Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The quest for the Blue Hole

 One of the best scenic finds down in the Abacos is a Blue Hole. Back in March 2009 we happened upon one of these while trying to get to a beach on the main island of Great Abaco. It was a very pleasant surprise in light of the situation we were in.
 On our way back from Crown Haven which is at the far Northern end of the island after driving half way back to Treasure Cay we decided rather randomly to visit a beach along the way to look for shells. While traveling down a winding poorly maintained road full of ruts and spent appliances we decided we were in an area to be avoided. Right where we turned around we found it.
 I've hunted around and looked for photos but come up dry on this one. But I can tell you exactly where it is and you can zoom in on it with google earth. If you look at the CrownHavenCarRide track within the http://home.roadrunner.com/~danmapes/Southbound2.kmz link at  26°47'55.43"N  77°25'23.60"W you will find where we gave up on driving a rental car to the beach due to road and environmental conditions. That was when we saw the blue hole so we hopped out of the car to look at it. It was only a few paces off the road and the path was clear. The color of the water was remarkable as was the amount of fish swimming around in it.
 Having experienced that find we have been on the look out for more of these, and we have had some success with this activity. Using Google Earth one can pick some out and subsequently last year while we were at the Berry Islands we did locate one a bit North of Great Harbour's Marina.
 Today, we elected to use the information we had obtained from various guide books and other folks that have been around a bit. As far as we could tell from all of this information and Google Earth there are Blue Holes around Snake Cay and Iron Cay. For example there is one at 26°24'12.89"N 77° 2'33.53"W. It's gotta be one. But marching through the terrain in that area without a machete is not in our game plan and carrying one around in an inflatable dink is not either. Sure we could shealth it but the notion of hiking in flip flops adds more concern to the notion. 
 Anyway we left the marina today with light winds yet intimidating skies. While out on the Sea of Abaco I mentioned the cloud lines looked ominously familiar. They looked exactly like what the spouts formed out of on the stream. But on we went taking advantage of the flat water and some solace in the notion that others were out there with us. We gunked around behind Snake Cay and Iron Cay for quite a while and made it to a couple of spots some would call Blue Holes. But they were nothing like what we had seen earlier so there was some dissappointment with this realization. In spite of that those locations did provide interesting displays of sharks, rays, lobsters and other fish in some very clear water. Believe it or not there is a spiney lobster hanging out under that rock. This lucky lobster was small and we had no ice to keep it while we traveled. In this photo all we see are the antennae when the photo is enlarged by clicking on it.
 But without decent sunlight over us the photos don't show well so perhaps another day we'll be able to get better pictures to post. The track named Snake Cay Dink 2 within the http://home.roadrunner.com/~danmapes/Voyage1011.kmz batch of tracks might be fun to fly with G.E. and they will lead you to Cracker P's where we stopped in for lunch. Their smoked fish dip is outstanding and goes well with a cold Kalik and grilled Wahoo sandwich. Even if the food wasn't good the view would make the stop worth while! It's a good thing we ignored the signals the clouds were giving us earlier in the morning because the day turned out quite well. Maybe the forecast of 15-20 knots of wind for the next week won't turn out to be accurate either but we are getting into that part of Winter down here when the wind blows strong and steady. 
  
   

No comments: