Log 8: Thunder in the Sky, a Thunderous Surprise, and Thunderball Dives

Oh Staniel Cay, where piggies swim, thirsty sailors restock, and most famously, the Thunderball grotto lures snorkelers into its stunning beauty.

• ^{_{Note: This is a bit longer blog post than usual, so if you’re new to the blog, sooorry, they’re not all this long!}}

Admittedly, I wasn’t thrilled on arrival. We sail into the large anchorage just west of Big Majors Cay across from Pig Beach, and there was a TON of boats. Preferring the more secluded anchorages, I begin to worry we have plopped ourselves in the center of a tourist trap. However, storms were approaching, strong east winds on the way (and this anchorage had good holding), and people told us repeatedly we needed to come here. So, here we are!

We settle in and start thinking of supplies we need to restock while in a more populated area. Winds picked up significantly the following day, but we’re eager to explore and restock our nets with much needed fresh vegetables. We’re also in search of a 1.5-inch zinc for our rudder because we lost ours somewhere along the way.

We swing into the dingy beach corralled by large limestone blocks, in front of Staniel Cay Yacht Club. First thing’s first… food! We pop our heads into the Yacht Club restaurant. We are pizza lovers, but don’t have an oven on our boat. Seeing pizza on the menu, I heard my sister’s voice in my head, “porque no?” We inquire about when they will restock fuel and hear that another shipment will be arriving in a couple days. Stopping at the Isles General Store, our best chance of finding a 1.5 in zinc was unsuccessful. It was a long shot anyways. We grab a few items and stop into the next small grocery store to check out their inventory.

The Bahamas receives shipments of food and other necessities on mailboats (the large boat pictured above). They run frequently, but not always consistently. With limited access to certain things, it seems almost random what the small local shops can get in stock. We’ve seen frenzies happen when the mailboats get into town. Also, “island time” is a very real thing here. Stores could be open or closed any day or time, regardless of posted hours. The second of the island’s three tiny stores we visit is closed. A fellow cruiser walking by informs us the rumor is they would be back open on Monday, maybe. On to the final one! They were closed too…

We chat with another friendly cruiser in front of the store long enough for the owner to return from lunch break. We hop inside, relieved to find fresh produce. Prices aren’t marked. Knowing things are expensive, we grab only a handful of items. We check out, and the winning number was…. $75! For what we picked up, damn that’s a lot, I thought to myself. I am stunned, but prices are like that everywhere here, so we take our groceries and head back to the dinghy. While walking back we examine the itemized receipt. I couldn’t believe it…six dollars for one bundle of cilantro!!!!! It’s 30 cents back home in Texas! I almost hit the pavement. The other item I was shocked about was ten dollars for two bundled small/medium heads of broccoli. I was going to cherish these items, use every piece of them, and vowed to ask the cashier the produce prices before checking out, every flippn’ time going forward. A squall was approaching as we zipped off on Scout back to Belafonte.

Heavy drops begin to hit our face. No! Not yet! Balancing a loaf of bread on my legs, a carton of eggs in my right hand, Scout’s handline in my left, and bags at my feet, Brendan hollers over the motor, “Well, we can go slow to make sure we don’t crack the eggs and get drenched, or full throttle and see how dry we can stay?” I spot a lightning bolt in the darkening distance. “Book it!” I motion ahead. We dart over waves, catching some air in what feels like a highspeed race. I can’t help but start laughing; getting pegged by rain drops, holding the eggs in the air while trying to hold on myself! “Hardcore grocery shopping!” I tease, tying off and scrabbling into the boat.

The following day was gorgeous, so we head west of Staniel Cay to the famous Thunderball Grotto. This underwater cave was even featured in several films such as two James Bond movies, Splash, and Into the Blue. Luckily, a filled tour boat departed as we drop Scout’s little anchor. We gear up, slide into the water, and snorkel over to the cave entrance.

The main entrance is marked with a rope you can hold onto during low tide on the way in. However, we see a man swim out from another ledge and ask where he just came from. “These two smaller holes go into the cave too,” he says with a big sunburnt smile. Well, I see light ahead; let’s go! I dive down and swim through the rock hole, following a beam of light under the water.

A second of nerves hit me as I try to differentiate where to come up for air, without hitting my head on the jagged rocks. Just to be sure, I raise my hand in the air first while I surface. “Oh wow, there’s actually a ton of room in here!” I look back underwater to watch Brendan dive down the hole and swim over to me. “Oh wow!” Brendan says looking around just as surprised as me. I laugh watching the same expression I had wash over his face.

The Thunderball is the largest grotto we’ve been to in the Exumas thus far, (and if you read the other posts you know we’ve seen a few). With about five entrances into the cave, the largest chamber features large skylight holes dropping rays of sun down into the crystal-clear water below. Small colorful reef fish cruise the rock and sand bottom inspecting the rotation of human visitors. Above, a chatty bat colony stirs. We float and dance around in the water, admiring the cave formations and long hanging vines reaching down from the skylight. For a moment, we are the only ones there. A childlike wave of bliss hits me, feeling as though we were swimming in the sapphire eye of our own shiny new world.

However, it didn’t take long before the next large boat of noisy snorkelers clamored their way into the grotto. But, it was all good. Grateful for the moment. We silently slipped out the back, diving beneath another rocky ledge popping up on the outside of the popular island. To our surprise, the outside was arguably just as beautiful! A diverse array of soft and hard corals sway in the current and reef fish weaved through them like a game of hide-and-go-seek. A seemingly carefree young green sea turtle floats by. Below us, tucked between sponges and rocks, a giant basket star lazily hides, waiting until nightfall to crawl out and catch dinner. We swim around the grotto looking for interesting critters and cool spots to linger in for a bit longer.

Remember the scene in the Little Mermaid when Ariel’s singing about her treasured land trinkets in her secret cave/grotto? Well, I swear this is it. (Once we finally start putting videos together you’ll see what I mean!) As mentioned at the beginning of this post, we aren’t fans of crowded spots. However, even with the high visitation, we loved the Thunderball so much we dove it nearly every day we were at Staniel Cay! If visiting, do be mindful of the tides – go during/close to slack tide – although that’s when everyone else will probably be there too. The current rips through there, so play it safe.

We fill the following days wandering along nearby islands and paths, stargazing, and spotting cushion sea stars and large nurse sharks circling the boat under the full moon light. However, it was also a good time to catch up on our to-do list, like tidy up the boat, run the water-maker, and do laundry – which we discovered the local laundry mat is also the settlement’s world famous “Liquor-Mat” serving and selling patrons Kaliks and rum punches as they wait for their laundry to finish. It was also nice to check out other well-known spots such as “cruiser’s beach” and visit with other transient cruisers bopping around ideas of next season’s adventures. During one of our chats with a friendly sailor named Sandy, he highly recommended we stop in Black Point – a settlement just south of Staniel Cay – even if just to pick up a loaf of the legendary freshly baked coconut bread.

Relaxing back on Belafonte after long days of exploring the grotto, running errands, and exploring the views, we conclude we might as well check out the other famed attraction here, Pig Beach. Yep, swimming pigs. There are more articles on the internet about these swimming piggies than there are boat projects on our to-do list. Well, almost – and that’s a lot – so I’ll spare some details. Point is, we weren’t planning on doing it, but it was too easy. Anchored right across from it, we can see big pigs roaming the sandy beach. We motor over and before I can even get out of the dinghy, one of the big bores, tusks chattering, approach as if it was a stick-up, groaning and sniffing us for the goods. “Nooo, sorry buddy, nothing for you here” I nervously say, keeping my fingers to myself. Then, he tried to BOARD US! “Oh heeeell no!!!” I hop out imagining the only scene I of the horror flick franchise, Saw, I’ve seen (if you know, then you know). The already patched up Scout can NOT sustain the heavy weight of pig hooves on its inflated sides!! “No no no no buddy!” Brendan yells as he hops off to draw the chunkster away. Whew, that was a close one! We check out the beach and laugh at the piggy pile in the shade and find piglets hiding and sleeping in the beach vegetation like fuzzy little Easter eggs. I have to admit, it was pretty funny and we had fun stopping by. One of the larger pigs, who had been sleeping in the sun during our arrival, finally climbed to its four chubby legs and waddled into the water to cool off. We can relate.

And just like that, the time had come to keep moving south. Although we aimed for Georgetown, I couldn’t forget the enthusiasm for Black Point that Sandy had in his voice. “It’s my home away from home,” he said. Well, it’s along the way… let’s stop there next and check it out…

~ Day 47