Big Majors, Staniel Cay

We anchored for three nights in Big Majors Bay, just north of Staniel Cay. It’s very well known for the family of pigs who live on the island and will swim out to you for your food scraps. 

 Grace of Tides, Castaway, Shear Madness and Blossom (photo by Kathy)

When we arrived we were the 4^th Nordhavn to enter the anchorage! We joined Grace of Tides, Shear Madness and our sister ship, Castaway. Kathy managed to snap a photo of us all in the bay – how cool is that?! The Nordy party was short lived as a couple of the boats left to head south a day or so later but it was fun to have everyone there. We only met the folk on Castaway briefly but we’re hoping we’ll see them later in the season for a proper visit.

Heading in to Staniel Cay Marina

Flowers on Staniel

We really enjoyed our 2 days in the bay. There’s a nice restaurant at Staniel Cay and we managed to go there for lunch and our first dinner out since leaving Key West. We were also able to find some fresh produce, drop off trash and stretch our legs a bit on the island.

One evening we took part in a progressive dinner, roaming from Blossom to Shear Madness to Grace of Tides. It was a wonderful evening  of fun and food and we enjoyed making new friends.

Blossom in the sunset showing off her blue bling

Me, Martin & Blossom

There was an amazing moon in the east as the sun was setting in the west

Friday was a bit less windy and more overcast. We decided to take a dinghy ride in the morning and explore a bit. We ended up at Compass Cay Marina, where you can swim with the nurse sharks. I’ve always wanted to stop there, even back in ’09 on Lucky. Martin really doesn’t want to go there because of the depth and channel leading in. We spoke with Tucker and decided to give it a go – tomorrow. I packed a picnic lunch and we found a beach where we could stop for lunch on the way back.

Picnic lunch

In the afternoon we picked up Austin, Shear Madness’s mate and headed to Thunderball Grotto. He had heard that you could jump into the snorkel area through a hole in the top of the rock. And he did! There were lots of folks checking out the snorkel site and plenty of fish to make it a pretty swim.

Austin jumping

Martin snorkeling

Fish in the grotto

Our last night in Big Majors we enjoyed a lovely dinner at Staniel in the restaurant with Bradley & Kathy. 

Restaurant at Staniel Cay

They're heading south from here but we're hoping that we may meet up soon elsewhere in the Exumas!

Shear Madness heading south

Boat Business.

• Guest head exhaust fan. The panel had been acting a bit wonky and finally died. We swapped it out for the timer from the basement, so it’s back in action again.
• Raw water leak? In preparation for guests Martin dove into the laz to pull out some refreshments. Along the way he began muttering about a possible raw water leak. Alas, he found the culprit! We enjoyed an engaging conversation one evening over the pros and cons of tasting water when you find a leak J

No raw water leak here but it sure is sweet & sticky!

• Dinghy plug. We’d noticed a few days that the dinghy seemed to be taking on water very slowly. There’s a plug in the back to help empty water from the boat and after wrapping it in rescue tape and putting it back in the hole the problem seems fixed.
• Davit. Wrapped the hydraulic leak on the davit with oil absorbent pads. It’s a very small leak but we won’t be able to get it fixed until we’re back in the states.