Days 99-103- Staniel Cay

Days 99-103 Staniel Cay

This is the blog for Wednesday, March 11th to Sunday, March 15th.
How lucky can we get—Wednesday was our third leisurely sail in three days! On the way to Staniel, we stopped at some coral reefs. John was certain that there were lobsters down there on those reefs waiting for him to come spear them. So at about noon we diverted off our course and threw out the anchor for a while. As it turned out, the lobsters were not quite ready to be speared, but John had a nice snorkel and I had a nice nap in the dinghy while he searched the reefs.
We made it to Staniel Cay in time for happy hour and pizza at Club Thunderball. Here are a collection of Club Thunderball pictures for you. They include (not necessarily in this order) the following: 1. the interior, 2. the patio, 3. the dinghy dock, and 4. Miss P.V. our favorite bartender.

Our time in Staniel was not all fun and games and hanging out in Club Thunderball. Our dinghy met with minor crisis as the rising tide pinned it under Club Thunderball’s dock. It was taking on water over the gunwales when we discovered it! The good news is that the dinghy did not sink or puncture. The bad news is that water got in the fuel disabling the outboard motor. So, John used our backup propulsion (rowing oars) to get us back to the big boat. He spent the next couple of days taking apart the outboard and drying out the parts. I got busy doing a major hand-wash-the-laundry-aboard-the-boat project. After all that, we motored the big boat over to Staniel Yacht Club Marina to purchase new gasoline for the outboard and to fill up our fresh water tanks. We found a general store in town that filled up the propane tank and had eggs, milk and butter—WOW! Documented in pictures below are the outboard repair and the boat laundry day.

On Saturday afternoon at low tide, John and I went snorkeling in the Thunderball Grotto that was in the James Bond movie. Unfortunately, we don’t have a waterproof camera so we have no pictures of the Grotto. It was, however, impressive both above the water in the Grotto and below the water on the reef. The huge limestone cave-like grotto has a big hole in the ceiling (like the pantheon) so there’s plenty of light inside. The underwater part is full of beautiful, tropical fish—queen angelfish, blue headed wrasses, sergeant majors, and lots of big blue parrotfish. The best we could do with pictures for you is this picture of the outside of Thunderball Grotto below.

Sunday morning, we decided to take advantage of the internet connection at Club Thunderball and complete our state and federal income taxes online! Yes, a bit of the REAL WORLD invaded our day in paradise. The Club was closed but we sat on the porch and hooked up to the internet anyway. It was nice and quiet. And, we got the job done!

Later Sunday, we took a hike to a lovely lagoon located on the banks side of Staniel Cay. In these pictures you can see the dark blue ocean (Sound side) roaring just beyond the peaceful little light blue lagoon. John and I climbed the limestone cliff that forms part of the divide between banks water and sound water. Wow! What a place. Staniel may be our favorite Exuma Cay.