Sailing into the gin clear waters I knew nothing was going to keep me out of the sea any longer! The hole in my head had healed to a dent and that was good enough for me! I claimed the job of snorkeling to check the anchor!
I was not disappointed! Huge red and orange starfish decorated the white sands! Sand dollars and Sea biscuit shells scattered around as if having fallen from King Neptunes pockets!
Having established the anchor was well set I headed for a tiny reef nearby! En route I made a new discovery! Two to three meter long condom-like tubes of thick clear jelly about one inch in diameter; securely anchored at one end around a tiny hole in the sand. I could spot nothing in the tubes and despite every attempt to approach the hole without being detected I saw nothing in the holes, not even movement! What are they? I searched my reef guides once back at the boat with no luck and couldn't even find them on Google! Any Marine Biologists out there that can enlighten me?
Half buried in the sands large living Sea Biscuits! Alive they look a little like an egg shaped hedgehog all spikey!
We had heard there was a geocache on the nearby Hoffman Cay right at the blue hole in the middle of the island. We took the dinghy over and were able to log a find and place a Travelbug with a Turtle theme in honor of the lady they dedicated the cache to, who they said loved Turtles.
On the way back we spotted a shark sunning itself in the shallows and went nearer for a good look! Magnificent! It moved slowly off as we approached in the dinghy and only splashed and spun when it felt it was running into a corner! I will try post the video.
We are having a lucky run regarding shark encounters. En route over from Bimini André hooked a fish and was reeling him in. The next minute I heard him shout my name and ran out to see! Chasing after the fish on the hook a HUGE bull shark about 2.5 meters long. He chased the catch right up to the sugar scoop and as Andre pulled it aboard he turned hunting back and forth along the line the fish had been pulled in on! He looked mad at having missed his lunch. It happened so quick we didn't get a chance to capture it on film! What an incredible moment! We always love interactions with sea creatures!
We were delighted to find the fameous 'Flo's Restaurant' was open. Sadly Flo died about five years ago but she was well into her 80's. It is now run by Chester, whom we believe is her son and is fameous for his smile and the legendary Conch Fritters made by Edna the cook! We were not disappointed! We had a great meal and actually met some friendly French! Gérald usually sails with his wife Brigitte but she was back in France working and he had a crew mate Julien. Despite our French being virtually non existent and them claiming their English wasn't that good we had a great evening and learned lots about Cuba as a cruising ground!
They had, in fact, saved our dinghy earlier in the day! We had been snorkeling and André was already back in the dinghy when I spotted a huge Conch walking across the sand! I wanted him to video it with his GoPro and called him over! Thinking he would be quick he didn't drop the dinghy anchor. Of course when he got the camera running the Conch stopped walking, he floated for a while waiting for it to do something! By then I had spotted a huge Barracuda and called him over to film it. I did my usual visual check on the dinghy only to see it disappearing on the horizon! I was nearly at it when the French guys putted over in their dinghy and caught it for us!
We set off for Sandy Point the next day! A reunion with Alleycat and Shiloh was on the cards.
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| Cabbage Cay |
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| Shark in the shallows |
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| Geocaching in Blue Hole |
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| Hoffman Cay Blue Hole |
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