Juno 423: March 14th a Staniel Cay Excursion: Light Rain Showers, a Liquid Lunch, and the Grotto

Second day in a row of overcast skies. We got some rain showers last night and occasional showers this morning. Used the fresh rainwater that had collected in the dinghy to rinse out our beach towels. Two weeks in, we are finding bathing suits and clothes that get salty, just aren't drying so we usually have some clothes pinned on the lifelines as well as down below decks on an improvised laundry line. The up side of this of course is that because we are in bathing suits most every day, there is hardly any dirty laundry.

Around 11:30, we dinghied from Big Majors the 1.5 miles to Staniel Cay and got rained on. But the shower only lasted 3-5 minutes and then was done. Staniel Cay represents the hub of activity in the central portion of the Exuma chain because there is an airport with flights to Nassau, water, diesel, gasoline, limited provisions, and the "yacht club". Once on shore, we dropped two weeks worth of garbage off which was our main purpose in going ashore, then walked through the settlement stopping at the Pink Pearl where we bought one tomato and one banana for $3.30. We stopped in Staniel Cay Yacht Club's bar just as another rain shower came through and had a liquid lunch. Several other cruisers were there hanging out as well as the yacht club is the social hub of the cay. Still overcast, we walked north to where the "rich people" live according to Happy, who gave us a lift in his golf cart that reeked of gasoline from the two tanks in the front seat he was transporting to his job site. All in all, there is not much of interest on shore at Staniel Cay - a busy airport, a dump, a fleet of five sunfish and a Bahamian sloop at the sailing school, and the Staniel Cay Yacht Club. A few stray roosters crowing, a black cat, many golf carts, and a few tourists, and I almost forgot, about 10 nurse sharks at the docks.

Around 3:30 pm as we were heading back to Juno, the sun came out so we stopped at the Grotto for a snorkel. We were the only ones there and while there was a fair amount of current, it was still possible to swim from inside the grotto through the blue hole to the outside of the grotto, and then back in. The fish in the grotto were ok - sergeant majors, grunts, and was a little disappointed we didn't see more fish on the reef surrounding the grotto. On our way back to Juno, we made a diversion to the pig beach where we spotted a long blue fish and two rays which were more of interest to us than the pigs.