Cave Diving and Ray Dodging in Staniel Cay

We left Norman’s Cay around 6:45am on January 31st. After much deliberation, we had decided to skip the National Park, which has authority over the seabed but not the land, much of which has been privatized, which surprised me. Exuma Land & Sea Park had mooring balls that you could pay for and few anchorages, in which you also pay for. There was also no fishing or spearing allowed and we might have had to continue on without cell service and technology. There were also not resources, like fuel and drinking water. We had heard that there are many places to dinghy and explore but we were low on gasoline for the dinghy. And while most of those factors were not deal breakers, they did play a role in our decision to sail on to Staniel Cay where there are a couple of grocery stores, trash disposal, a couple of restaurants, fuel, and drinking water.

As we entered Norman’s Cut to sail down Great Bahama Bank to Staniel Cay, there was a chartered catamaran going through the cut, the opposite direction. When we refer to chartered boats, we are also insinuating that they are inexperienced and less cautious because they don’t own the boat, unless there is a charter captain and from what we’ve observed, is rare. We knew it was a charter because most charter boats display the company, like Dream Yachts or Moorings.

Blake was at the helm as we pass them and I look back and the catamaran is spinning in what appeared to be fast 360-degree circles, one after the other. We hailed them on the radio multiple times without response, worried they have broken a steering cable. There is no “good” place to lose control of your steering but they were in a particularly dangerous place, because they were headed towards very sharp rocks. There was nothing left for us to do, and with several boats at anchor in the cut, we kept going. About an hour later, we hear chatter on the radio, two dinghies were heading out to try and assist the boat. We hope it turned out okay for everyone.

As we sailed on, we made sure to stay outside the boundary of Exuma Land & Sea Park and trolled the lure about five hours…once again, not a single bite. We dropped anchor on the west side of Big Majors Spot, next to Staniel Cay. Pig Beach, the beach with swimming pigs, was about 150 yards from where we dropped anchor, and Staniel Cay was about a mile a half around Big Majors Spot. We chose this anchorage because it was deep and protected from all wind directions except west winds, which we were not anticipating in the upcoming days.

We get the dinghy off the deck and off we went to check out those pigs and explore Staniel Cay. We met a couple named Eileen and Brown who shared that her brother was bit by one of those pigs last week and to reconsider going onto the beach to pet the pigs. Brown pointed out that under the Staniel Cay Yacht Club docks, there are sometimes up to 30 nurse sharks, that we could swim with. From that, I gathered the pigs are aggressive and sharks are docile; not what I expected. The Yacht Club had a dinghy landing, extremely helpful staff, fuel, drinking water, WiFi, and a restaurant/bar. We walked around town to see what are options were like in terms of grocery stores and to see if anyone had a bicycle tube. One convenient store, one grocery store, and one general store (where you can refill propane tanks), all sold groceries but no bike tubes.

On February 2nd, Susan, from Freya, invited us to meet them and her sister and brother-in-law, from Manitou, to snorkel Thunderball Grotto, an underwater cave. My initial reaction was excitement then absolute dread wondering if I was a strong enough swimmer and every other fear you could imagine around swimming in a cave. But I’m not afraid of being afraid and me and all my fear went snorkeling in that cave and it was magnificent!

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring beaches on the surrounding islands.

The next day we noticed on the map of the island we had received from the Yacht Club that there were walking trails. We knew the map was a little outdated due to some of the businesses listed no longer being open; but we thought, a walking trail would certainly still exist. I’m not sure if the trail had grown over or if we only thought we were on the trail but somewhere along the way to ocean side beach, I was swallowed by shrubbery. We did find our way to the beach and back out again.

We spent our final days lobster hunting and fishing and guess what, we didn’t catch anything, except for this exciting encounter with a stingray. Blake spotted, what we think is, a Southern Stingray. We gave it some space and just watched it move around. After I captured some footage, we swam towards the dinghy and Blake noticed the stingray was following him and getting closer. I thought, “Yes! I’ll be able to get a close up.” I didn’t realize Blake was actually spooked until I see that he has gotten back into the dinghy, which you’ll notice in the video. The stingray then started coming towards me and before I knew it, it was on the ground a few feet, directly beneath me. I don’t know squat about sting rays but I knew I was feeling a little vulnerable.

I tossed that GoPro into the dinghy so fast and heaved my body into the dinghy, resulting in one leg making it partly in, and hollered at Blake to pull me in. He tried to say, “Get all the way back in the water and give me your elbow and I’ll pull you in that way.” I was like, the hell you will! LOL! I demanded he pull me in any way he could. When I got in the dinghy he shared a fun fact…he said, “Did you know Steve Irwin died from stingray sting?” That was quite possibly the worst thing to say in that moment. Looking back, I’m hopeful we encountered the friendliest and most curious stingray. In the moment leading up to fear, we were certainly enamored by it.

In addition to what was mentioned, Staniel Cay has so much to offer, like freshly baked coconut bread that Blake has fallen head over heels for. The food at the Yacht Club was outstanding, especially when we got to eat on the deck overlooking the water, a distance from the drunkenly loud tourists at the bar. I do continue to wish that tourists were better behaved. I came to shore to access the WiFi to call my grandma on her 80th birthday and some drunken fool had talked to Blake earlier and learned we are from Fort Worth, TX, and as he was leaving the bar, started shouting, “Fort Worth, TX WOOOOOOO!” He would not stop until I acknowledged him with a straight face and a silent thumbs up. My heart and gratitude goes out to the Bahamians that have to bear witness to this nonsense daily. Thank you for your patience and hospitality.