Saturday April 26: Tilloo Cay

It was a beautiful calm day when we left Little Harbor early this morning. High tide had come and gone so it was time to get moving. Several sailboats were up and out before us as I'm sure they would have had an even bigger issue than us getting in and out of this harbor as most sailboats draw at least a foot more water than we do.

With the low winds and calm waters, it was decided that we should seek out any of the other snorkeling areas at the southern end of the Abacos as we were now turning back north to retrace our path down.

The water was mesmerizing! I'm sure I was zigzagging all over the place as I was so focused on watching the bottom as we passed over sand and sea grasses. Again just crazy clear. Sea stars and sea cucumbers were easy to see along the way.

There were two small reefs off of one of the island near Sandy Cay and then another one at the top of the same Cay. Basically we would anchor and off Steve went! Seriously? I think he must be part fish sometimes. He never seems to tire of snorkeling :-)

One of the spots was pretty good – lots of fish. Like a school of 1000 mangrove snappers. All swimming TOWARD him. Wouldn't you wonder why??? But there didn't seem to be any giant fish lurking anywhere (unlike when he saw the 5 foot bull shark at the reef the other day – yikes!)

Light winds predicted so our plan was to anchor in Buckaroo Bay near the Angel Cays. Steve checked the anchor (it was so tough to see!) and then we were off in kayaks to check out the area. Mmmm …. lots of nice rocks but no fish.

No problem, we'll dinghy to the farther away rocks. Found a nice shallow sand bar on which to anchor the dinghy – Steve headed out to 'check it out' before I jumped in (how sweet :-) )

No go again. This looked like such a promising area. Oh well, just one of the problems with being someplace new. Just have to learn the territory. Guess we just got lucky at Snake Inlet to find the many fish living around the rocks nearby. And the conch as well.

Lesson Learned today: when the winds pick up (not they were supposed to mind you), the dinghy is WAY harder to get up with waves that are trying to slap it all over the place. And the wind is coming from the East – we are on the Western shoreline. Not good.

But no problem. We moved a short 5 miles to the eastern side of the waterway and joined several other boats anchored for the night. It was quite the difference in winds and waves.

Nice sunset – good for the night ….

This is a spotted eagle ray - not a picture Steve took but this is what the two rays he saw the other day looked like. They glided along with him for a while, turned and went back then circled around again. Definitely worth the trip :-)