Before I begin, I have a few pictures to fill in for the last few days. Kathy stopped over this afternoon and shared her pictures of our Sampson Cay lunch on Friday and last night's beach party, so here they are:
Lunch at Sampson Cay with Kay and Tommy (the photographer) from Jubilee, Marty and Matt Miller (Runaway), Rose, Patrick, Dan & Martha (Brunelle), John and Betty (Andiamo) and Pete and Kathy (Pekabu III)
There were only two dinghies when we arrived at the Saturday night beach party on Whale Beach next to the Park Headquarters, but by the time we left, we counted over twenty! Sunset was issued in by a chorus of conch horns, in true island tradition.
We may have lost an hour by springing forward today, but we packed lots in to the remaining 23. The morning was spent sharing pictures with Rose and Patrick. They had some amazing pictures of a trip they took last month to the Andes and they got the full show of the Hinckley week aboard Brunelle. We set up a snorkeling trip with Andiamo and Pekabu III for after lunch and headed to the reef near Emerald Rock. It is amazing how many fish congregate there.
We were particularly enamored of the large brain coral and the humongous hermit crab inhabiting the conch shell.
We decided to head into the main anchorage at Warderick Wells to check out the coral heads there. We no sooner had jumped in the water when we spied two large spiny lobsters doing battle! There was third one nearby, but he didn't seem to be involved. Who knows what they were battling about, and without claws they didn't cause any damage, but one certainly seemed to come out as the winner and the other "limped" away in disgrace! There were at least ten other lobsters hanging out on the coral heads we visited, and none seemed to worry about hiding from us. We also saw one of the largest rays I've seen (outside the aquarium). All in all a very successful trip.
Clash of the titans, --- a Nassau grouper is brave enough to call the winner - - -who struts off victorious!
There was lots more to see on the coral heads near the Park Headquarters.
We were back aboard Brunelle and Rose and I were preparing our contribution to the group dinner aboard Andiamo when we heard shouts from on deck. We emerged to see a sea plane about 20 feet from the boat heading for the beach! We watched the passenger deplane and be picked up by the tender from a large yacht further out in the anchorage. While we were watching that excitement we noticed that we had another visitor - a shark was lurking right below us. And to think we had all been showering and jumping in to rinse just half an hour before! Dinner and a movie aboard Andiamo was delicious and fun. We head further up the chain tomorrow, but still within the park border. ~~~_/)~~~M&D, P&R
A little evening entertainment.
Our new friend.
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