Exploring by Foot and Dinghy
06 February 2012 | Thompson Bay, Long Island
Jill
This morning we got a call from Carol and Rick on Rhapsody. They were planning to leave for a short hop around noon, but before they went they were going to walk back to the beach on the Atlantic side they had told me about and wondered if I wanted to come. Of course I did! We took Fuzzy ashore and I got ready and ended up being late. We tried to raise them on the radio, no answer, so I told Bud I'd like him to take me to the dock near Fox Auto where we were going to meet. Happily, they were still there.
I took Fuzzy in the front pack. I thought he'd enjoy the walk on the beach, but was pretty sure he wouldn't enjoy the walk to the beach. So Rick and Carol and I walked and Fuzzy rode. It was only about a mile, I think it was a shorter walk than the one Bud and I took. It's another beautiful beach. I'll post a picture I took of Rick and Carol on the beach tomorrow and add another one I took of just the beach to the gallery. Fuzzy did enjoy the walk on the beach, in fact he was willing to keep walking and was only persuaded to get in the pack when I climbed up the little ridge from the beach to the road in. He didn't want to be left behind. Once we were back at the dock I called Bud on the radio to come and get me and we were back on the boat by 10:30.
Then this afternoon Bud said he wanted to take the dinghy down to the south end of the bay again to try to find the blue holes and either snorkel or fish. I decided I'd come along and take Fuzzy and have him drop me off at one of the little islands in the bay there. Since I was going to get off the boat, Bud decided to just anchor and fish. He dropped Fuzzy and I in the shallows near Eva's Cay, which is the biggest of the islands in the bay and is roughly triangular in shape. I thought from the chart there were beaches on two sides, but they weren't really beaches, there was iron shore just under the sand. That's why Fuzzy and I waded ashore. I took a picture of Bud going back out in the dinghy.
After foraging one direction and the other and picking about in the sand and iron shore, Fuzzy and I finally started walking along an edge of sand behind the iron shore and just in front of the thick vegetation. I broke off a dead palmetto frond which I used as a spider web broom for the places where I had to walk between the bushes. It actually ended up being pretty easy walking and we walked all the way around the perimeter of the island. I took a few more pictures that I'll add to the gallery. There is a smaller island just to the east of Eva's Cay that has a house on it. I got a picture of the island, you can almost see the house. On the west side is a wrecked mail boat with a hawk's nest on the top of the old crane. I got pictures of the boat and nest and of the hawk, which kept circling us and calling out. I'm not sure if it was protesting us being around it's nest or sizing up Fuzzy as a possible meal.
Not too long after we finished our walk, Bud finished fishing and I waded back out with Fuzzy in the pack to get picked up. Bud hadn't had any luck. We stopped for a couple of minutes on the way back near the Long Island Petroleum dock and Bud put a few casts out. He had a mullet head on the hook and something was chewing on it but he got no strikes. It was probably crabs going after his bait.
Bud's out fishing again, just off the boat. Fuzzy is sleeping on the settee. I think Fuzzy will sleep well tonight!