Lionfish and Sharks and Pigs, O my

Saturday the 11th we arrived back at one of our favorite spots, Staniel Cay!

And we just happened to walk in during a Lionfish competition.  Lionfish are small fish covered in poisonous barbs.  Because of this they have no natural predators and are over populated.  The Staniel Cay Divers sponsored an event to help fish them.  

Two teams caught over a hundred Lionfish that day with spears.  We arrived for the good part, the music and Lionfish cooking competition.

As people were gutting the Lionfish a bunch of sharks came to feast on the scraps.  They were circling all around the fish table and really big.  We have never seen so many sharks even at the Nassau Aquarium.

The band was an acoustic duo that played a lot of songs we liked so that was really cool.  For the cooking competition 5 chefs made 5 distinct dishes and everyone was given a plate to taste and vote.  There was a onion and pepper fish, jelly sauce fish, curry fish, teriayki fish, and our favorite and the winner, a sweet and sour fish.  Mmmmm they were all served over rice and delicious.  They were also selling Lionfish cookbooks and serving free drinks.  The winners of the competitions received over $3500 in total prizes.

Staniel Cay Divers sure know how to throw a party!

We fed our left over rice to these hungry fish.

As we mentioned before, our underwater camera never came into George Town.  So we bought a disposable underwater camera at Staniel Cay to take pictures of Thunderball Grotto.  We need to get them developed so we still can't post pictures of the amazing, fish filled cave.  We hope the pics turn out.

We left Staniel Cay Tuesday and stopped just around the corner at Big Majors, home of the pigs!

We noticed Thunderball Grotto and Big Majors were a lot more crowded this time with visitors, but this piggy must have slept through his last meal because he was hungry!

As soon as we got to the beach he came running out and would sit with his mouth open waiting for us to drop Graham Crackers in.

Then as we tried to feed the other pigs he got a little rude.  He would follow us and nudge his nose into us and  once he even bit me and then Christine!  It was just a nibble on the thigh with no teeth but it was still surprising.  Most the pigs were so well behaved.

Me in a stare down with fatty.

Our old friend baby piggy. 

Then as we were about to leave, the trouble maker thought we were holding out on him and tried to jump in our dinghy!  I had a cracker in my hand and had to yell for him a couple times before he got out, although we think he was stuck for a second.

We said goodbye to the pigs and continued north.

Our next few destinations were just beachy islands we decided to anchor at instead of skipping them.

We stopped at Thomas Cay which had an odd make shift hut that said "Pipe Creek Yacht Club"

From inside the "Yacht Club". There's our boat.

We found a few conch laced trails that led into the jungle island.

We crossed to the other side after a short safari.

Here's our boat from the top of the jungle with our kayaks landed on the beach to the left.

Next we kayaked over to Joe Cay!

It was a small cay that was mostly sand and had a few tiki huts in the middle.

Welcome to my island!

And Mrs. Joe

We then found out why it was so sandy with huts and a single dock in the middle.  It was private.  Kicked off our on Cay, shucks.

We kayaked back to the boat, kinda.  We actually got stuck in the strong channel current going out to sea but managed to land on the other side of Thomas Cay that we found earlier.  We then had to carry our kayaks through the safari and then kayaked back to the boat.  It was quite the work out for two lazy beach bums.

From Thomas Cay we anchored at Pipe Cay and then Belle Island near Cambridge Cay.  We attempted to anchor at Cambridge but the mooring balls took up most of the anchorage and we didn't know how to obtain a mooring.  (We later found out that there is a drop box on the beach that you just put $15 in for a mooring)

From Belle Island we slowly sailed to Warderick Wells Cay which is where the Exuma Land and Sea Park HQ is and Boo Boo Hill.  

This is where we currently are.  We hiked Boo Boo Hill again and saw our spray painted log with our name on it still there.  This time it was high tide and we had to cross a small 2 foot high stream.  Then we did a little snorkeling around Emerald Rock.

We went to the main office and after some thought coughed up the $35 for a mooring ball and one day of internet.  It had been 8 days since we had internet and we don't want anyone worrying out there :)

Next we will visit a few more Exuma Cays before hopping over to Eluethera by July 1st which is about when we should have internet again.

The Exumas: Allen's Cay Iguanas and Boo Boo Hill

The Exumas are supposed to be the most scenic of all the Bahamas.  They are not disappointing!

Our first stop was Allen's Cay which has wild endangered iguanas.  As soon as we beached our dinghy they came out like zombies and surrounded us.  They looked pretty friendly though so we played with them for awhile.  You aren't supposed to feed them but we found a piece of fruit on the ground so we figured that was okay.  You could tell they were used to getting fed cuz they all came out and had fun eating the fruit we smashed up.  They even ate some out of Christines hand.

Our next stop was Normans Cay. They were supposed to have internet and cheese burgers which we were excited about.  Sadly their internet wasn't working and the cheeseburgers cost $18 each!  We don't have a fridge on board and can't catch fish or lobster so when everything you eat is out of a box or can, a burger is the world.  They were not worth $18 though and we left unsatisfied.  We explored some and then decided to move on.

I was able to dive down and see our anchor nice and snug

We took a short trip down to Shroud Cay where we heard a lot of good things about.  This Cay had more beautiful water and secluded beaches.  We inflated our kayaks for the first time and did some exploring by water.  We even saw our first shark!  It was about 2-3 feet long, maybe a reef shark or nurse shark?  It wasn't that scary since we were in our kayaks and I was hoping to see more.

We tried to kayak up a river we were told about that lead to a nice beach but the wind was in our face and it was low tide so we had to drag our kayaks across land, so we turned around.  Anyone else who tries this river should go at high tide.

The next day we continued south to Warderick Wells Cay.  Our goals were Boo Boo Hill and internet.  We were let down again when the park lady told us that the internet was only for mooring ball holders.  That would be $15 plus $10 for one day or 100mb of internet.  We had a lot to do online so we would each need our own account, so we passed on the $35 for one day of internet. We were getting nervous now though knowing that it had been 12 days since we talked to anyone and family worries.

A whale skeleton!

We did succede with our other goal of Boo Boo Hill though.  This infamous hill of the Bahamas used to be covered in water and was a shoal a long time ago.  An unlucky ship wrecked here and everyone died.  The legends of their ghost resulted in the name Boo Boo Hill.

Now a days all passing cruisers stop by to pay homage by writing their name on a piece of driftwood and adding it to the pile.

The view is also spectacular from the top and we could see our boat anchored.  It's too tiny to see but it's in this pic.

Some cruisers get real fancy with their name but all we had was a bottle of spray paint so we did our best. The four sides of this log say "SV" "Bright" "Eyes" "4/11"

Eager to continue on to Staniel Cay,  the George Town Regatta, and some internet, we left the next day.  Anything we miss now we can always visit on the return trip.

We are currently anchored in Staniel Cay next to the famous Thunderball Grotto!  We were lucky enough to get internet from our boat but at a price. $25 for three days, each.  Crazy but I guess thats supply and demand. Plus we get 750mb each instead of 100 per day.  Once we are done catching up with people and lame land life chores we will explore this wonderful island.  We plan to stay here until we move to George Town for the Regatta on April 18th!

Rose Island is Awesome Island

We are still here!  Sorry but the internet has been unavailable since we left Nassau on March 27th.  Hopefully you can see our SPOT progress to know we are OK!

We had some more fun in Nassau and even broke out some toys we had to keep us entertained

Nala celebrating St Patrick's Day

Christine is sprouting again

We set up this cheap dartboard we had.

Star Wars Monopoly!

Three or four huge cruise ships would come in almost every day in Nassau.

Beautiful Christine

I got an acoustic guitar from the pawn shop

A barge pulled up in front of Paradise Island next to us and gave a sweet fire works display.  I think it was the closest we been to the launch pad and was a lil scary that flames wouldn't rain on our boat.

Potters Cay is a must visit in Nassau.  It is two streets of packed in local food vendors.  The record was 8 conch fritters for $2. Yum!

These catamarans full of people would always pass us and we would find out later where they were going...

Nala looking for pity

We got all our chores done in Nassau and finally bid it farewell.  We decided to anchor outside of Nassau before heading to the Exumas the next day.  However the anchorage was rocky so we moved a little further north to Rose Island and stumbled upon the best beach yet!

The water was the clearest we've seen and we were able to anchor so close to the beach that we could jump off the boat and swim to the beach.  We finally got over our fear of swimming in the water because this is where those catamarans full of people were! 50 plus people were swimming and snorkeling not far away.  So we hoped in and had some fun in the water!

There were also plenty of palm trees and a trail to hike

We finally learned to snorkel and I got to use our spear.  I need a lot of practice though.  I hit a few fish but they just spun around and then swam away.  Then I saw a decent sized sting ray below me and got out of the water. I think the fish went and got a body guard.

We used our metal detector with no luck.

This island a mile away looked so perfect but when we dinghyed to it it had a sign saying private and to call about renting it.  We want to buy it!

We explored the island and loved Rose Island so much that we stayed there a whole week.  Our dream location finally arrived.

On Sunday April 3rd we decided to move on to the Exumas because we heard there is a Cruisers Regatta in George Town in April that we don't want to miss.