Iguanas, Jack Sparrow and swimming pigs…
We left Nassau on Monday the 22nd and spent 1 night at anchor near Rose island, we had intended on going to Allen Cay that day but it was blowing 20 knots right in our face and had 2-4’ waves that we would have beat into all day so we opted to sit it out overnight instead and the next day we were rewarded with smooth sailing all the way to Allen Cay.
It’s TJ’s Birthday today and we have no Communications of any kind, well VHF but I don’t think I can reach Albany Oregon on it! Happy late Birthday TJ!
We pulled into south Allen Cay to meet some guy from another country (probably France) anchored in the middle and was having none of us anchoring anywhere around him and since we are kind of non-confrontational (well I am) we opted to move around the corner where there was plenty of space and set Monte to work (Monte is our Mantis anchor), he gobbled up the sandy sea floor and dug in deep.
We took the dinghy over to the beach and fed the Iguanas, man they are aggressive! I had one little skinny guy almost run up my arm to get the celery I was holding but most of them just sat and waited for us to throw them some food. There was one really large pink one that was kind of docile and would take food out of your hand, he seemed docile right up till one of the others got too close then he would swing his tail and smack them with it. We had a very rough and sleepless night and we both stayed in the salon instead of the bed, but Monte did his job and never failed.
We then moved to Shroud Cay where we spent a couple days just dinking around as Jac was a little ill, we took the Dinghy through a little river that meandered through the north end of the island from the west side to the east side where it broke out to a beach that was breathtaking! I mean seriously the prettiest beach I have ever been on and we were all alone!
After a couple days resting and trying to install the water maker that is kicking my Ar$#$# at every turn we up anchored and headed for Little Halls Pond which is an island owned by Johnny Depp, we anchored just off of the beach on the SW corner. The sign on the beach was the skull and crossbones from pirates of the Caribbean and all it read was “Restricted Access” We stayed on the boat and never went ashore.
On the 27th we sailed south to The Big Major Spot (yeah its another Cay) where we went to the beach and this time fed Carrots to the swimming pigs, everyone should see this once in their life! These big spotted pigs come running down the beach as soon as a boat approaches and they swim right out to you to beg for food, pretty funny! While we sat there we saw Sting Rays, long needle fish I think called Dog fish, seagulls of some kind ummm making little seagulls of some kind on the beach(lots of them), a rooster and of course the pigs!
We have purchased net access from the local company for $10.00 per 24 hours or 200MB whichever comes first and at the speed it seems to be running I think it will be the 24 hours… The satellite login portal says to click on the link and have a drink of your Kalik (local beer) and repeat until it appears to be blazingly fast! That will take a lot of Kaliks!
Tomorrow is a trip to Staniel Cay and a snorkel into the Thunderball Grotto (look it up)
Talk soon and we will upload pictures as soon as we can get some good internet access,
Jac and John
