Went to dinner at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club which was very good. Also had a great time observing all the crusiers during happy hour, there is a big variety of folks down here - from the folks on the mega yachts to the ones on the tiny sailboats (how did they get that little boat all the way down here?!). Drinks are expensive, $9 for a glass of wine. We'd be better off having one on the boat, but then we wouldn't get all the visual entertainment!
The pre-dinner entertainment was the sharks! These a place on next to the dingy dock where the fishermen fillet their catch of the day and fling the bones and 'stuff' into the water. That water is teeming with sharks and stingrays waiting for their supper. It is not what you would expect, a feeding frenzy - these are Bahamian sharks. They kind of mosey on in and out picking up a bite as they come through. They are good sized though, ranging from 3 feet to 5 or more. Very weird being in the dingy with sharks all around you!
It's been hot with very little wind, but since we spent all winter moaning about the cold, we are not complaining. Instead we're learning new ways to keep cool. Wet t-shirts are like air conditioners, who knew!
We've also been swimming / snorkeling. Yesterday we went over to Thunderball Cave. Now, we've been snorkeling at just about every place we've been to and I've enjoyed it, but it has been mostly white sand, grass, rock and a few fishes. Thunderball Cave was an entirely different experience! After we got in and gasped over the chilly water, we put on our snorkels and the first thing I saw was a huge brain coral! It looked like someone had left a two foot brain in the sand!
We then went under the rock ledge and into the cave. The ledge was only a couple of feet over our heads and as we entered the cave, we were swimming in fish! All kinds of different fish, stripy black and white ones, gold and white ones, glowing neon blue ones, all different shapes and sizes swimming just inches away from us.
Along with the fish were plants and coral all along the bottom. Lacy fan-like purple, more brain coral, oranges, yellows and greens. Up above in the cave itself were three holes letting the sunlight in and lighting up the water below. We continued on through the cave, the coral and the fishes out to the other side, which was even better coral-wise than inside the cave. You could hover and look for hours and not see it all, there was that much of it.
I thought snorkeling was a fun thing to do before, but now I'm hooked! It was amazing!
Had the laundry done by a little old Bahamian lady and had a chat with her husband who shared his thoughts with us, "You need one of those", he said to Steve while pointing to his wife and me, "Life without a wife is like a kitchen without a knife!" Very sweet.
Steve was Heroic Engineer Guy (it's been very interesting these past couple days!) when he pressed the start button and there was no start. The starter motor had decided to quit. Now as we both firmly believe in redundancy in systems and having backups for everything, he just happened to have a spare starter motor sitting around and seven bolts later, the engine started right up! I made him a carrot cake to reward the heroic engineering efforts.
Last night, after making our way through the sharks to pick up the laundry and have a happy hour drink and munchies, we waited until the sun went down and it cooled off before having a quiet glass of wine and some cheese and crackers. We finished off the day by watching the stars go from hundreds to thousands.
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