After we last posted at the Land and Sea Park, we spent another day hiking there, and Mom and I did some more snorkeling. There was a place with a really strong current, so we just drifted along, holding on to the dinghy line. The timing was perfect, because as soon as we jumped out of the dinghy to snorkel, a huge spotted eagle ray swam slowly past us. It was beautiful and swam so gracefully. We saw a lot of different types of coral, and it was so pretty that we dinghied back upstream and drifted down again for another look. The park was beautiful, and we plan to spend more time there on our way back north.
Our next stop was Staniel Cay. We had made radio contact with our friends on Messenger, and we knew they were anchored there. They are a cruising family we met in September when they came through Havre de Grace on their way south from Canada.
Staniel Cay is famous because parts of the James Bond movie Thunderball was filmed there. Thunderball Grotto was the most amazing snorkeling experience we've ever had. The Grotto is a cave that you can swim into at low tide and is home to a myriad of fish. The cave has some openings at the top so that sunlight illuminates the water. Interestingly, the fish are used to visitors feeding them, so they are very tame and swim right up to you, expecting hand-outs. We have heard that some people feed them Cheese-Whiz, just spraying the can underwater. Since we don't eat Cheese-Whiz, we filled soda bottles with dry rice, and squeezed a little out at a time. The fish came swarming for the food. There were two exits from the cave; one of them led to an area that had the most colorful coral we've seen yet, and the other was a place where you had to swim underwater to get out.
More to come soon!
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