Tucking in for more weather

We had a nice day yesterday.  Almost no wind and the water had settled to become crystal clear.  We're still anchored in Pipe Creek.  Yesterday we got up and dingied over to Compass Cay Marina to visit Las Sirenas and check out the place.  It was very cool- laid back and naturally beautiful.  The marina is small, but well protected and the basin is deep with gin-clear water flowing through a white sand bottom and beautiful coral growth scattered throughout.  Have you ever been in a marina that you could walk the docks looking down into a life sized aquarium?   At the fish cleaning table, dozens of nurse sharks congregate in waist deep water to get an easy meal.  You can swim with them and handle them(gently)- it is pretty cool.  When we pulled in, a huge spotted eagle ray was gliding through, so we hovered over him in the dingy and got a few pics.

After a walk across the island to the beach and a burger at the marina shack, we decided to go check out Sampson Cay(a few miles to the south) and the marina there.  Esme, Haley and Esme's mom Terri fired up their dingy to go with us.  We zipped along in between several cays to get to the very well appointed Sampson Cay Marina, where they have a little general store and a cool bar.  Sampson Cay Marina is a high end stop for luxury yachts and sportfishers- the antithesis of Compass Cay.  We picked up a few items in the shoppette, some OJ for mornings and Cranberry juice for my Cape Cods in the evening.  I splurged on a Coke and a bag of M&Ms.  We dropped any thought of buying some "fresh"(frozen) meat when we saw the prices. 

As we were hanging out, we noticed the laundry facilities were pretty nice- and empty!   Expensive: $4 for a load to wash, $4 to dry, but the machines looked new and the place was clean.  So Carryn and I decided to head back and get our rather large sack of laundry and get it done(to heck with Black Point).  So we zipped back to the boat (about 10 minutes away) and gathered our laundry, soap and money.  We got it all in 3 loads, so ended up spending $28 to wash and dry(3 loads of wash and 4 rounds to get it all dry).  With the 25 bucks for beer at the bar while we waited, It was a $60 laundry day!!  But it feels good to have it all clean and back in the drawers.  We had a good internet connection, too, so we did some surfing, email and a few Majic Jack calls.  We didn't finish until about 6:30, so it was dark for the ride back to the boat, which was a little scary.  We had blazed the trail a few times already, but night time changes everything.  We had enough moonlight to know we weren't going to run into anything above the waterline, but it becomes impossible to judge the depth of the water you're planing across and it was now low tide.  I wasn't sure if any of the water along our path would bee too shallow, but with bated breath, we zipped along and made it back to the boat OK.  We were definitely in God's hands.

We were bushed and only moderately hungry, so I whipped up some leftovers: for Carryn it was impromptu fried rice out of some white rice that was in the fridge. I had leftover taco meat on tortillas.

It was a nice evening, but we turned in around 8:30.  

At mornings light, I got up to listen to Chris Parker's weather report on the SSB. He's forecasting strong winds on Thursday and then another doozy of a blow expected to hit us on Tuesday.  So it's time to start tostrategize how to hide from the fronts, but take advantage of the north winds after the fronts to start heading towards Georgetown.  

After the weather broadcast, I decided I would let Carryn sleep in and I would take some "me" time and go out to hunt.  Scott and I got skunked a few days ago, and it was burning me up that I haven't found lobster since the trip over from Nassau(in all fairness, we have only been hunting twice, since we have spent much of our time in the Exuma Park, a no-take zone).  So I fueled up the dingy, got my gear and slipped out to patrol the cut between Thomas Cay and Joe Cay(for those of you tracking on Google Earth).  It was near slack tide, so the current was just right.  I'd glide along the surface, with the little dingy anchor in hand, looking for rock ledges and coral heads that would hold the reclusive bugs.  When I'd see probable habitat, I'd dive, letting the weight of the anchor help pull me down, then drop it and start poking around looking under the ledges and in the crevasses for the critters.  At one point I was drifting along, and there I see a nice sized bug out in the open!!  He's apparently looking for a better spot to crawl into, but at this moment, he is totally exposed.  That was a costly mistake on his part.

With a rather large lobster in the dingy(with one this big, I would only need one), I shifted to sighseeing mode.  I drifted along for another quarter mile enjoying the scenery.  Incredible fish life, soft corals, sponges and thousands of spiny urchins.  Then a startling sight- I look up to see a beautiful Spotted Eagle Ray.  With a wing span of about 7 feet, he was only about 50 feet away and coming toward me.  As he got to within about 20 feet, he gracefully banked and detoured around me.  I felt so lucky to have encountered him- I must say I continued to be amazed by the beauty of this area, both above water and below.  Unfortunately, no camera to capture the moment.

Not sure what the rest of the day holds for us, but this morning will be hard to beat.