Staniel Cay

We stayed in the Staniel Cay area for 6 days - the longest in one place on this trip. It was a result of dropping off guests, poor weather and some issues with our outboard. It was the perfect place to stay for a while as it has a lot to do in the town and surrounding area, making it a favorite stop for cruisers. The most famous place here is ThunderBall Grotto, an underwater cave with a hole in the top that was used in the James Bond movie Thunderball. We spend the first few days by town so we could get food, explore the island and enjoy the restaurants. The highlights were the Staniel Cay yacht club restaurants and bars and joining Lawerence who held an outdoor BBQ lunch that was amazing. We rented a golf cart and explored the island and loaded up with groceries on the way back. Groceries on the islands are not like at home. They are very small stores with super limited selection. If you are lucky enough to have had a delivery boat come in, you may get fresh produce. About day 3 of our visit there was a strong storm system forecasted. Weather is critical when you are a sailor and drives a lot of your activities and locations. This storm had forecast winds around 50knots (80KMH). We were pretty nervous as it was our first big storm. The winds for us were about 40 knots but it was still very intense. After the storm we headed to Guana island where we saw the Bahamas Iguanas - this is the only place you can see them. There were also some amazing sandstone cliffs. We also made a quick trip to Black Point about 5 miles away. This cruiser friendly town is a great stop and we had dinner at the famous Loraines. She ran the same restaurant when I was there 25 years ago. You cannot visit Staniel Cay with our seeing the original swimming pigs. We made a quick stop to feed the pigs and watch them swim to the boat. Ric and Laurie left at this point after 2 weeks with us. It was an amazing time and we will miss having them onboard. Sue and I moved over to a new anchorage Big Majors for our final day before we start our journey south. We are planning to head on a big sail (50 miles) to Long Island before ending up in Georgetown to meet our next guests.

Video from the storm