Day 197, Sunday Jan 5th

Day 197, Sunday Jan 5^th

Today is a moving day.  We don’t have many non moving days as we lost 1 day to the leaking stuffing box and we have to be able to get Kevin and Casey to Nassau for mid day on the 7^th.  We have proactively booked them a flight out of Staniel Cay to Nassau so must keep moving to get to Staniel Cay.  We decide to anchor at Big Major island which is just a couple miles from Staniel Cay and hosts the famous swimming pigs.  Once again it is a strong wind on the nose.  We can’t maintain our speed unless we veer off the wind and waves so we set some sail up and tack our way the 20 miles.   We give Casey a Dramamine and she is zonked out for the passage.   We have had rain the last few nights so have to close up the boat so it has been very hot to sleep so sleep comes easy.

Big Major is very easy to get into although the tacking back and forth caused a longer journey.  It is about 3:00 by the time we are anchored and right off we see a nurse shark in the water.  We also see a large pig on the shore.  Low slack tide today is at 4:00 p.m. and tomorrow at 4:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. so we need to snorkel Thunderball grotto today if Kevin and Casey are going to see it at all.  It has to be done at low slack tide in order to access the grotto, otherwise you need to dive down, find the opening to get through then surface inside.  A bit freaky at a new site.  At low tide there is about 8 inches of surface you can sneak across to get inside so you don’t need to dive down.

We dinghy over to the site which is about a mile away and get soaking wet.  We cannot get on step with 4 adults in the boat and we are heading into the waves to get there so every other wave gets bashed and we get sprayed.  We all have on some sort of neoprene clothing so once wet it does not seem so bad but some of the waves just drench us.

The grotto is absolutely amazing.   Dawson only has goggles and no mask and snorkel  so does not really get to see the full effect.  We will have to return to the grotto next week so he can have the full benefits of seeing it.  Kevin and Casey even spot a baby moray eel that Casey did not realize can be aggressive.  Casey was approaching it in order to take some gopro footage.  The grotto has been the best snorkel experience so far.  We wish Ross could have shared this with us also.  He will have to return.

The guitar gets played!

On our way back to the mothership we swing by the beach to get a closer look at the big pig.  There is a large sow on shore and as we approach she starts swimming our way.  We are cautious not to get too close as we do not want a hoof to damage our dinghy.  There are also a few smaller pigs on the beach and we decide we will visit and bring some food for them tomorrow.

Back on the boat for a sundowner, dinner and Dawson's guitar finally gets touched.  (This is a bit of a point of contention as the guitar takes up quite a bit of space and it never used.  Later Casey tries to fend off the title of the weakest link as it pertains to euchre.  She has shown her dominance as domino queen

, however her reputation for euchre has been tarnished.  We will have to see if she can redeem herself tomorrow as it is not working today.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson