Chub Cay

We stayed an extra night in Chub Cay due to weather predictions of the wind direction and speed for the day. We decided to take it easy and relax in the clear, cool waters of our anchorage. We enjoyed spending our day swimming around and collecting starfish and searching for conch that we could eat. Unfortunately, there were tons of starfish which meant that most of the conch shells we found were empty. By the afternoon, we had found only four young conchs and tons of starfish. I enjoyed diving down to collect them for a pic and liked all the various patterns and colors that each starfish had to make them an individual. However, they didn't have as brilliant colors and patterns outside of the water. I recalled the fact that starfish are very difficult to eradicate and found that when they are left out of water for a little while they lose their water and replace their cavities with air. Then when they are returned to the water, they actually float on the surface until the starfish decides to release the gas that has built up inside their bodies via pores in their arms to allow water to return into their body cavities, which results in them sinking to the bottom of the ocean or water. When we had the conch inside of a water bucket, we noticed some that would extend their eye stalks out of their shells and look out at us. It was really interesting to see them shrink quickly back inside their shell having the entire shell shake after the organism retracted or retreated into the safety of its shell. We even got to see almost the entire organism slink out of their shell and I was reminded of an alien face. I saw long eye stalks with a long nose-like protrusion from the center of their face, and a long scythe-like toe nail at the end of their foot. I never saw what conch looked like before and I was completely fascinated by them even with their thick, slimy, mucus excretions. I was able to see how long they actually are inside their shell and was amazed at how fast they move in and out of their shells. I was able to catch a little bit of this on video and even take some still shots, which I totally felt like it was a National Geographic moment. It was so cool! Later that day we saw two sting rays and a barracuda hanging out under our bow with a couple of fish following them for scraps. I was surprised to see them all together for such a long period of time, but then again I shouldn't have been too surprised as we had canned chicken for lunch and I poured the water in the can down the sink, hence chumming the waters for marine life to come thinking there was food around. We enjoyed our time being the only boat in the area, but when twilight comes we know that we have to retreat ourselves back into the cabin no matter how hot it is inside because of the bugs that come out to feed at that time. We had a very nice and relaxing day at the Chub Cay anchorage. We got the boat ready to leave the next day. It turns out that the prediction was incorrect and we would have been fine making our passage down to Nassau, but the next day was better due to a little wind to allow us to put out our sails and help us travel faster. On a different note, the mint plant that we bought back in Miami was out in the sun during our passage and doesn't look like it is going to make it after all. :(