Double Breasted Cay, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

 We decided it was time for a change in scenery and to start our slow sail northbound....light wind sailing - fun and slow. 

 

Just passing Hog Cay, we decided to drop the sails, anchor, and investigate what appears to be a coral area out about 3 miles from shore.  We'd seen the shallow area marked on the nautical charts and visually from the boat it appears to be a large "dark area" usually indicating coral.  No way to be sure other than to go take a look.  

 

In choppy wavelets we dropped the dinghy to investigate....unfortunately the "dark" area was just sea grass....no coral at all.....worth a look - back to the boat, hoisted sails back up and were on our way in less than 15 minutes.

 

Anchored with 4 other boats at Double Breasted.  Beautiful flats here.

 

Were hoping that we could snorkel the outside reefs in the light winds...but there was still an easterly swell running.  We opted for some inside, protected snorkeling.

 

Nice coral with lots of life.

About 15 feet down on the open sea floor, we spotted a slipper lobster.  We hadn't seen one for several years.  They are a different variety related to the spiny lobsters we catch - they have no claws and small antenna.  They are edible but we left this one to grow a bit.  Weird looking creatures!

 

The sun was at a good angle for nice photos in the shallows.

 

And Duane speared a very nice Nassau grouper!  (Sorry for the fuzzy photo - I'm really going to have to remember to take along a fresh rag to wipe the salt water off of the underwater camera lens.)  This one was a fighter - he tried to swim into the coral and escape.  We had to attach a line to the spear pole, I maintained pressure while Duane swam down to pull the fish out of the hole he was hiding in....good workout!