Day 198, Monday Jan 6th

Day 198, Monday Jan 6^th

Kevin feeding the sow

Piglet nibbling on Casey

We wake to a beautiful morning at Big Major which is the island that hosts the famous swimming pigs.  We head to shore in the dinghy with our compostables for them to eat.  Dawson is a bit apprehensive as these are supposedly wild pigs, however when we get to shore the pigs are very friendly, not very “wild”.  There are also no boars, so someone is controlling this population.  Some of the piglets are male, but no adults.  We are still quite funny not getting too close to the pigs although they want to get close to us.  We spend about 20 minutes on the beach, but it starts to rain from the single grey cloud overhead.  We race back to the boat as we have left all the hatches and portholes open.  Not too much water as we are quick to close everything up although it is pouring by the time we get to the boat.  We prepare to move the boat around the corner to the marina as the winds are supposed to be very strong the next morning when we have to get Kevin and Casey to the Staniel Cay airport and we do not want to dinghy with 4 of us and luggage in 25 knot winds.

We decide to have Casey and Kevin drive the dinghy over so we don’t have to hoist and that way they can go spend more time on the beach with the pigs and not be tied to our schedule.  Turns out their additional pig adventure was exciting as Casey got chased by a large sow and was videotaping at the time so the video is hilarious with her squealing and running all the while taping.

We start over to the marina and of course a squall blows through and it just pours and whips up the wind until we can hardly see.  We slow down to let it pass prior to us reaching the marina only about a mile away.  By the time we get to the docking area, the worst of the squall is done and the rain has let up.  Casey and Kevin have also surged ahead of us and are there to catch our lines.  Once again we manage to dock with no drama.  The first thing we see is a nurse shark under the boat.  There are lots of them around.

Dawson petting a nurse shark

We decide to head to town for a walk and on the way we stop to pet some sharks.  For real, there are about 20 sharks milling about waiting for fish to be cleaned and the scraps thrown in.  As they mill about they are within reach of a few steps that go down to the waters edge and we can just lean over and pet the sharks on their backs.  This is just cool.  Makes us less afraid of these large sea animals.  There are also about 3 huge rays about 5 feet across with some pretty blue edges interspersed with the sharks.  One gets the impression it is a very healthy marine environment.

Sign at the airport we pass on our wonder through town

We walk around community and see no groceries in the 2 grocery stores.  Not even milk is available until the next boat comes in which is weekly but not expected for 3 days.  We had been

hoping for an ice cream of some sort but that is totally out of the question.  The few shops and restaurants on the tour map are also closed or out of business.  Now we understand what was meant by “stock up”.  We had stocked up, but the fresh stuff runs out.  We will have to start drinking our UHT boxed milk until we can find some fresh stuff.  Luckily we have about 4 quarts on board to last at least a couple of days.  The walk is quite hot and we discover there is a pool included with the marina so we decide to spend the next hour poolside prior to going to the Yacht club for a nice dinner.

Lobster harvest (not ours)

This is the last night Kevin and Casey are with us so our nice dinner is a bit of a send off.  The meal is fabulous including dessert.  After dinner it is time to pack up and of course we go through the ritualistic missing passport scare.  Kevin’s of course.  We hunt high and low and try to recall whether he had taken it to Junkanoo for New Year’s with him.  We could not remember, we just remembered that we had the discussion of whether to take it, not the decision.  After about an hour a last ditch effort of looking in Casey’s purse and there it was with her passport.  Thank goodness.

We are off to bed with the alarm set for 6:30 so we can spend a last wonderful Kicking horse coffee together, compliments of Casey who brought us 2 pounds from Canada.  Great gift.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson