March 18, 2015 Big Majors/Staniel Day 2

March 18, 2015

Tuesday: Staniel Cay/Big Major Spot

Bright and early (8:00ish) we heard on the VHF that the supply boat had come in so all the grocery stores would have fresh produce.  There are three "grocery stores" on Staniel Cay.  We found the blue one and the pink one.   Grocery store is quite a stretch---these are not much bigger than a convenience store-not something like QuikTrip but small, like maybe the size of a bedroom.

We had to watch where we walked while exploring because the golf carts were racing back and forth from the supply boat to their stores loaded with crates and boxes.  We also walked to the airport where we thought Steve would have to pick up the water maker part and where we thought we would purchase Lainey a flight back to Nassau.  (Our original plans were to take the boat back to Nassau, but we discovered this $118 flight from Staniel to Nassau for her).   Before going back to the boat, we found the Staniel Cay Yacht Club and restaurant.  We decided we had to come back here for dinner. 

After lunch and at slack tide--we took the dinghy, our snorkels, masks and fins to Thunderball Grotto.  It was here that the James Bond movie was filmed.  We were warned it could get crowded with all the mega yachts -- it was crowded.  A nice boater gave us a bag of frozen peas to lure the fish.  Jumping in with all of our gear on, we swam to the opening at the base of the rock, swam under and came up to the the inside of a cave with an opening up top that let in sunlight.  There was so much to see, the fish swimming around, the patterns of light coming through the top of the cave, and all the people.  Some brave ones were jumping in from the outside which was probably a 30 ft. drop.  We swam out under a rock and popped up on the other side and then returned to explore some more. 

Since we had the dinghy out we decided to take a look at the swimming pigs of Staniel Cay.  The pigs are owned by a local farmer and are actually not on Staniel but on Big Major Spot.  The farmer really has a great deal --all the tourists feed his pigs, leaving him to reap the benefits when these little piggies go to market. 

Our return to the boat led us to another discovery.  Our A/C had gone out and our refrigerator was gasping for life.  We could all sense a change of plans in the making. 

Joy

Supply boat loaded with goods