Iguana Central!

1.19.11

We left Ships Channel Cay this afternoon after a much-deserved relaxing morning. It was a gorgeous day and we couldn't believe the colors of the water. This was by far the clearest water we had been in yet and what we had been expecting to see since entering the Bahamas. You could see straight to the bottom in the aqua-turquoise water. It was a calm day and we took our time sailing down to Allens Cay. While Brad sailed, I cleaned and soon found a disaster we had not planned for. MOLD!! A sailor's worst nightmare!! It had consumed our V-berth, which was our storage closet for the trip. We had jammed so much up there that we hadn't even noticed it happening. So while Brad navigated, I hauled everything out of the front and cleaned like a mad woman.
We were able to visually navigate our way down to Allens Cay and made it there by 1600. We set anchor in a narrow harbor amongst 5 other boats and looked forward to the next day when we would be able to snorkel.
We woke up early the next morning to a clear glass water type day. We ate breakfast outside and enjoyed the sunrise and were off the boat by 0900. Allens Cay is home to a large wild iguana population. They are semi-tame as cruisers frequently go over to the island and feed them...or so we had heard. There are two iguana-populated islands and we went to the less frequently visited one as the iguanas were supposed to be less-tame. We came armed with diced fruits and veggies and cameras. We were not disappointed – our dinghy was greeted by no less than 5 iguanas, one of which seemed to be the grandfather of all iguanas. They came right out to us and looked expectantly at us, hissing and all the while creeping closer. We started throwing bits of food at them and were soon overwhelmed with iguanas. There were over 20 iguanas at one time scurrying in and out hoping for a hand-out. They ranged in size from the size of your hand to about 30 pounds!! They were larger than Moo and some were the size of small dachshunds! As soon as the food was gone, they lost interest and faded back in to the background.
We donned our snorkeling gear and headed out to some of the coves in the harbour. We snorkeled some easy coves and found nothing of real interest except extremely clear water. Underwater you could see half a mile away everything around you. We got back to the dinghy and as we passed by one of the other boats in the anchorage, they hollered out and told us where the good snorkeling was.
We didn't time the tides right and got to the snorkeling grounds during a rushing tide so were not able to anchor our dinghy and get out. Instead, we floated slowly over the coral heads and stuck our heads over the edge watching the life as we went overhead. It was incredible the life down there – so many different species of fish!! It was a beautiful reef and we were sorry that we didn't get to snorkel it the right way; but for our first reef snorkeling experience, it was gorgeous!
Afterwards, we beached our dinghy on the East side of the island and snorkeled along the shore where there were some less impressive but still dazzling reefs and fish life. We walked around the island and found a deserted house, all the while hearing iguanas scurrying in the bush around us.
It was a great day and we finally found out that we had finally found “sailing heaven.” We were anchored among other cruisers who enjoyed the scenery and life as much as we were and who were as much in awe of the thriving life here as us.