The dawn on Monday, March 9 was colorful, and even though the moon was only half full, it was still especially vibrant:
After Christi and Keith finished doing school, we took the dinghy to Staniel Cay. We went to the pink grocery store and picked up a few items. We wanted to get a bottle of alcohol, and had been told the best place to buy it was at the Yacht Club’s laundromat. Eric went around to a small building set back from the shore on the Yacht Club’s property and saw a faded sign that said “Laundromat and (unreadable) Liquor.”
The moon was not full anymore, but still shone vividly at dawn on Thursday, March 5
We’d arranged to meet two of the families at Thunderball Grotto at 0900, which was slack high tide. We were leery about getting in and out of the cave at high tide, but they assured us that it would not be a problem and said they thought it was better to go when there was no current.
We left Kosmos at 8:40, figuring it would take us 20-minutes to get there. But even though it was supposed to be nearly slack tide, the current was strong and our little 3 hp electric motor struggled. For a portion of the time, we were only going a little over one knot. It took 40-minutes to get there. Eric was frustrated. He’s been contemplating switching to a fast gas motor for the last few months, and he announced that this was the last straw – he was buying a new motor. When we got to the cave, we could barely see the entrance. We don’t think we would have been able to find it at all had we not been there before.
As our friends had assured us, getting in was not difficult. Here was a selfie with a view of the entrance from the inside.
We did our usual routine of school and chores in the morning, then puttered around the boat in the afternoon. We met Traveler and Driftwood at The Yacht Club for drinks at 1715. They told us that the salvaged sailboat had been sold! The new owners, who they said looked like teens, had moved it to the anchorage. At 1800, the rest of the party arrived and we all went over to Lorraine’s High Tide for dinner.
On Monday, March 2, the sunrise was blocked by a cloud.
In the morning, it was very windy with on-and-off drizzle. We went to shore for bread and groceries. These birds usually moved as a flock and had an interesting wing pattern. Christi has been trying to get a photo of them flying. She’s never been successful at catching the flock at the right angle to see the pattern, but she finally caught one with its wings open so you can kind of see the pattern.
Thanks to the full moon, it was an extra-low tide, and we were surprised to see there were a lot of conch shells along the part of the shore that was normally underwater.
