A Fool's Gambit

In the morning, we came into the Allen's Cay anchorage, and dropped a hook at 24° 44.95' N 76° 50.25' W. Allen's Cay is just one of the islands in the area, but they're collectively known as Allen's Cay anyway. The three main islands are Allen's Cay in the west, Leaf Cay in the East, and Southwest Allen's Cay to the South. They are a gorgeous set of islands, with some very pretty white sandy beaches. Leaf Cay has quite a few iguanas on it. They are truly the prototypical iguanas, genus Iguana, species iguana.

I went snorkeling the first day there, looking to spearfish a little bit. Hello, shark. He was about 5 or 6 feet long. That was the end of my snorkeling for the day. I'm not too good at my shark identification - besides, who wants to get a good hard look at the thing, anyway - but I think it was a reef shark. I know it wasn't a nurse. The next day, when I went snorkeling in the same spot, I saw a lionfish. Why didn't I take my camera with me?

The second day, we had a walk around Allen's Cay. There was a northwest wind, and it was making huge waves crash into the ironshore on the western side of the cay. I saw a two foot long brown snake. I don't know what it was. There was a termite mound. There were dozens of dead birds lying around, perfectly laid out. I don't know what that was about; it was pretty strange. Check out the photoblog entry for pictures of iggies, dead birds, and pounding waves.

The next day, we headed on to Highborn Cay. But not before I ran aground hard. I had to have a passing stranger help tow me off with their dinghy. I overstressed my engine trying to get off, and it turns out that that was the last time it would run for quite a while. More on that in the future.

We sailed over to Highborn Cay (anchoring at 24° 42.33' N 76° 49.21' W), only a few miles south, and had a pleasant, but uneventful, day or two there. The island is private, but you're allowed to land on the beaches. I never even did that. Next stop, Norman's Cay, another 10 miles or so south. It should be interesting.