Swimming Pigs!

1.30.11

We left early this morning for a short trip down to Staniel Cay, only about 5 miles. We were there within an hour and somewhat dismayed to find that the anchorage we had chosen was filled with other boats – 24 of them to be precise! At least we knew it was a good anchorage! We butted up to some of them, dropped anchor and headed in to Staniel Cay – the first civilization after exiting the Exuma Land and Sea Park, this was supposed to be a good place to provision and fill water and fuel.
We were greeted by “Quality Time”, who was leaving just as set our anchor – it seems they are always just a day or two ahead of us! And we were ecstatic to find “Wind Dancer” (the 57' Hylas) at the docks when we finally made it into town. It seemed that Terry had left Mike there while he went back to Florida for a bit and was undecided if he was coming back and when. So, Mike had been there a week and although there are worse places to be “stuck”, it can be a bit boring if you are traveling alone. So he was happy to see us and joined us for lunch at the marina restaurant.
We had arrived at the island on a Sunday, and the whole town was shut down (as apparently it is every weekend, all weekend). We did get to see a few small planes land and take off at the airport, and we located the grocer, although he was also closed.
We had a few drinks with Mike at the docks and then we all headed out to where our boat was anchored. We had actually anchored off Big Majors Spot, a small island just to the North of Staniel Cay that provides a bit more protection and is also home to the infamous swimming pigs! So, I cut up some produce that was about to go bad and we headed out to the beach. We were not to be let down. We were immediately greeted by two large pigs that moseyed right down the beach, into the water and swam right out to our dinghy! We threw some of the produce in and they ate what they could, but they are really not coordinated enough to swim and eat at the same time. We laughed and took a million pictures and then went up to the next beach to see if we could see the goats that supposedly inhabited the North end of the island -quite an exciting little island it would seem!
Unfortunately, we didn't see any goats, but we did find three baby pigs (weighing at least 100lbs each) that were a bit more shy, munching some undergrowth up on the beach. We fed them some food and they allowed us to get a little closer, but ran when you tried to touch them.
We went back to the boat for some sundowners and all had a good laugh over the swimming pigs. Tomorrow we go to Thunderball Grotto, where one of James Bonds movies was filmed (I believe it is called Thunderball?!), for some snorkeling and fish feeding!

Sampson Cay

1.29.11

We headed out early this morning and took the dinghy 3 miles North to Compass Cay. We had heard there was some good snorkeling and a great Eastern beach. We beached the dinghy on the South side of the island, hauled it up as far as we could, set an anchor and prayed it would be there when we got back.
There was nothing on this island with the exception of a few houses and a marina, all of which were on the western side. We started walking around towards the Eastern beach and soon realized we were in for quite a hike. It was a gorgeous day and the views were incredible, we hiked up and along cliff tops - some craggy limestone, some layers of long ago hardened sediment. We found a cool cave right along the water and went in for a quick peek. We hiked for a bit farther and suddenly came to what looked like a dried out lake in the middle of the island. It stretched across the whole island and now looked like a flat desert – kind of strange for an island surrounded by water.
After about an hour of hiking, we made it to “The Beach”, and it was gorgeous. Crescent shaped with beautiful soft white sand, protected from the Eastern swells by rocks and reefs, it sat recessed back in a cove. We swam about for awhile, although the water was too rough to go out snorkeling.
We finally had to head back and opted to travel across the dried up lake to the western side of the island in hopes that there was a quicker way back to the dinghy. We were going along at a steady clip when suddenly the sand beneath our feet went from hard packed to soft and wet. We sunk in with every third step up to our knees; it would appear we had stumbled on a bog of some sort.
We back-tracked and went around the “wet stuff” on harder sand until we got to a beach on the western side. From there it was a short walk back along a rock strewn beach to our dinghy, which was thankfully, still there!
We took our time going back and stopped at a few places along the way to check out some possible reefs. Unfortunately, the tide through Pipe Creek, which was our path home, was ripping so we weren't able to get out of the dinghy. So, I would steer while Brad would stick his head over the side of the dinghy and let me know if there was anything worth seeing. Unfortunately, most of the reefs were unimpressive and the only exciting thing we saw was a 6foot nurse shark.
We returned home and took the short dinghy ride over to Sampson Cay for some dinner. We had an excellent Bahamian meal of beef tenderloin kabobs and cajun chicken – all very spicy! We decided there wasn't much to do here so we would head down to Staniel Cay tomorrow for more exploring.

Warderick Wells - Exuma Land and Sea Park

1.28.11

We had a great sail on 1/26 and made it to Warderick Wells by 3pm. We grabbed a mooring ball and quickly dinghied in to the park headquarters to check in and get some internet (since Verizon wasn't working for us, they had wifi that you could pay to use). We were given some pamphlets about the island and told where the good snorkeling grounds were. We were in too late to actually go out and explore the island, so we just relaxed for the evening and plotted out our actions for the next day.
The weather disappointed us the following day, as we woke up to overcast skies and chilly temperatures. For those of you reading this who just had a snowstorm this week, please read, chilly = 65 degrees. While this may not seem cold to you now, when you get in the water and get out again, it is not so pleasant.
We waited until the early afternoon, hoping that the sun would warm up the day a bit – no such luck. We opted to go anyway and suck it up. We dinghied over to our first snorkeling area at slack tide. The park provided moorings for the dinghies so that people's anchors wouldn't ruin the coral heads below. We slipped over the edge of the dinghy and into a different world. The water was crystal clear, we could see a hundred yards in either direction underwater. The coral was only 10 feet below us and there were fish aplenty! Fish of every color darted in and out of the reefs, some shyly swimming close to us and then darting away when we turned to look at them. Huge parrotfish and grouper, both at least 15-20lbs in size swam lazily beside us. Smaller fish stayed in schools and stuck close together, ebbing and flowing based on our movements. The coral was different shades of brilliant blues and purples, swaying with the tide. We even found one coral head that looked like a huge brain, coming to within a few feet of the water's surface.
We snorkeled a few other locations, finding fish and coral just as vibrant and full of life as the previous ones. We snorkeled until I couldn't feel my toes anymore, then headed back to warm up and have a hot dinner.
The following day we woke up early and went to land. We hiked around the island to some blow holes, which, much to my chagrin, weren't blowing at the time because it was low tide. We also hiked up to the top of this large hill that is called “Boo Boo Hill”. In the past, sailors took an item off of their boat that they had brought that they later realized was useless here – things that needed to be plugged in, extras of things – and left them on this hill. Apparently the “trash” pile had become so large that the park rangers cleared everything out and decided that no more pieces of trash could be left. So, now boaters carve or paint their names and boat names on pieces of drift wood and leave/post it at the top of this hill. We carved our name into a piece of wood that was lying around and left it as our mark. The hill also afforded gorgeous views of the East beaches and the sailboats all moored below around the park headquarters.
We were back by lunchtime and packed up and headed south to Pipe Cay. The wind was considerably higher than predicted and also out of the West, which is unusual for the Bahamas. This made for a bumpy sail and we soon realized that our anchorage was unfit for Westerly wind protection. We decided to go a bit farther south and found some solace in the more protected Sampson Cay anchorage. We will just have to dinghy back up to Compass Cay and some of the other islands that we passed by.