We have a busy day today to get all the activities accomplished before heading back to Nassau tomorrow.
First on the agenda is feeding the famous swimming pigs at Big Majors.
This used to be a cute pastime for cruisers anchoring at Big Majors but now is a major commercial enterprise. Cruise boats from Nassau run down here offering $4000 a day cruises to see and feed the pigs plus snorkle Thunderball grotto which we will do next.
Rivah was very interested in the pigs as well.
From what we know, Big Majors is where "feeding the swimming pigs" started, but we noted when we were anchored off Nassau waiting for Jackson that there are pigs off Athol and Rose Cays just around the corner from Nassau where day tours take tourists from Nassau.
Next on the agenda is diving at Thunderball Grotto, the site made famous in the James Bond Thunderball movie. Again, because its a protected area with no fishing allowed, there are plenty of fish here.
Normally you dive here at mid tide with slack current times, but we didn't have the luxury to time our visit. The current was running quite strong, but the advantage was we basically had the grotto to ourselves. It can be very crowded at peak times.
Into the grotto. You can dive and swim underwater (as James Bond did) through 2-3 entrances to the inside open area, or you can carefully work your way through a narrow crack in the rocks just wider than your shoulders while keeping your head above water. We took that entrance.
There are several holes in the roof where daring folks jump into the grotto. The water is over 10ft deep inside so plenty safe. We skipped that.
With the sun shining the grotto views are pretty spectacular.
This is the underwater entrance on the backside of the island.
Just inside the narrow opening, they have run a rope to the far side of the grotto. This was very handy in the strong currents we experienced. It let you hang on and stay in one position to observe the fish.
These fish are used to being fed by tourists and will congregate around you if they think you are going to feed them.
Initially most of the fish stayed away from us until Sue broke out her jar of cheese. Then they scurried over.
Last time we were here folks were putting Easy Cheese spread on their diving mask and the fish would eat it off. These fish wouldn't come to our face, but they congregated just in front of us.
Thunderball Grotto is really the highlight of the whole trip. We were fortunate to have the right weather and sea conditions to have a great visit. But it was soon time to head on back to the mother ship.
We have one more activity to get in this afternoon before departing tomorrow. A visit to Sand Cay off Big Majors. This is a small island with no inhabitants (other than the tourists from the megayachts that park offshore) but beautiful beaches and some shells and palm fronds for Sue to make baskets.
This was also a great place for Jackson to fly his drone and get some great videos and photos.
I guess I have to get one of these drones for great videos of the boat. Jackson tells me flying from a moving boat is near impossible since the drone is remembering where it took off from. You really have to have someone from shore flying the drone.
He has some great videos that I can't add to the blog. You will have to visit him.
Here's a shot of Sand Cay from the drone. You can see the megayacht anchored offshore. Tides Inn is the little white dot astern of the megayacht.
There were several immature conch living among the rocks on the left shore. Sue found a couple empty conch shells here.
Walking along the sand spit - photo from Jackson's drone.
And lounging on the beach.
But all too soon, it was time for another sunset after a full day.
But after sunset, it is game time. We did a different game each night ending this day with Skipbo, requiring a review of the directions.
Tomorrow its a motorsail back to Nassau. Its been a fast week, but with plenty of activities.
