Pigs, Grotto, Iguanas and Tourists

Writing Wednesday Morning before Thanksgiving.  Julianne took Watermaker Air Monday morning back to Ft Lauderdale Executive Airport, then Uber'd over the FTL International to get on JetBlue to Boston.  She is home with Jacqueline & AJ for Thanksgiving.  I miss having her around.

Staniel Cay on Chartplotter

Been sitting at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club dock since Saturday.  Has the Bahamas vibe with good facilities right int he middle of the Exumas.  I can see the BTC celluar tower, so I have great data connectivity.

Being out for about a month now, the excitement you get when you go on a 1 or 2 week vacation is gone.  It is just about a laid back lifestyle that the Bahama folks live every day.  Small Airplanes, Bare-boat charters, or

Staniel Cay Yacht Club

larger charter yachts with crews have been showing up all week with vacationers.  If they are from the US (probably 50%) then they are here for the Thanksgiving break.

Relaxed at Saturday Dinner

Amazing to watch how excited people are when they are on vacation.  Watching them shows me how far I've gone to the chill side.  I'm honestly not sure if that is a good thing or not.  A couple Julianne and I met from Brewster New York had an interesting comment.  We were sitting next to them at dinner.  They had come for a 4 day vacation.  "Murph" started the conversation by saying "Boy, you two look relaxed".  Later that night Julianne said "I've never had anyone say that to me before"  Cruising these island can do that to you.  More on that in a later post.

There are 3 "tourist" attractions here.  The Pigs, The Grotto, and The Iguanas.

Swimming Pigs

The pigs are on the Big Majors Spot, which is a key NNW of Staniel.  Pigs live on the beach there and will swim out to boats that come to feed them.  There are little piggys and some big scary ones.  I tried to run up on the beach to feed one of the baby pigs and a 400 pounder ran after me.  I wasn't jogging, almost a full sprint...He kept right up.  He was hungry...He is a Pig!

Thunderball Grotto is an underwater cave with some

Julianne Feeding From Tender

holes in the top that lets light in.  This is where they filmed all of the underwater scenes for the James Bond movie "Thunderball".  Cool place, but when we visited there were to many tourists to enjoy it.  Julianne and I snorkeled up to the north and found some great reefs.

The last is Bitter Guanna Cay.  Another island of Iguanas.  This one has signs "Do Not Feed".  The

Thunderball Grotto

beach was about a half mile long and very nice, secluded.  Julianne and I were on the beach and the only ones on the island.  

A high speed tourist boat from Nassau shows up.  Now there are Iguanas on the entire 1/2 mile stretch of beach.  This captain pulls in 20 feet from us.  (here's my rant....bare with me!).  15 Asians get out of the boat and start taking pictures.  I always find it odd that when Asians are in a group, they just don't ever acknowledge anyone else exists.  Very Odd...  When they are by themselves they are as friendly as anyone else.  We moved 200 yards down the beach...they followed with the cameras....we were the only ones for 5 miles...no hi or hello or wave...We got in the tender and left...(rant complete !)

Julianne in the Grotto

We checked out all of the above on Sunday.  Julianne packed Sunday night and we had our last meal with our new friends from NY.  She is the operations manager for the MLB network.  Great stories all night about major league baseball.  

Next morning, we went to the airport.  A 3000 ft airstrip with no security.  When her plane arrived, it had to be refueled.  They brought a 500 gallon tank from the marina to fuel the plane.  I'm sure it was diesel, by the tank said Jet A.  

The Yacht Club and Airline are owned by the same American.  He made his money making marine water makers....thus Watermaker Air.  I stood on the side of the taxi way as the Cessna Caravan lifted off.  I could see Julianne waiving from the window.  She was on her way back to reality...I lost my first mate!

Julianne's Cocktail Hour

Who Is the Real Pig

Pigs Can Catch Too

Christina's Pig...LOL

...Time to go spear fishing.  Ryan and Sam will be here Friday.  Then straight to Conception Island and the South Hampton Reef.  There is a cell tower on Rum Cay, 21 nautical miles away, which is our next stop, so I'll post lots of fishing pics as soon as I can.

Please, not pork tomorrow.  Happy Thanksgiving from the Bahamas.  I miss all of you!