Swimming Pigs!
26 April 2013
Phyllis Pardee
We had a nice motor sail down to Big Majors Spot and dropped anchor early in the afternoon. I had been saving veggie trimmings and grapefruit peels for the pigs so we were off to the beach! I had been warned about the eagerness of the pig and them trying to climb into dinghy's but we saw none of that today. They did swim out and were so eager to get treats from us although they had to fight with the seagulls!! We got some pictures and watched other boaters feeding them as well. They are quite the tourist attraction. Staniel Cay was certainly over rated in the cruising guides in my opinion! We did find three stores which was fun--and they are described by locals as the pink store, the blue store and Isles General--oh and if you want bread you have to go to the yellow house. We did in fact visit the yellow house for Bahamian bread stillw arm from the oven!! The pink and blue stores were nice, not over loaded but you could find staples and I bought tomatoes,celery, onions and grapefruit. Bill found a bag of Rold Gold Pretzels too! Prices seem to vary per customer. We ordered a new dinghy motor as we were so tired of being the slow turtle and had to wait for it to come from Nassau on the supply boat. We are now sporting a 15 hp Yamaha and can keep up with other dinghies now.
We found Lesley and Paul from Suliere in the anchorage and stopped to chat. Lesley said she wanted to teach me to snorkel as she had seen me hanging over the side of the dinghy at Warderick Wells. Like me, she is not a real swimmer but said she overcame her fears and wanted to help me overcome mine. Lesley is such a tiny little woman--she stand 4'10 and wears a childs size 2 shoe! She loaned me snorkel gear and we set off to shore for my first lesson!!! She was amazing and made it fun and within 20 minutes I had my face under the water and was LOVING IT!!!
We snorkeled as Bill took pictures and then all of us went off to explore the area snorkeling. I was elated to finally see what Bill has been telling me about all these years and now I can join him under the water's surface!! While my spirits were high and the tide was slack everyone decided we just HAD to go over to Thunderball Grotto where James Bond movies were filmed and snorkel there. I was not quite sure about swimming into the entrance UNDER the rocks but Lesley would have none of that and said what I would see would be well worth it so off I went with her and Bill's encouragement! It was beautiful!!! We swam about while Paul was taking movies of inside the grotto and under the water. What I did not know is that while Bill and I surfaced at the exit to clear our masks and snorkel that a nine foot nurse shark was swimming directly underneath our feet and Paul got it all in his movie! By the time we were done I was exhausted and freezing as well. We enjoyed our friends and
had drinks with them several evenings while getting to know this very interesting people tell of their travels.
We enjoyed celebrating Cinco De Mayo at the Yacht Club with lots of other cruisers and had made plans to leave for Black Point the following day.