2-14, 15, 16 Uninhabited Island Bliss

I am a little out of order on my blogs sorry. Getting pictures to upload has been a challenge. I post what I can.  We lost power and internet last night and it is 12:30 and we now have it back.

2-14 through 2-16 Double Breasted Cay and Sand Cay

After we left West End we had a flotilla of 4 boats heading to Sale Cay.  Surprisingly we knew Hard Dock Cafe and Tidings of Joy. It was so good so see them both again.  Sale Cay is a very protected anchorage on an uninhabited island that most people stop at. From there you start for your destination.

On the way to Sale Cay we caught dinner. At Sale Cay we were enthralled by the clear water and couldn’t wait to go snorkeling.  We thought it might be a good idea to wait to clean the fish and dump the bloody bucket of water AFTER we swam in case ol’ sharky wanted to come check it out. There wasn’t tons to see snorkeling but the water was crystal clear and refreshing. As an added bonus our baths were done after we did a quick wash in the saltwater and freshwater rinse on the back of the boat.

Scott ever ready with his “Hawaiian Sling” Looking for a fish to spear.

After to swim, I learned to clean a fish. I didn’t do too badly…..we actually had some meat left to each when I got done. 😉

Cleaning my first fish.

We chose to go north to the Northern Abacos Islands.  There are 7 of them with only 2 that are inhabited. On our way to Double Breasted Cay we got a feel for what it was like traveling in the Bahamas.  Lots of rock and shallow spots.  We had to follow the charts closely.

Rocks, Rocks everywhere.
Look at the color of the water. Beautiful but deceiving. The light color has a sand bottom, the dark can be either rocks or grass. We had to be very careful coming into the anchorage at Double Breasted Cay.

We got into our anchorage safely  and had to do a Bahamian Moor. Where we put out two anchors one to the Left and one to the Right due to strong current the runs back and forth between the Cays. (BTW: Cay is pronounced “Key”)

 

Scott placing our second anchor.

After we got settled we did our usual and dropped the anchor to go exploring.  There were many many Islets that were mostly covered  in mangroves. There was a strong current between them. We were glad we have a 15h motor on our dinghy.

The current was so strong you can see it.

On our way back to our boat we saw a shark running along the drop off of the sand bar.  Of course I had just put my camera down, but I got a few shots off.

Before we went back to the boat we stopped off at Sand Cay where we found a few new treasures.

I found this conch looking shell, but it is has a much thicker shell and the underside is brown, not pink. Huh?

There are conch shells all over the Sand Cay.  This area had a higher concentration because there is a fire pit near by made out of them etc.

 

The Islands and Cays are obviously made up of old coral reefs.

Here is a closeup of the rock on the islands.

Found this tiny purple fan in the shallows.

My new favorite shell.  It is called a Sea Biscuit.

Here is what a live Sea Biscuit looks like. There are tiny spines all over it. Those spines pick up all kinds of debris to camouflage itself.
This is one of very few trees on Sand Cay. Can you tell which directions the find hits it the most?
This rock has a small tree sticking out of the top. At high tide it is an islet. At low tide it gets connected to the shore by the sand.
Here you can see the shore of Sand Cay on the left and the sand bar that loops around all the way out to the Islet with the tree. We walked all the way out there at low tide.
We found some neat pieces of coral and we also found sharky again swimming along the drop off. It is really thrilling to see a shark in the wild when he is out of reach of biting you.

As you can see we made the best of the windy weather and made it to shore everyday to get some walking in and to explore.

Thanks for reading,

Scott and Karen

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