Day 156, Year 10: Bitter Guana to Staniel Cay
Date: Sunday, March 15, 2015
Weather: Sunny, Winds SE turning NE 10
Latitude: 24 11.152 N
Longitude: 076 27.592 W
Location: Anchored at Big Majors (near Staniel Cay), Exumas
We said farewell to the iguanas this morning and sailed in light winds to Big Majors Spot near Staniel Cay. Big Majors Spot is a small island near the bustling settlement on Staniel Cay. Big Majors is uninhabited except for the island’s population of wild pigs and it has the best anchorage while Staniel Cay has all the ‘offerings’ such as stores with fresh produce, wifi hotspots, and the airport. So we headed here to Big Majors and will dinghy back and forth to Staniel Cay. Lee and Lynda arrived here before us as we lingered longer at Bitter Guana. When we did get here we anchored near them and then we all got in our dinghy and headed toward shore to check out the swimming pigs. We saw three Big pigs and numerous smaller ones. Mark was driving the dinghy, I was taking photos, and Lynda and Lee threw our food offerings to the pigs who swam out to get it. We had carrots, the ends of fresh asparagus, and one rotten apple cut into four pieces. The apple was by far the favorite food. We weren’t brave enough to land the dinghy as we’ve heard the pigs (some of them weighing as much as 600 pounds) might just jump in your dinghy. But before we leave here, we’ll make sure we get on the beach so we can pet them. Three years ago when our friends Heather and Jon Turgeon were here, Heather rubbed the back of one of the bigger pigs on the beach and the pig just dropped to the ground and rolled over like a dog. Today they seemed a little more aggressive than that, so we shall see. After our pig encounter, we headed over to Staniel Cay. It is probably a mile from the anchorage, but at full speed it didn’t take long to get there. We went to the Yacht Club, but there is no dinghy dock. There is a dinghy anchoring area, but since we weren’t going to eat or drink at the Yacht Club today, we traveled on. We dinghied into the creek to the south of town and tied up to the dock at Isles General Store. They weren’t open today, so we figured it was fine to leave the dinghy there and walked back across the bridge to the main part of town. We walked to the airport, checked out the other two stores in town (the pink store and the blue store), stopped by the yellow house where you can buy homemade bread, and walked on to the Yacht Club. We were blown away by the amount of fresh produce in the pink store and Ed and Lynne tell us that the blue store has even more. They weren’t open this afternoon, so we will return there on Tuesday to check out their offerings. But from our quick survey, it looks like you can buy most everything that you really need here.
Constance arrived here just as we were headed to town, but we talked with them on the radio and they invited us all over to Sundowners. Lee and Lynda picked us up and we had a fun evening on Constance. We were quite interested in Ed’s story of cleaning the bottom of his boat this afternoon in the Big Majors anchorage. He was investigated by three different sharks, the last one bigger than him and looking not so friendly. He thinks maybe it was a bull shark. He has been here before and been in the water and has never seen sharks here before. Nothing we have read talks about them being a problem here, but we will check with other people who have been here for a few days to see if they have had encounters. Ed also saw some big rays under his boat. So lots of underwater life here. The rays are fine, but I’m not crazy about sharks bigger than I am hanging around under my boat. Tomorrow we will check out the Thunderball Grotto and when we get back, we’ll check to see who is hanging out around under our boat. On Tuesday our friends Kevin and Claire arrive and Mark flies out for his whirlwind trip to Fort Lauderdale. He’ll return on Wednesday and we’ll be off to explore the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park.
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| 150315 Day 156 Bahamas–Arrival in Big Majors Spot & Staniel Cay |
