On Tuesday, April 29, after we finished our morning school/chores and were getting ready to leave Kosmos, it started raining hard — we did not want to be out in that kind of rain.

When it stopped, we checked all the rain forecasts to see if more was coming. They all said more rain, but conflicted with when it would hit and how hard. The clouds in the distance looked ominous, so we played it safe and stayed onboard for the whole day. It did indeed rain hard again, but not until the evening.

On Wednesday, it rained lightly in the early morning, but cleared up by mid-morning. After school and chores, we went to The Grotto. It was windy, and the ride over was a little bumpy and wet. 

We anchored near The Grotto entrance, got our gear on, and jumped in. We took this video because we thought the sound was funny. We had no idea that it was significant.

Here were Keith and Christi entering the mouth of The Grotto.

And this was going into the cavern portion. The above-water portion of the entrance had been too small (at that point) to see inside the cavern, so once we emerged from the water, we were surprised at how large the cavern was. It reminded us of the Cathedral Caves in Rock Sound, Eleuthera.

There were a lot of fish, and a lot of varieties of fish.

There was a large, really cool looking, mostly underwater entrance on the other side of the cavern. Eric and Keith eventually went through it. It led them to the opposite side of the little island from where the dinghy was. Rather than swim against the current to the main entrance, they went back into the cave through the same hole. The sliver of light in the photo is what you could see of the mouth from above the water, the video was below the water. Sorry about the sideways video.

There was a tour group there while we were, and the tour guide pointed out another mostly underwater entrance off in a nook of the cavern that we likely would have likely missed. Eric and Keith both went through it. When they popped out, they were close to the entrance — they realized the underwater hole was where the farting noises had been coming from. Aha! They went out the side hole and back in the main entrance several times.

When we decided we were ready to go, we exited together into the transitionary area between the first and second videos. The tide was much lower now than it had been when we’d arrived. Eric and Keith saw there was another path between the rocks through to the back side of the tiny island. They scoped it out and said there was no sea life in there.

In that interim area, we also noticed this cool rock formation that we hadn’t noticed on our way in.

After returning to Kosmos, Eric saw a tikki bar floating near the cruiser’s beach. He hopped in the dinghy and went went to check it out while Christi made dinner. Several cruisers were already there and several more came while Eric was onboard.

A local just had it built and was testing out the engines and other equipment prior to stocking and launching her new business venture. The cruisers all gave her feedback — like add more cleats for dinghies, etc. Hopefully, it’ll be up and running soon.

Here was the sunset.