Well we've seen it all now. Did you know that pigs are great swimmers? We'd heard about a little family of wild ..er tame pigs that live on a nearby cay called Little Major Spot which is close to our anchorage near Staniel Cay. These pigs were left on the cay a number of years ago by a couple of Staniel Cay residents. As we neared the beach in our dinghy, we saw some movement on the sand as three chooks started strutting along the water's edge followed by these huge healthy looking pigs that just walked straight into the water and swam right for us. We'd brought some apples, celery and carrots but they're fussy little devils and rejected the carrots when someone else gave them some peanut butter sandwiches. They're awfully smart and would only swim out to new visitors to their beach party. The pig in the above photo practically launched himself into our dinghy to check out our food and then swam off to find a new grocery store. It was really hilarious watching them swim and some of us were very tempted to swim with them but we were told that they'd been known to bite so we scratched that idea. They also seem to like drinking beer as they sat down politely on the sand and opened their mouths when another local tourist operator took the top off a can of beer. I bet they could all get drunk and disorderly real fast. They're certainly on a good wicket..... for a pig that is.

Next, we headed over to Thunderball Grotto, a great snorkelling site and where the movies Thunderball (James Bond movie) and Splash were filmed. The best time to dive the cave is at slack tide as there is a strong current through here. We tied up the dinghy to a mooring and swam towards the narrow entrance between sharp jagged rocks then swam under a rocky ledge into the grotto itself. Once inside, the water was around 20ft deep and filled with a fairly large school of colourful reef fish. It's possible to jump into the water from the opening at the top of the grotto but we were more interested in feeding the fish this time bringing them right up to our masks. We all agreed that it was the best dive so far.



Our last stop for the day was the Staniel Cay docks where local fishermen clean their catches. The nearby population of more than 20 nurse sharks all know about it as they were waiting for the scraps. The sharks all line up near the concrete steps at the water's edge so we took the opportunity to pat their heads as they were so docile. A very young small boy near us had no fear whatsoever and pulled a small shark clear out of the water by its tail. The bigger sharks just nudged each other and rolled their eyes as they remembered fondly their own childhoods flying through the air. One can only imagine what sort of ruckus this would have led to if the boy had done this in Oz, however, these sharks seemed to be used to it as they just came back for more. Once again, some of us were very tempted to swim with them but yours truly was told in no uncertain terms to "get a grip".

(No animals were hurt in the making of this blog.)