End of a Great Week

We said goodbye to Pam and Brad this morning after a great week of sun, snorkeling, sailing, reading, beaches and games of Mexican Train. We thoroughly enjoyed their company and already miss them. The wind across the Staniel Cay harbour created quite a bit of chop leading to very wet dinghy rides. Because we didn’t want to send them off drenched in salt water, we made a plan to move Breeze On closer to town just long enough for them to get ashore. Plan A was to tie up the the Staniel Cay Yacht Club fuel dock. Plan B (in case someone was already at the dock) was to anchor in a tight anchorage near a beach in town. There was indeed already a boat at the fuel dock so we dropped anchor near the beach. It was a short and, thankfully, dry dinghy ride to shore where Pam and Brad had a 15 minute walk to the airport. The tide was going out and the depths are shallow in spots so we said our goodbyes and did not accompany them to the airport. We returned Breeze On to the same spot we had left at Big Majors. 

Bright and early yesterday morning we dinghied over to Thunderball Grotto for some snorkeling. We had researched the tides and thought we were hitting it at low tide. It seems we might have missed it, though. There was already a strong incoming current. The fish outside the grotto were pretty and numerous. We entered the grotto and where there were still a lot of fish but they were harder to see. Brad was taking pictures with the new camera. I suggested we leave the grotto through a different entrance. Pam and I swam out against the current and turned around to look for Brad. He had been taking pictures under water when one of his flippers came off. He swam under water to retrieve it and when he surfaced the current had pushed him toward to rock wall where he hit his head hard on a low rock. Pam and I saw him as he raised his arms to push himself away. By the time we returned to the dinghy (where George was waiting) we saw that Brad was bleeding.  Once Pam cleaned up the scrapes they didn’t look so bad. We were all grateful his injuries weren’t any worse. Pam and Brad took one last trip to the beach in the afternoon and Pam had the courage to take one last salt water bath (no sharks this time!)

Thunderball Grotto

Can you find the ray?