Highbourne Cay

1.20.11

Today we sadly left Allens Cay and headed just 5 miles south to Highbourne Cay. We were sad to leave the gorgeous snorkeling grounds, but eager to head to Highbourne Cay to attempt to fix our internet. Our cell phone has, at this point, been cut off twice and we have racked up an $11,000 bill. Thanks Verizon. Today we will use a pay phone to get in touch with them and hopefully get the problem resolved! In the meantime, I continue to blog on Microsoft Word in hopes I will soon be able to post our adventures for everyone!!
If we were excited by Allens Cay, we were not to be let down by Highbourne. We have finally realized that the Exumas are all as exceedingly gorgeous as the pictures. Imagine your screen saver or the calendar picture on your desk right now – yea, we are there. Reefs are around every corner and sandy white deserted beaches are an everday occurrence. We dinghied in to the only marina on the islands to resolve our Verizon issue. No such luck – they kept me on hold for 30 minutes (an entire phone card worth of minutes with no results). Don't worry, I sicched my Pops on them – they are in for it now!! We caroused the marina and were so excited to find a nurse shark sitting on the bottom of the crystal clear harbour. We kept walking further down the marina piers and happened upon two guys who had just come back from a fishing excursion out in the Exuma Sound (deeper water). They had caught a number of Wahoo and were filleting them off the end of the pier. Much to our complete surprise, as he tossed the gutted fish into the water, they were welcomed with open jaws by about 30 nurse and reef sharks! They were literally circling under and beside the pier eagerly awaiting his catch of the day. We took tons of pictures and were in complete aww of the event. Who knew so many sharks could be in one place?! We could hear them sucking and biting at the fish as he threw each piece in. As he was finishing up, we thanked him for letting us watch and he offered us two fresh fillets. How generous! We hadn't caught anything of this caliber yet and were so excited about our new dinner item!!
While Dad was stuck dealing with ignorant Verizon idiots all day, Brad and I went back to the boat and enjoyed a lunch outside and then took Koa on a dinghy excursion. We went over to one of the aforementioned white sand beaches and played fetch with Koa and found a few “perfect” conch souvenirs. (If anyone wants a beautiful Bahamian conch shell, speak now or forever hold your peace!) And sunburn in January – ouch! Who knew?!
We found more coral, but since we had Koa couldn't get out of the dinghy. We again snorkeled head over the side of the dinghy and then headed back to the boat for sundowners and fresh fish dinner.