had jumped in the water after his camera and then became separated from the sailboat cuz the rest had not noticed him gone right away!!!! Several other power boats were out helping with the search including the official rescue folks. After about ½ hour, SV Elcie comes on and say they have the guy alongside and then took him aboard!! They were motoring toward the search area and almost ran him over! He was over ½ mile from where the search was happening. The guy was Cuban, in good shape but did not have his camera! SV Elcie returned him to his boat and everyone was relieved. Lesson-do not jump off a moving boat for any reason!!
On Monday 5-14 we went around in the dinghy to the other side of Pipe Cay where you can walk the sand flats at low tide. The powerboat folks said it was good shelling with lots of sand dollars. Well-it was really cool but very few shells. We did find a few sand dollars and then Wyatt dropped his and it broke. He was very sad but finally recovered. We motored up to Compass Cay marina to take on water at 50 cents a gallon (ouch). There meter was totally incorrect as it said we put 60 gallons in to a 40 gallon tank. After a bit of heated discussion and checking another meter, they finally agreed there was a problem and we resolved it all amicably. We motored up to Cambridge Cay and took a mooring ball. We were now in the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park.