Day 206 Tuesday, Jan 14th - a full day of snorkelling

Tuesday, Jan 14, a full day of snorkeling

 

View towards plan wreck dive

Dawson prior to snorkeling

 Snorkeling is the activity on the agenda today.  We pack up a lunch and head out about 11:30.  We dinghy north about a mile and stop at an island with lots of young conch and a beautiful beach.  We have a quick look around but don’t plan to stay as slack tide is about 12:30 and that is when we want to be snorkelling.  We sight the yellow buoy marking our first dive site.  We dinghy out and catch the mooring on the second try.  The first try, Julie misses her grab as she is too busy looking at the plane wreck which is visible and eerie from the buoy mooring.  We get our snorkel gear on and enter the water.  There is still a strong current so we don’t venture too far at all from the dinghy.  The plane wreck is an upside down Cessna.  The wings and fuselage are all pretty well in tack.  Not sure how long it has been here, or the story behind the crash, but needless to say it leaves a bad feeling.  Hopefully the pilot and passengers got out.  There are some fish and coral around the site, but nothing amazing so we decide to move on to the next site.

small beach crab with one over developed claw

Makes you wonder what is under here

tidal flat u/g mining

“The Aquarium” is the name of our next dive and it is only about half a mile further north.  There is another dinghy here but they are just leaving as we approach.  It is always nice to have other snorkelers around as there is safety in numbers (hopefully the shark will eat them and not us)!  We jump in and are amazed immediately at the number of fish and coral.  It is again incredible.  This dive has a wall on one side which makes it unique.  Our snorkel skills are improving and we dive under much more often than some of our initial dives.  We start circling around the coral island, but turn back as the current is still strong and our return to the dinghy feels like we are in an infinity pool.  A new boat with some tourists has joined us and they are putting food in the water and the fish are all getting aggressive racing for the crumbs.  Julie does not like this and ends her dive.  Dawson is a few minutes behind and soon we are ready for our picnic.  We decide to head over to O’brien island/cay as it looks like Utopia across the bay.  There are 3 beaches, all secluded for our use.  We have a lovely picnic, then hike across to the Exuma Sound side of the island to see how high the waves are whooping up as it is a bit breezy today.  Not too much.  We then hike up a tidal stream.  It is now low tide so it is interesting to watch the stream draining.  There are lots of little crabs, and other small animals at work.

After the picnic we dinghy back to the mothership to get some shoes so we can hike up the hill by the boat to get some cell service to pick up emails and check weather.  Unfortunately our data plan seems to have expired so no luck on getting any communications accomplished.  Oh well the hike up the hill was nice. 

Sundowners on the beach

On the way back to the boat we decide to see if the other boats want to meet up for a sundowner on the beach at 5:00.  We manage full attendance, but at 4:30.  The sunset is lovely, but moonrise is better as it is almost a full moon.  We get to know, Tracey and Dennis, and Ian and Lynn from Jalu and Windward 2 respectively.  Wilma and Barry also join in.  Everyone brings a munchy and we have a wonderful social.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson