Out and About

 With some more of this Bahamian good weather several of us decided that cruising down a little past Snake Cay and then back into the shallows to a blue hole was a good idea. The Sea of Abaco was calm and with an invitation to ride with Bill and Carol we grabbed our snorkel gear and headed out in their Carolina Skiff joined by Dave and Carol in their skiff.  

 The intended destination is a tide restricted area. That is to say, you had best time your arrival with high tide or you will be hauling the dink out over very shallow water, if you can! While we had some concerns about getting in and out of the snorkel site, we pressed on churning up some sand every now and then. After about 10 minutes of poking around we arrived at the blue hole where Dave and I pulled on our dive suits and jumped in. The water started out quite clear but with all of our movement it clouded up a bit but regardless it was still quite scenic. Deb and Carol used look buckets and watched us as I free dived into the hole and Dave used his Hookah. Some day I'm going to have to piece together one of these rigs because they can save a mess of cash spent on bottom cleaning. Instead of paying a diver every time the bottom needs a little scrubbing I can don the gear and hop in myself. Brownie puts together a good rig, but the system can be pieced together using components much more economically.
 Anyway, the blue hole was actually quite deep. I was able to get down about 15 feet or so but Bill's depth sounder indicated it was actually much deeper than this. Perhaps almost 60 feet. Given it was lined with ledges full of fish I didn't have to go far or risk being trapped to enjoy the experience. Since Deb's dad has had very sad experience cave diving we've taken a lesson from this and always elected not to penetrate anything while diving. Besides I was on my lung capacity and that is not what it once was.
 Eventually we realised that the tide was shifting to the outbound direction and it was time to haul anchor and move on. Since we still had good sunlight and some tide I suggested that we check out the passages behind Snake Cay to see if we could spot some of the spotted Rays. Within a couple of minutes we were there and spotting rays with wingspans exceeding 3 feet. A school of 6 or so led us out of the area and back into the Sea of Abaco for our return North which took us to Lubbers Quarters and Lubbers Landing where we discovered a different sort of blue hole. It comes in a canning jar and consists of rum, coconut rum, blue curacao, some ginger beer and a twist of lime. Very refreshing and they go down too easily!
   And then it was Saturday. Now it was time to hop the ferry provided by Froggie's Dive shop over to Man O War so we could take in the flea market. As you look at the photo on the left consider that, as opposed to all of the other Cays in the Abacos, Man O War is a dry Cay. That's right they do not serve or sell alcohol there. Given this fact the reason the cart was hanging off the wall remains a mystery to us. As we were walking along we heard a cart start up and all sorts of commotion ensued. Fortunately the cart stopped in time and did not fall several feet into the water. Perhaps there were people sitting on the bench seat at the rear of the cart providing a counter balance keeping the cart from falling. Whatever the reason for salvation it was resolved with some friendly hands pulling the cart back onto the parking area. Perhaps this was an accident caused by unfriendly shifters on carts that are not very positive with regard to the selection of forward and reverse.
 Speaking of forward and reverse, something that does not have much control or ability to reverse met us as we motored along in the White Sound entrance channel. It was a rather large float plane leaving the Abaco Inn. When it turned on it's landing lights I stood up and waved for all I was worth. Some of us have had the experience of meeting a float plane on the Rondout Creek in Kingston NY when it was on final and there was no action to take but SCRAM! Fortunately in this case, we all had plenty of time to take action because the plane was in the process of leaving the Abaco Inn, not landing. To his credit the captain held up so we could race into the channel towards Sea Spray and get out of his way. Once we were past he throttled up a bit and moved out onto the Sea of Abaco where he took off. I believe the plane was making a ferry run for "Music Doing Good" at the Hope Town Harbour Lodge as there were additional planes carrying the musicians landing today. This is yet another good example of the way folks down here contribute to Every Child Counts on a regular basis. Next week, I believe the function is benefiting Hope Town Fire and Rescue.

 Cool.

Beach Combing and Spouts

  It has been rather breezy down here lately and that is illustrated by the wave action in this photo. Usually we need a day or two of light winds before the sea settles down and obviously they still have some additional room for improvement. In this case it had been blowing 30+ knots for what seemed like a couple of days but now it has diminished to about 15 knots. Given this more subdued environment we could walk the beach and merely be treated to a mild facial exfoliation instead of being completely sand blasted. With that we decided to take a walk at low tide yesterday.
 All along the way we kept our eyes open for interesting bits in the surf and along the shore. Today's combing offered up a small trident and a few pieces of interesting glass but by and large the beaches are still devoid of artifacts of sea life. There is still plenty of debris from passing cruise ships and a deep pile of weeds washed up but shells and sea glass finds are few and far between. But the water is warm, the wind not so bad and the sun is shining. All things considered was a great day for this walk.
 Along the way we could see the repairs made to the beaches with bulldozers where people could afford to have the dune protecting their property restored. It's a shame but it's a fact of life. Some people cannot afford to fight the sea and they will eventually lose their investment. Others keep piling up the sand and in many cases this seems to be effective. But then they may have a more substantial section of reef just off shore that reduces the force of the waves landing.
 Today with the calming continuing to progress, we finally launched the dink even though we arrived at Sea Spray back on 1/25. Once in the water it cooperated by starting up easily so I moved it around to the side of the boat where we could get into it more easily. Having some transportation now, and given the establishments on Lubbers were closed, we chose to travel around to Firefly for lunch. We have to say the view from their bar is without a doubt one of the best that Elbow Cay has to offer. While we enjoy the staff, food and environment at Sea Spray, some types of change are good. It was a refreshing break offering up an expansive view of the Sea of Abaco and the approaching weather.
 Even though we were in the dink the weather didn't seem to matter because most of it was to the West and moving slowly in our direction. Besides lunch was very good, and served to distract us from what was happening over the Northern Sea of Abaco. Deb had these bacon wrapped lobster skewers and I had a snapper sandwich that was on ciabatta bread with a spicy island tomato kind of salsa and sweet potato fries. Combined with the view it made for a memorable lunch. And then a bit of excitement developed when we started seeing the spouts forming in the distance. If you click on the photo at left the image of the spout is a bit easier to pick out. We figure this one was probably headed towards Guana Cay or Green Turtle but we have yet to hear anything so hopefully everyone is ok and no damage was done. Deb and I both agreed that sitting at a bar with a cool drink and lunch was a much better environment to review spouts versus being in the middle of the Gulf Stream.