Double Breasted Cays and Thanksgiving

MOVING TO DOUBLE BREASTED CAYS AND THANKSGIVING

What a difference a day makes.  Yesterday had squalls and gale force winds, today the sun is out and seas are calm.  Actually, the winds died down yesterday evening around dusk leaving Kathi just enough time to go explore the shoreline at our anchorage.  As I prepared dinner, Kathi swims back with our first three lobster of the season.  She said there had to be a hundred of them along the shoreline.

Wednesday we moved from Grand Cays to Double Breasted Cays; a short trip of about 4 miles.  There are several anchorages to choose from and since we have never visited this group of Cays before we chose the anchorage easiest to get to and centrally located.  We plan to be here for a week or ten days.  Another anchorage close by is more protected but the route into it shows some shallow depths and narrow passage-ways.  We will explore the route by dinghy before we move there tomorrow.

Double Breasted Cays are uninhabited and provide lots of shoreline for us to explore as well as numerous reefs offshore that can be explored by dinghy in calm weather.  This is the type of place we love; isolated, beautiful water, lots of sea life and good anchorages.  Maybe we found our paradise!

After getting Makani anchored we went to check-out the more protected anchorage we want to move to and then for a snorkel.  The path to the anchorage is narrow but easily seen in good light and has plenty of depth for us to pass through as long as we wait for a rising tide.  We decide that we will move on Thursday.  Our first snorkel here is wonderful.  Lots of sea life to enjoy watching and plenty of fish, conch, and lobster to keep us fed.  We bring back 6 conch and 6 lobster; plenty for dinner tonight and a few meals to put in the freezer.

On Thanksgiving Day we moved to our more protected anchorage, Kathi at the helm and me on the bow watching for any shallow coral heads.  The only problem Kathi had was as we went past one of the inlets to the ocean the current from the rising tide pushed the boat toward the shallows.  The route here is only about 30 feet wide with rocky shoreline on one side and a sand bar on the other.  We made it through safely then found our anchoring spot.  Our anchorage can be seen in the photo above.  In the center of the light blue area is a small cay called Sandy Cay.  The light blue is shallow sand.  We anchored just to the south-west of Sandy Cay in the small channel between Sandy Cay and the Cay to the south-west.  

Many people would expect that we would feast on lobster and other seafood for our Thanksgiving dinner.  I’m a traditionalist though; turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, biscuits and cranberry sauce for us.  We got dinner started then went for a snorkel.  Since we have all of the food we need for the next few days I took a camera rather than a spear.  I was able to get a nice short video of a nurse shark that showed some curiosity about us.  We came back to the boat and the aroma of turkey greeted us.  The smell of turkey roasting is one of my favorites.

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious as expected.  We wish we had some friends of family to share with but for now we will just enjoy each other.  We hope all of you enjoyed a great Thanksgiving wherever you are at.

Friday was a day to explore more of Double Breasted Cays; swimming along the shoreline, seeing the sea-life, and fighting the currents.  We read that this area has strong currents and we found that to be true.  In the center of the “streams” between the Cays the current is too strong to swim against, even with fins.  Fortunately, close to the shoreline, the current is very slight.  Kathi had a surprise when a large nurse shark swam directly beneath her.   After about 3 hours of snorkeling we returned to the boat for a late lunch/early supper of Thanksgiving left-overs.

Saturday is Kathi’s birthday.  Plan for the day is to get 2 lobsters for dinner to go with the steak we have, then give her a sand massage on the beach near the boat.