There and Back

Hi all,
It has been a while since I've been able to post because once we left Emerald Bay the wi-fi wasn't as good. But now we're back and it's time to catch everyone up on what we've been doing the last ten days.

Kent, on Miss Adventure, had his 50th birthday on Thursday the 18th and we were invited to join him for the celebration, so we left Emerald Bay on Tuesday to go back to Staniel Cay. We got there on Wednesday and Andrew and Sharon on Z-Raye came back from Warderick Wells on Thursday so the six of us had a great time Thursday evening celebrating Kent's birthday. Everyone's face still hurt the next morning from all the laughing.

Friday we snorkeled just off a rock to the south of Thunderball Grotto (where they filmed the movie). It was really nice.

Saturday Miss Adventure, Z-Raye, Pura Vida and Good Morning Vietnam moved north to Pipe Cay to have a pot luck on the beach. There were other boats there and it ended up being quite a shindig. Sanity, whom we'd met in Spanish Wells, and Laura D whom we'd met earlier at Pipe Cay were also there.

Sunday we took a long hike around Pipe Cay with all the revelers from the night before. Laura and Stan from Laura D have been making and maintaining trails all over the island so they were our guides. Sunday afternoon we said good bye to Miss Adventure. We and Z-Raye picked up our anchors and headed back south. We went back to Oven Rock on Great Guana Cay to explore a cave we'd read about. It was late afternoon before we anchored so we left exploring until the next day.

Monday we went ashore and searched and hunted and finally found the correct trail and eventually the cave. Man, was that cool! It goes back about 80 or 90 feet and has both stalagmites and stalactites. Not to mention a few bats. At the back it continues down under water. Some have dived it but not us.

After our cave exploring and lunch Andrew and Sharon went out with us on Good Morning Vietnam so Andrew could give us some sailing lessons. Seems kind of late in our adventure to be taking lessons, doesn't it? We are always up for some instruction on how to get the most out of the boat. Andrew is a good teacher and we learned a lot. We also did several man-over-board drills. It had been years since I had done one so it was a good thing to practice.

Tuesday we moved down to Musha Cay. This is an interesting and beautiful place. The island is owned by David Copperfield. There are several houses, cabins, pavilions and such on the island. We were anchored not far off the beach. As the island is "private", we were not allowed to go ashore. But you can rent the entire island for a holiday. You have to take it all, not just parts of it. It comes with two hobie cats, three seadoos and I don't know what else. And it only costs $38K a day but will accommodate 25.

Wednesday morning we raised anchors again, went through Cave Cay Cut and motored south. The wind was pretty much on our nose but the real reason we motored was because we wanted to fish. For four or five hours we trolled and hoped to get another Mahi Mahi. No such luck. As we turned to come into Emerald Bay, Z-Raye continued south to Georgetown. We plan on being here until Saturday when we'll move down to Georgetown after taking advantage of free showers, laundry and wifi.

When we've been here at Emerald Bay we rented a car for a day and drove to Georgetown to provision. I'm glad I rented cars in the UK the last couple of times I was there. The experience of driving on the left side of the road comes in handy here.

I'll post some pictures later after we make our run to the grocery store.

That's it for now.
 Brian