Great Guana Cay

Another nice couple of days, another fun jaunt out to explore.  The destination today was Great Guana Cay (pronounce like iguana, without the "i").  It took about an hour or two to get across the Sea of Abaco and settle our anchor in sand about six feet below the keel at low tide.  And settle in nicely it did.  No question there.  We could clearly see the anchor, chain, every blade of grass, fish, shells on the bottom and even one beer bottle upside down.  The water was soooo crystal clear!

Neighbours in our anchorage

Great Guana is known for two funky bars:  Nippers and Grabbers.  Both are beach bars with pools and hammocks strung between palm trees.  No shirt no shoes no problem kind of places.  We hung around the boat to make sure it was secure and not dragging while we had brunch onboard.  Then off to town we went to explore.

"Downtown" Guana Cay

We had been here before so all was familiar, but it is such a colourful place to wander, with lots of little brightly painted stores, dive shops and open walled pubs, that it all felt fresh again.  We walked the town then decided to stop at Grabbers for a drink at the bar....  one rum punch and one beer set us back twenty-two U.S. bucks.  Yikes!  We won't be doing that often!  We enjoyed chatting with fellow cruisers for awhile then they cranked up the music so loud that we honestly could no longer converse, even when shouting.  And this was the early afternoon.  We noticed the place was pretty empty.  It's such a cool place to hang out, it's too bad.  We stayed away after that.  Not our scene.

Grabbers

So back to the boat, bathing suits on and a cooler packed, off to the beach we went to enjoy our own private beach bar!  And what a gorgeous beach it was.  I walked from one end to the other while Jeff watched our stuff, hunted for sea glass and chatted to fellow boaters who were snorkeling the reef right off the beach.  Again, we saw a several sharks only about twenty feet from shore where we were standing in knee deep water.  The snorkelers didn't seem too fazed and said one swam right by them on the reef.  I'm happy snorkeling around the boat where there are always a multitude of pretty fish to look at, but I think I'll leave the snorkling with the sharks on the reef to those a little braver than I.

That little spec down the beach is me, enjoying a walk.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent on the boat, swimming, snorkeling, relaxing and leaning over the rail watching the show beneath.  We saw a turtle about the size of a breadbox, Jeff said he was pretty sure he saw a shark, but he may have been just trying to scare me.  I'm the one always in the water.  And there were so many different types of fish.  It's like a giant aquarium.  Funny, they like the shade under the boat.

At night, we stretched out on the bow and took in the show in the sky, a sea of stars, and people-watched the action on the beach.  They had a good party going at the bar with a bon fire that must have been at least eight feet high.