Day 207 Wednesday, Jan. 15, another day of snorkeling

Wednesday, Jan. 15 - another day of snorkeling 

A beautiful blue sky and the group plans for a drift snorkel along Conch Cut.  We have not done a drift snorkel, but Lynn and Ian say it is excellent and have snorkelled this reef before.  The current is lessening but sufficient to move us along.  We put a loop in the painter on the dinghy and wear the dinghy like a bracelet so it stays with us as we flow toward the ocean.  We are about a kms. from the cut between the bank and Exuma Sound (the big water).  There are 8 of us on the dive.  Dawson and I stick close together and we see 2 nurse sharks, a large lobster and many fish.  The coral are beautiful.  The dive lasts about 40 minutes and we all regroup for the next dive.  We head over to Rocky Dundas where there are some caves.  Some tourists from a tall ship are already there, but finishing up their dive as we arrive.  The caves are neat.  It is exact low tide so easy to get into.  The caves are actually grottos, as there is sunlight from above shining down.  Inside the grottos, there are not a lot of animals, and plants but there are also some urchins.  The special features of these grottos are that they have both stalactites and stalagmites.  The grottos are not as good as Thunderball grotto we had snorkelled with Casey and Kevin, but still very much worth the visit.

After diving we dinghy outside the park boundaries to see if we can capture dinner.  Denis, and Ian are avid at spear fishing and have an extra spear.  We have a quick look around, but don’t find anything too interesting off the get go so decide to head back to the mother ships. (Denis and Ian already have lots of seafood in their inventories) .

Dinghy gathering for drift dive

Julie and Dawson while away the afternoon playing some dominos and reading until sundowner time.  The same 4 couples join up along the shore and we eat too many appetizers and dinner gets cancelled.  Not a big deal as we are running out of dinner options anyways.

We head to bed early as a small squall blows through.  As the tide changes the mooring ball bangs against the hull which is annoying from a sound perspective, but also from a don’t damage my boat perspective.  Luckily these balls are well maintained so there are no barnacles on them so mainly it is the banging.  It is the battle between wind and current that causes the mooring ball to be in a position against the hull that it bangs.  It happens every 6.5 hours for about 20 minutes.  I think we will avoid mooring balls from now on if possible.  Sometimes it is not possible and it is the expectation to take a ball if the area is small and crowded.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson