Limin' in Big Majors

We have decided to hang out at our anchorage at Big Majors Spot for several more days for several reasons - a) because we love it here; b) because it is a great place to explore all the numerous cays, beaches and Pipe Creek; c) there is some nasty weather expected and our anchorage is pretty protected from East winds; and d) the mail boat comes in today so maybe, just maybe, the mail that September Song ordered 5 weeks ago may come in....although we're not holding our breaths!! That should tell you something about the "island time" over here!!

The other night we hit "goat beach" (yes there is a pig beach here too....) for our bonfire - we spent the afternoon in at the beach hard at work collecting firewood (OK maybe there was some time for relaxing too!!)

Pre-bonfire Beach Party

Not only were we joined by Jack and Susan from Freya but they invited some friends of theirs on What Daze It and Independence. We had a great evening with old and new friends - there's just something really cool about hanging out on the beach and drinking tasty island drinks (think rum punch) around a bonfire at night - made me think of many nights as a teenager up on Strawberry Island in Kennebunk Beach!! Jack took over Brenda's (and then Norm's) role as the pyro du jour and kept our fire blazing well into the night!! Not only were we humans having a ball, but Independence brought their Portuguese water dog named Blue and What Daze It brought their two jack russell terriers - I don't think I even caught the name of the second terrier because Stephanie and I were laughing so hard - the first dog was named HID which stood for hearing impaired dog (yes the dog was deaf and I swear to GOD you just can't make this up!!!)

The next day Doug and I went beach hopping again and wound up back at our little "perfect beach" sitting with our feet in the water and our toes in the sand!!

That night we had dinner on Freya, which is a beautiful sailboat. Jack valet parked our dinghy (you get off on the side of the boat where there is a set of stairs and he walks the dinghy to the back of the sailboat where it gets tied off!) and then we were treated to a wonderful meal out on the cockpit. We watched a beautiful sunset although we didn't get a repeat green flash as there were too many clouds. We did get to see how different life is on a sailboat compared to our life on Gypsies - we have so much more storage space for food, clothes, etc, we have the "luxury" of a big refrigerator and even a freezer and an ice maker, and we have much more living space as well. Now we "pay" for these luxuries by having to run a generator to recharge our batteries (whereas Freya simply uses a windvane and solar panels) and we pay for the diesel and water stored in our big tanks (over here they charge for water and our watermaker still isn't working right - ugh!!!) On boats, there are always tradeoffs but the good thing is there is always a boat to fit whatever your style of cruising!!!

Yesterday we set off in Hobos (our dinghy) along with Half Note (September Song's dinghy) to explore Pipe Creek - Godiva and Cassie, the September Song boat dogs, came along for the ride. We bombed through cuts and passed gorgeous uninhabited Cays (pronounced Keys) along the way. At one point we slowed down to get our bearings and Godiva, thinking we were at the beach, jumped over the side to go swimming - oops, we weren't there yet so Bob had to haul her back in the dinghy - we think she was a little embarassed. We headed up past Sampson and Compass Cays and finally hit a beach so the dogs could explore and play a little! The next stop wound up being this wonderful little sand bar out in the middle of nowhere between Hattie's Cay and Little Pipe Cay - what a beautiful spot. I know the pictures won't do this justice, but the sand was crystal white and the waters surrounding the bar were so clear and sported about 20 shades of blue!!! Godiva loved the sand so much she proceeded to roll around in it while Cassie was intrigued enough to swim and follow the line on an old anchor - they sure make us all laugh!

Godiva rolling in the sand

Next we went on to circle Little Pipe Cay which had a very cool stone chapel and some great houses - it is a private island so we couldn't go check it out on land....oh well.

Chapel on Little Pipe Cay

Little Pipe Cay

We found yet another beach where we threw the ball for Godiva until she was worn out and had a stone skipping contest just like when we were kids (Doug won although Bob and I had some pretty good throws just not at the right time!!) By then we were dreaming of burgers so we brought the dogs home, changed and headed over to Club Thunderball for burgers and Kaliks - what a great way to top off a perfect day. But we weren't done yet - after the burgers (yes Mom we waited 1/2 hour for our food to digest), we snorkeled Thunderball Cave/Grotto.

Thunderball Cave

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and we hit it right at slack low tide so we could snorkel right through the cave. The fish and corals were absolutely awesome! Bob had discovered the day before that the fish really liked string cheese (who knew????) so he figured he'd try his left over french fries - big hit!!! He was surrounded by a pack of apparently very hungry sergeant majors!!!

Bob feeding the Sergeant Majors
The fish were plentiful

Angelfish

Spanish Hogfish

Parrotfish

Schoolmasters

Sergeant Major

This morning was devoted to boat chores and maintenance but the plan is to head in to Staniel Cay after lunch in search of September Song's mail and to catch up on blogs and email. The current odds are running 20 to 1 against them ever seeing their mail again, but who knows....they may get lucky. Tonight dinner is on Gypsies with September Song and Freya....what else would we serve but mahi!!!

Click here to see a Google map of our location at Big Majors Spot.