Staniel Cay

Today we went back to Titta Emil's Bread House and picked up some freshly baked Bahamian bread for $5. Then we went to the Blue Grocery store, which is right next to the pink grocery store, to pick up some eggs ($3.90/dozen). Then went walked back to the beach and enjoyed the cold waters during the hot morning. After cooling ourselves off we headed back to the boat and ate some lunch of bread mostly. I worked on my sketching and then we set off for Thunderball around 1:30pm because it was low tide. The moment we got into the water we had tons of fish surrounding us and coming up to us without any hesitation. Later we learned that some people feed the fish and that is why those fish were so friendly and one even brushed up against the inside of my hand. After snorkeling around outside of the entrance to the Thunderball cave we entered with a current against us, but we made it inside and looked around us at this huge cavern inside this rock. It was pretty neat, but the fish surrounding us really made the moment really cool. Schools of fish were just following us around and I suppose now they were just waiting around to get a morsel of food. I was naive in thinking these fish were just curious about us and not afraid. There were Sargent Majors, grouper, parrot fish, snapper, angel fish, and so many others swimming around us and so many types of coral with even a donkey dung sea cucumber hanging out by the sea fans. Later we found out there was so much life around these rocks because they are in a protected area and that means it is a no take zone. We took the dinghy back to talk with Dan and then picked up my camera phone so I could take a pic of Thunderball at low tide since the entrance was exposed, too bad there was now a whole group of people in the cave. Then we snorkeled around the grotto and then took the dinghy past the rapids to check out the ship wrecked on Fowl Cay and when we brought our dinghy to the beach we didn't stay due to the boat getting a little swamped from the strong waves crashing into our dinghy. We turned the boat around and bailed out a little before jumping back in and motoring out of there. We went through the rapids on the counter current side which was much calmer and we could actually see the bottom of the water, which was very deep. Then JR dropped me off at the boat and went with Dan to try and spearfish near the moorings. They turned up empty handed because the grouper were very scared and retreated into their holes when you were within 10 feet of them. I worked on my sketches while he was gone and began cooking up some fried rice when JR returned without any fish. We ate an early dinner and I did the dishes and cleaned up while JR napped. We planned out the rest of our trip and determined we wouldn't make it to Georgetown with the weather against us and my time constraints due to going back to work. Well, I have about a month left to soak up the sun and make the most of my time out here in the beautiful waters of the Bahamas. I am very lucky to have been able to go on this trip and have the experiences on Frodo.