Day 158, Year 10: Chickens and Piggies and Sharks . . . Oh, My
Date: Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Weather: Sunny, Light NE Winds
Location: Anchored at Big Majors (near Staniel Cay), Exumas
Here’s hoping your St. Patrick’s Day was a lucky one. Our day was full of fun, so I’m feeling like the luck of the Irish was with us today. Our friends Kevin and Claire arrived safely and on time . . . Mark flew off to Fort Lauderdale without a hitch . . . we saw all sorts of animal life . . . attended a cruiser beach party . . . and at the end of the day, we had cabbage, potatoes, and Martha’s Vineyard sausage for dinner.
Mark and I went in the dinghy over to Staniel Cay around noon and had lunch in the lovely little restaurant at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club. The restaurant is very nice and the prices aren’t too bad for lunch. Dinner looked too pricey for us, but we would certainly do lunch there again. In the same building is the Yacht Club bar which is rustic and just right for cruisers. After lunch we sat on the front porch of the bar in the colorful wooden rockers and got on the internet. While I was on the computer, Mark went for a walk down the dock and quickly came back to get me. A boat had come in laden with lobster and the local population of harmless nurse sharks gathered in the shallow water by the Yacht Club dock looking for handouts. There were also a couple of stingrays and was really a beautiful sight watching them swim slowly through the water just off the dock. I don’t love sharks, but these guys were so docile that a couple of people walked in to the water and petted them. I’m not sure I’m ready to try that, but I enjoyed watching the show. It was then time to get in the dinghy and go around to the airport. Kevin and Claire arrived fifteen minutes early which gave them time to visit with Mark before he flew out. K and C stayed on the Greenbrier Hotel in my home state of West Virginia this weekend and they brought chocolate and nibbles from there for us to enjoy. The people in the gift show recommended that they bring us coal and moonshine, but the chocolate was a much better idea in our opinion! We left Mark at the airport before his plane left but by the time we got to the Yacht Club, we watched the Watermakers plane flying overhead. We took the dinghy to the dock where Mark and I had seen the sharks and rays earlier and they were still there. It was quite a different feeling to sit in the dinghy surrounded by sharks, but they were not nearly so interested in us as we were in them. We got back to Windbird just in time to change into comfortable clothes for the beach party, made a quick tuna and black olive dip to take, and headed over to see the swimming pigs before going to the party. There was already a boat pulled up to the shore when we got there, so the pigs were quite happy to stay on land and be fed. We beached the dinghy and got out to pet them. Kevin enticed one of the babies into the water, but she was not a swimmer. So we will return tomorrow morning before the maddening crowds arrive and see if they will swim out to us. But it was getting late today and we headed on to a different beach that is used by cruisers as their yacht club. There were two picnic tables with umbrellas, plastic chairs, and serving tables built of wood planking. Cruisers that come here year after year have built this little yacht club and we enjoyed socializing. Just before we left, a mother hen and her two chicks walked out of the woods into the picnic area. We added them to our growing list of animal encounters for the day. And just a few minutes ago, Claire announced that there was a tiny fish in the forward head. Never seen that before. But it certainly added to our list of animal encounters. We were back on Windbird to watch the sun set and then enjoyed our Irish cabbage stew dinner. It was definitely a memorable day here.
Tonight while Mark is in Florida, he plans to call my sister Patsy to see how my brother-in-law Joe is doing. I haven’t mentioned in prior logs that he has been in the hospital since late last week. He’s there due to extremely high blood pressure and we are so anxious to get an update on his condition. Here’s hoping this St. Patrick’s Day brought him some Irish luck.
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| 150317 Day 158–Kevin and Claire Arrive |
