Conception Island

Waking up we thought we’d spend another day on Long Island, but the long term weather forecast caused us to change plans and head 15 miles NE to Conception Island - an uninhabited island owned by the Bahamas National Trust.  We had a great sail moving about 7 knots with winds out of the SE, crossing ocean depths of 7000 feet.  Out of habit, Sarah said to mind the lobster pot ahead. But as we got closer, the lobster pot looked like a bird with a palm frond and then it took flight revealing an extremely long, 24 inch white tail.  It turned out to be what is called a white-tailed tropical bird.  He was the first bird we’ve seen in a long while and was striking. 

We successfully navigated our way through the reef at Conception Island, anchoring with about 8 other boats in 10 feet of water about 200 yards from a beautiful beach.  Sarah was tempted to swim to the visible reef between the boat and the shore but Harry preferred to deploy the dinghy and by the day’s end, we were extremely glad we had the dinghy.  We spent an hour snorkeling the reef just off shore, crossed a path to the “north” beach where we snorkeled again, then jogged the 1.5 mile beach we had all to ourselves before dinghying back to Juno around 5:30 pm.   As we were enjoying the 6:00 pm sunset with a gin and tonic, Harry noticed two sharks swimming right under the boat. This affirmed what we’ve heard  - that you don’t want to be in the water around dusk as this is when the sharks look for food and it cured Sarah of her desire to swimming to shore regardless of how close we may be.

North Beach

Rocks for snorkeling off of North Beach