Iguanas and shore leave
04 March 2009 | Allens Cay/Leaf Cay Anchorage N24*44.924 W76*50.241
NE winds 15-20 knots, waves in the sound 4-6 ft, here about 2 or less but rolly; temp in the low 70s

Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Kind of a rolly night - I din't sleep to well wondering about our position in the anchorage being close to shore after watching another boat come in and trying to anchor not far from us and running aground almost next to us. We'd made a giant loop and when we reversed direction (tide) we both knew it. I could hear the waves on the beach from the port side instead of the starboard side, like when I went to bed, and this had me wide-awake wondering if our anchor would break loose and reset. Fun...
I got up and looked around and the chart plotter showed us making a weird shape - like a U. I went back to bed and tried to describe it to Wayne and couldn't. I figured if he wanted to know, he could look because it didn't make sense to me. He got up and by then it was doing loops around the anchor set. Intrigued by it, he stayed up top awhile watching it so I gave him a blanket and went back to bed. Zzzzz...
After coffee and Bacon & egg sandwiches a bananaquit visited the boat but by the time I brought some sugar up, he was gone. We went exploring SW Allan's Cay (Lone Palm Beach) and Leaf Cay (Iguana Beach). There are several islands here all uninhabited (except by Rock Iguanas and Curly Tailed Lizards). The iguanas are too funny. Whenever people land on the beach they come running for handouts. The tour boats come here and the tourists feed them grapes on a stick so they don't get bit. While visitors are told not to feed the iguanas, it seems everyone does it and the iguanas expect it! The boat next to us held out her flip-flop this morning and 8 iguanas came charging in - YIKES!
We gave Swee'pea shore leave here to play with the iguanas while we explored more inland and tried to get to the ruins we saw from the boat. It looks like someone had a nice little one room reinforced concrete hut on the top of the hill but the roof gave out. It's totally written all over from boaters that come and leave their name on the ruins. They've ruined the ruins. I took a lot of pictures of iguanas, and then we went over to SW Allan's Cay (it has one lone palm on it) the view is fantastic. There was a couple throwing rocks up at the tree it trying to knock down a coconut with no success. He was Irish and she Canadian (Vancouver). We have a Canadian boat, a German boat, a New Zealand Boat, French boat, us and a boat from Alaska here in the anchorage. Pretty cool. In fact so cool, I never made it snorkeling today. I really want to find a conch and try my hand at it but the wind is cold.
After exploring we came back and took a nap. The winds are really howling and there's white caps on the horizon. Power and sailboats are starting to come in again (it's 5pm). Sundowners and cheese, crackers and fruit time. Wayne is polishing off a John Grisham book we picked up at a book swap and I'm debating on whether to try my hand as sketching an iguana or Lone Palm Island. My knee is swollen and bothering me so I think I'll play a couple computer games and call it a day after making dinner (Hot turkey sandwiches and cranberry sauce).