Picture taken at Man-O-War Cay for friends, Susan and George, where they wanted to renew their wedding vows for their 10th anniversary. Unfortunately, they were unable to make the trip. Here’s to many more happy anniversaries, Susan and George.
May 25, 2014
It was to have been another miserably hot day. We discussed two options: 1. Go to Marsh Harbour and suffer through a walk to the grocery store, or 2. Go to Fowl Cay Preserve and spend the hottest part of the day snorkeling. No contest!
Gary also wanted to take advantage of the almost windless day, making the ocean as flat as pancake, to troll for fish on the ocean side of Man-O-War Cay. We slowly motored (like we could go fast motoring a sailboat), the length and back of Man-O-War Cay. He REALLY wanted to catch a good sized fish. Unfortunately, he never had to yell, “Fish on!” and I don’t know which of us was more disappointed. I wanted him to catch one because I knew he would have been SO excited.
With no fish willing to be our dinner, Gary reeled in his fishing line and we motored into the Fowl Cay Preserve. ( I bet you thought I wouldn’t get back in the water again after seeing the bull shark yesterday. My love of seeing God’s amazing world under the sea far outweighs my fear of sharks.)
We found an awesome reef with a lot of live coral and numerous fishes. We did not visit this reef the other two times we were at Fowl Cay as Fowl Cay Preserve has a lot of territory to explore. We were thrilled to get to see another nice-sized leopard ray and also a turtle. No shark sightings today. I know they were out there, but as long as I didn’t see them I could deal with my anxiety. Taking underwater pictures of the beautiful things we see helps keep my mind from being overcome with the worst that could happen.
Angel Fish at Fowl Cay reef
Rainbow Parrot Fish
smiling for his picture
Top of the reef at High Tide, at Low Tide the reef is right at the surface of the water.
A big beautiful Purple Fan hanging on the ledge of the reef
This was Gary’s favorite reef with a ledge around it falling into water 20-30 feet deep.
This guy loved smiling for his picture also.
We spent approximately four hours on the reefs, taking a short break to eat lunch, and then we immediately got right back in the water. (Remember when our mothers told us we had to wait at least a half hour after we ate, to swim, or we’d get cramps? Not true. But if you have Acid Reflux, you might end up feeding the fishes.)
What a great time we had. And the day wasn’t over…
After leaving the coral and fish preserve, we motored up to Fishers Bay on Great Guana Cay. One of the restaurants, Nippers, on G.G.C., has a huge hog roast every Sunday. We’d been to Nippers twice, so we were not interested in going again this year. Instead, we wanted to go to Grabbers, which is a restaurant right at the shore in Fishers Bay. The anchorage was packed with boats, we assumed from the Nippers crowd. However, the hog roast would have been over by the time we got to Fishers Bay. We anchored White Swan in the shallow water, nearer to shore than the other boats, and when we saw Grabbers we decided everyone who had previously gone to Nippers had to have ended up at Grabbers. To say the place was packed would be an understatement. A party was goin’ on! And we joined them.
Click on link to see video: trim.BDCCA126-4739-4E21-9428-A0379696A155
Grabbers in Fishers Bay on
Great Guana Cay
In spite of the chaos, we were able to secure a table, and a waiter. We ordered a Hawaiian pizza, a lobster crostini, and two diet cokes. There was a live band, a crowd of young people gyrating to the beat of the Bahamian music, a swimming pool of on-lookers, as well as diners (like us and other old people), young people playing various games at the beach, a conch salad booth/bar, the busy Grabbers house bar, and a few servers doing what they could to take care of the food orders. Everyone seemed to be in party mode and “people watching” was good entertainment. Interestingly, Gary and I both observed the demographics were young adults and old adults, no middle-agers. Our guess was, the old adults were mostly the cruisers from the sailboats in the harbor. We had seen a few power boats filled with young adults go by us when we were coming into the anchorage, so we figured a lot of the younger generation at Grabbers would be occupying the majority of the power boats dotting the anchorage after they left the island party, but maybe not. It would have been better for all concerned if the partied out young adults had been staying somewhere on the island within walking distance.
Swimming pool, dining, games, and entertainment at Grabbers
Entertainers at Grabbers
We had a good time at Grabbers. It would not be our kind of place to visit every night of the week, but for a change, it was good. Leaving the party behind, we old folks relished going back to the solitude of our White Swan. With the fan on in our master berth, we heard nothing from the shore, and we had a restful night after experiencing an awesome day.
Sunset at Fishers Bay,
Great Guana Cay