A Tale of Two Chemists: Fowl Cay Marine Preserve and Great Guana Cay

Fowl Cay Marine Preserve and Great Guana Cay … Sunday 20th - Monday 21st January 2012

As you probably guessed we spent much of yesterday afternoon watching the football conference finals. I really did want the Patriots to win and I expected to be more bummed out when they didn't - but I can't put my hand on my heart and say they deserved to win. Baltimore played harder and better and it was evident that they wanted to win a lot more. With 7 minutes to go and a15 point deficit there was a clear increase in energy and determination from the Patriots, which says to me that the previous 53 minutes they weren't playing all out. You can't win a conference final playing 90% and the Ravens appeared absolutely determined throughout. The Patriots receivers dropped too many catches and the defense weren't strong enough against the pass or the run. I'll spare you my analysis of who was good, who was bad, and why, but in my opinion they just weren't good enough or consistent enough to be in the Superbowl. Anyway it's been a blast following the games over the past several months as we made our way south. I'm sure we'll still try to watch the Superbowl.

This morning we headed out of Marsh Harbour shortly after 9am. The weather was essentially dead flat calm for the first time since our passage over and it seemed the ideal opportunity to explore the snorkeling. We motored over to Fowl Cay and anchored a couple of hundred yards off the west shore. There was a fair bit of swell and roll in the anchorage but it's hard to imagine that conditions are ever much better than we had today. We jumped into the dinghy with our snorkeling gear and headed around to the east side of the island and found a courtesy mooring ball at one of the dive sites. This was situated adjacent to a small reef, midway between Fowl Cay and the main reef to the east. This whole area is a marine preserve and there is no fishing or collecting of any sort allowed. We jumped in, dressed in our shorty wetsuits and once used to the water headed over to the reef. What we saw far exceeded my expectations. The light was great and visibility was excellent (I'm guessing 100feet). There was wealth of beautiful coral - sea fans, brain coral, all sorts - and lots and lots of fish. To say it was like swimming in an aquarium is true, but really understates just how beautiful it was. We probably stayed in about 45 minutes and would have stayed longer but it was a little chilly and we were a bit nervous about getting motion sickness in the swell. We headed back to Cotiga and had a quick lunch and then moved on to Great Guana Cay, about 4 miles to the north. This Cay has excellent beaches on its eastern (Atlantic) side. It is also home to the locally famous bar called Nippers. We picked up a mooring in the harbor and took the dinghy in to shore. A brief 10 minute walk took us across the Island to the loud and highly colorful Nippers. The location is fantastic, set up on the top of the beach on a sandy cliff that appears to be eroding pretty steadily. We enjoyed a drink listening to oldies music and looking out from the terrace and then took a walk along then beach. I managed to get splashed by a wave whilst trying to take photos - not very clever, but hopefully no serious damage.

Arriving back at the harbor made us realize just how desperate the economy is down here in the Bahamas. The harbor is small, but has a number of moorings and a sizable marina. There is one other boat on a mooring and the marina is essentially deserted. By all accounts the number of cruisers that are down visiting the area is way down from a few years ago. There just doesn't seem to be enough boaters or tourists to sustain the economy and I don't think there is much else apart from tourism. It's sad because the area is lovely, the villages are fun to visit and the sea is quite spectacular.

p.s. Before go, I do want to mention that the engine performed fine today. It seems that changing the fuel filters and tightening up what may have been a loose connection on one of the fuel pipes has solved the problem and we can now once again sustain high revs.

p.p.s. Sitting on the boat this evening in the harbor we saw a "spotted eagle ray" - we saw a tip of it's fin poking above the water and as it came closer we could see it quite clearly through the water - very cool!

Mike

26 39 53.9 N, 77 06 39.5 W