A Tale of Two Chemists: Fish and Fowl Cays

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Fish and Fowl Cays

Fish and Fowl Cays ... Wednesday 6^th Feb 2013

From our anchorage off Great Guana Cay we took the dinghy to shore and walked to the eastern side. From the cliff top we could look down into the shallow waters. Then we attempted to descend to the beach via a truncated staircase. In other words it ended several feet short of the beach, presumably due to storm damage. Fortunately three members of the party are climbers, so they were untroubled by this challenge. After a short walk on the beach we had to reverse the wild climbing moves to re-gain the cliff top.

Our next port of call was Fowl Cay where we anchored in order to go snorkeling. The sea was pretty bouncy at the anchorage and more than one person was forced to take sea sickness medicines. Because of the bouncy conditions, Gloria elected to stay on board Cotinga while the others went by dinghy to far side of Fowl Cay. The dinghy ride was quite adventurous, navigating through the chop with wild spray. We shared the mooring ball with a nice family from Canada. They were full of praise for the awesome reef. Although the water was pleasing at first, it quickly became chilly. We were grateful for our wetsuits. The snorkeling conditions were great. The colorful fish (including stoplight parrotfish, trumpet fish, Nassau grouper, blue tang) competed for our attention with the amazing stony and fire corals, sea fans and sponges. The highlight was spotting two turtles.

After a quick snack, we sailed from Fowl Cay to Elbow Cay with Gunther taking the helm. He quickly mastered the GPS chart plotter and skillfully avoided Porgie Rock. It appeared that he fully enjoyed the sailing experience. Once we had anchored it was time for afternoon coffee in the cockpit while enjoying the view and the sunshine.

Gloria and Bridget

26 30 30.7 N, 76 58 58.0 W