I’ve lost track of the day of the week, and of how long
we’ve been here J
Allan Cay isn’t particularly pretty, and our anchorage here
gets ‘rolly,’ but it’s just been restful to stay put.
Allan Cay is known for its’ iguanas. They are an endangered
species and therefore protected. Once we got on shore, they seemed to come out
of hiding amongst the rocks …. there were so many of them, that it was hard to
believe they’re endangered. They thrive here! Ugly prehistoric looking creatures, but fun to
watch, as they’re fairly active and run with a wiggle (which makes me giggle).
Allan Cay iguana
endangered??
Gil tried his luck at fishing again. This time, he didn’t
lose a lure, or catch a barracuda …. he caught a remora (shark sucker). It
wasn’t all that big – maybe 2’. Gil was pulling on the line to reel it in, when
the line just snagged on something. Gil figured he had lost the fish, and would
have to dive under to free the line from whatever it was snagged on; so he put
the rod down. 15 min later the rod started dancing …. the fish was still on it!
He managed to bring the remora in. We, of course, had no idea what it was at
the time, or whether or not it was a good eating fish. It was very unusual in
appearance, as on the top of its’ head, there was a large suction cap (I don’t
know what else to call it, and I’d estimate it at being about 4”x 21/2”). We
took the fish over to Rob (on Vita), as he has a great book for identifying
fish; and learned it was a remora, and no good to eat. When Gil thought his
line had snagged, what had actually happened was that the remora had attached
itself (with its’ suction cap) to the bottom of our boat. Gil was then trying
to pull our boat out of the water! Good
tactic on the part of the remora. What was most freaky for me, however, was
that we had been swimming in the water earlier; and all I could imagine was
having one of these critters latch onto me – yuck yuck yuck.
We came to Allan Cay with Rob & Serena on Vita.
Decompressing after a series of longer travel days to get to this northerly
Exuma island; we enjoyed a euchre night (battle of the sexes – prize went to
the guys), and a movie night (A Good Year with Russel Crowe) with them.
Rob & Serena with Gil & I
Yesterday, Jorge & Kim arrived! They were followed by
Dave & Rose on Cloud 9. In celebration, the group of us (from Vita, CS’ta
Time, Cloud 9 & Serenada) shared happy hour aboard our boat; followed by
dinner. The evening was spent catching up with each other again. It’s always
good reconnecting.
Dave & Rose, Kim & Jorge, and Gil
lunch on the beach
Today, we had a picnic on the beach with Jorge & Kim,
and Dave & Rose, on Leaf Cay, the small island with the iguanas and some
ruins. We circumnavigated the island trying to get to the ruins, which weren’t
too exciting, but the view from there captured our boats in the turquoise
water. Later, we took the dinghy to a small but more sheltered beach on Allan
Cay where we met a fourth couple, Amie & Dave (from XtaSea) and just
chilled out.
Gil & I have also been whittling away at the list of
boat jobs (which seems to grow at the same rate as it’s whittled away) ….. There are boats with names like “Endless,”
and “Always Something;” which Gil speculates are owned by seasoned cruisers who
have renamed their boats. We think Jorge & Kim should rename their boat,
because they haven’t had a CS’ta Time yet ;-)
Our new dinghy has been a source for boat jobs. In our last
blog, I mentioned that we had issues raising it back up on the davits before
leaving our West Bay anchorage, so we had decided to tow it behind us en route
here to Allan Cay. That passage was choppy, causing the tow line to chafe.
Fortunately, it only chafed through about 75% …. a little too close for
comfort…. that last 25% of line saved us from losing Seabiscuit altogether. So,
we’ve been working on modifying and improving our dinghy’s hoisting system, and
also on better securing down the gas tank and oars inside it, and resplicing
the tow line! We don’t want to lose the family car.
Rob & Serena left yesterday. Rob is just having too much
fun with his GoPro underwater camcorder, and couldn’t wait to get to Norman
Cay, where there is a submerged plane wreck.
The rest of us are planning to go to Norman Cay tomorrow.
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