Hot dogs on board!

Georgetown was fun, but it was time to keep moving. We’re already a month behind from the weather delays in the Dominican Republic. There’s one big change now though. We can really only sail during daylight hours due to shallow and reefs and cuts (entrances to islands). Our first day leaving Georgetown we went back outside into the Atlantic and sailed 45 miles up to Big Farmers Cay. There were two other boats anchored a couple of miles away, but we pretty much had the entire anchorage to ourselves that night. The second day we sailed inside the islands in Exuma sound. It’s pretty surreal doing four knots under jib in brilliant turquoise waters that are only 10-12 feet deep!

Bahamian cottages

 

 

 

Thunderball Grotto

 

 

Nurse sharks

We got to Staniel Cay early afternoon and dropped anchor right in the middle, away from the hoi poloi. I nearly dropped the anchor on a massive stingray while we were anchoring, but it was fun to watch him swim by. We were now in the land of mega yachts and it was fun ogling. Our first outing, though, was to the Thunderball Grotto. Named after the James Bond film from the 60’s, one of the major scenes from the film was shot in that grotto. If you go at low tide, you can swim in, otherwise you’re forced to dive. Once inside the grotto, it opens up into a giant underwater cave with holes in the ceiling that let the sun shine through. Combined with all the fish swimming underneath you, it was hard to know where to look. Again, being low season, almost no one was there and we had the place to ourselves.

 

Bond, James Bond…..inside the Thunderball Grotto

Trip also managed to fix the water pump which had stopped working while we were offshore. The footpump was still working, so it was only filtered water (we had spare gallons on board so no risk there) and the shower that caused an issue. I remembered that we had an old camping solar shower bag on board, so even showers turned out to be relatively easy. But all was good again once Trip realized what the problem was and provided the fix! We celebrated with showers, filtered water, and watched Thunderball on DVD.

Swimming pig

Water for the piggies

The next morning we dinghied over to the other main attraction of the Staniel Cay area – the famous swimming pigs. About two dozen pigs live on the island called Big Majors Spot, though no one quite knows how they got there. Rumours are from pirates abandoning them, to sailors leaving them as a food supply as the population of the islands grew, to someone prepping a modern day food supply just before Y2K hit and then abandoning them once Y2K passed without an issue. They’re cute – well the little ones are anyway. You do have to be careful as some of the big sows do bite. There were only two other people there so we had the pigs to ourselves. We had brought lettuce and cucumbers, as well as fresh drinking water – everything was gobbled up. We hung out for a while, but then the hoards of tourists from the local charter boats started arriving, so it was time to go. We popped over to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club for lunch – the grouper bites were huge and amazing to taste. We also got to watch the locals feed the nurse sharks – if you’re brave you can actually swim with them!

No eating in the dinghy!

Feeding the piglets