| Day 8
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The next morning started with a promise of sunny skies and gentle winds. All night I had enjoyed the sounds of the wind in the palms. Not a wind was blowing in from the west. We would have fair winds once again as we left the Brigantine Bank and headed back east to the other side of Great Exuma islands to Boise Cay. Our toilet tent was down the beach and we had put several palm fronds on the floor to help keep it clean. As we were taking it down we came upon another scorpion no doubt a hitch hiker on the palm fronds. A couple of sticks and another frond encouraged the little fellow on his way so that we could fold up the tent. |
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It was just another ho-hum crossing over sparkling white sands, starfish and turquoise water. When we were about a half mile from Boysie Cay we could see the white plumes of water being forced up from a blow hole. We paddled over to the little beach and found not one but three blow holes. Because the wind was from the west and the surf was down on the other side, the large 6 foot diameter one was only blowing air, although that was fairly impressive itself. The other two much smaller holes were sending a column of water occasionally as high as 8 meters into the air. |
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We left the little cay with the blow holes and paddled a couple hundred meters to our camp on Boysie Cay. This was by far the best beach we camped on the whole week. Large and safely above the high tide, there was plenty of room to spread out all our tents. Some of us dumped our stuff out of our boats and with empty compartments and high riding boats headed out to the ocean side to take advantage of the calm conditions out there. We paddled out through the surge and rode a few small waves breaking over the coral reef. I tried to fish briefly with no success. We saw the inflatable tender, a Zodiac, from our earlier benefactors on the sailboat "Beans" anchored out on the reef. They were diving on the coral heads probably spear fishing. We paddled on and played some more in the rocks. |
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Returning to the beach after an hour I notice some suspicious body language on some of the people still in camp. Something was up and I asked what was going on. Apparently they were trying to pull off a surprise because they revealed a three pound spiny lobster in the front hatch of one of the kayaks. Seems that the very successful and even more generous crew and captain of "Beans" had graciously provided some more lobster, this time fresh and still snapping its tail. |
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It was a big one too. Now all that remained was to prepare it for the pot, cook and serve. It was such a large one that we needed to separate the tail, legs and antennae from the body to get it in our pot. With such a succulent meal awaiting, I paid little attention to the couple of jabs I received in my ungloved fingers as I performed the dissection. Twenty minutes later a bright red carcass came out of the pot. Popping the tail sections, the juicy meat was ready for distribution. Everyone had a piece - there were no refusals on this fine meal. |
With a good appetizer completed, we finished our standard fare and began on the 1.75 liter bottle of tequila that the good people of "Beans" had sold us. After a couple hours of sitting around the stove, talking, laughing , enjoying the balmy night air, lack of bugs and drinking tequila, some to the point of getting a little silly, we put an end to a really fantastic day.
The next day we would head back to the main island of Great Exuma, unload our kayaks and be brought back into civilization. It had been a great day, filled with all the things that make this such a wonderful winter kayak destination. It was with satisfaction and some regret that the trip was coming to an end that we said good night and slipped into our tents for a good nights sleep on the soft sand.
On to Day 9 - the Return............ |