Staniel Cay, Exumas, Bahamas

 We had a fun, busy day.  First it was a trip into town for a bit of fresh veggies.  

Approaching the dock I noticed fish jumping in the little waves.  I stuck my camera (waterproof) in the water just to find out what was making all the ruckus!

 

After we got tied up at the dock, I noticed some sharks swimming below us!  There is a fish cleaning station on the public dock, so I'm sure the sharks hover waiting on fish cleaning tidbits to be thrown to them.

 

Walking towards the village from the public dock.

 

 

We've been here before, so we know where to go.  There are three small grocery stores on the island.  We went to two of them - the "pink store" and the "blue store".

 

Not much difference in stock, but fun to go to each of the stores.  (We don't get out much, haha).

 

 

Inside the store - I got several items that will have to last for a few weeks until we get to the next store.  (I won't whine about the cost other than to say that I paid $4 for one yellow squash!!).

 

 

On the dinghy, the view back towards the marina.

 

 

'We had to go to the telephone store - here is the lovely view.  Not bad surroundings for mundane chores.

 

 

 

And back at the boat for lunch and a bit of relaxing, 'cause, you know, this is stressful stuff!

 

 

At 2:30PM it was low tide - perfect timing for a snorkel thru the Thunderball grotto.  We've been here before - if you haven't heard of it - it was the backdrop for the 007 flick Thunderball.  Usually packed with snorkelers though - tourists are piled in speedboats and brought over from Nassau.  Today, the 4 of us had the entire grotto all to ourselves!  Amazing, but I assume the pandemic has all the tours shut down.   The red arrow marks the area where you swim under the limestone to enter the underwater cavern.

 

 

As we entered the cavern a decent size nurse shark was exiting. 

 

Inside the cavern. 

 

 

You can see the "skylights" in the cavern roof.

 

The sergeant major fish following Duane around - they are often feed bread that folks bring along.  We did not have any so they eventually gave up "begging". 

 

Here's what a swarm of sergeant majors looks like!  They actually bump into you a bit - sortof creepy feeling!

 And a lovely turtle, lazily swimming by.  A fun day!