5.15 – Wednesday

We didn’t go ashore in Marsh Harbour, we just took refuge in the protected harbor for a night. Around 6am a storm came through with strong wind and rain, so we woke up on time today. In order to get through Whale Cut at slack tide, we needed to leave around 8.30-9am. We had an easy morning, then pulled up the anchor and headed out.

As we were leaving Marsh Harbour, it looked like one of the channel markers was missing. We debated whether it had been there when we arrived yesterday and decided it had. About half an hour after that, we saw the missing marker floating along the shore of Great Abaco. It must have broken loose in the storm this morning because it hadn’t made it very far.

Whale Cut was even calmer today than it was last time we crossed. What we’re learning is that a) we’re being way more conservative than we need to be and b) the rumors of Whale Cut danger are greatly exaggerated. If I had to cross it again, I’d simply check the forecast for swell, and if the waves were in the 1-3 ft range I think it’d be fine. I’d avoid high wind or storms, but so far we’ve been avoiding any sort of east wind (due to swell) and I don’t think that’s necessary. Unlike the traffic of our last crossing, we were the only ones in the cut today.

Soon after we passed the cut, we dropped anchor at No Name Cay around noon.

I hauled the paddleboards out and inflated them. We paddled up to the beach to see the feral swimming pigs (they weren’t very aggressive, but we didn’t bring any food because I don’t want to contribute to their aggression).

We paddled along shore a ways down, I saw tons of live sea biscuits and I really want to find a dead bleached sea biscuit shell to take home, so we pulled up on the beach and walked around. I didn’t even see fragments of a sea biscuit shell, also we could hear thunder, so we cut our trip short and went back to the boat.

Kyle wanted to stay up the SpaceX Starlink launch which was set to launch at 11pm. I went to bed before the launch.

5.16 – Thursday

Kyle eventually came to bed, the launch got canceled. We both got some work done in the morning, boat chores are neverending. A bunch of charter boats arrived to look at the swimming pigs, and we continually had little rental boats passing through. These pigs are more popular than I expected!

This afternoon we took the dinghy in to get some better photos of the pigs. Now that I know they aren’t aggressive I feel better about wandering amongst them. We arrived at just the right time – as we pulled up, a boat that had been feeding them was on its way out. Some pigs were swimming out chasing it! Otherwise we have not seen any of them swim yet.

On a more sobering note, these pigs are obviously not native to the area. They have no natural source of food or water on the island, they rely on what tourists bring. Conscientious tourists probably bring produce and pig food, but there’s also the crowd that brings them beer and Doritos. The pictures I’m posting are cute, but not all the pigs looked healthy or happy. This blog post seems to give enlightenment on the situation on No Name Cay – one man has taken it upon himself to sort of care for the pigs, and a resort donated a water tank for them, but the water tank was nearly empty when we were there. It’s a little bit like visiting a zoo: it’s cool to see, but there’s an undertone of depression at their unnatural living situation – they certainly aren’t thriving. This destination was low on my list because I’ve heard about the darker side of Piggyville (pigs dying from being fed rum or eating sand, more “pig islands” springing up to attract tourists, this article gives a really good summary) and I don’t necessarily want to give more positive publicity to an island where animal welfare is second to tourist dollars. The swimming pig photos are cute, their living situation is anything but. I didn’t bring them food because I didn’t want to contribute to their aggression. I don’t regret visiting, but I definitely regret doing all my research AFTER the visit instead of before.

After visiting the pigs, we continued with the main mission: looking for dead sea biscuits. We found another gray one, then we took the dinghy along the shore. Along the rocky shoreline there was a place underwater where all the old dead grass was gathering up and we saw tons of gray sea biscuits in there. You’d imagine that those would have to be dead, right? But on the other hand, how can a sea biscuit control its movements, maybe it does just get swept along in the current. I should have googled this yesterday.

After I got back to the boat I did the research. Now, this should have been pretty obvious, but since it’s illegal to collect a live sea biscuit (because they are important to the ecosystem) I didn’t risk it. The gray sea biscuits have all been hairless and smelled bad. They’ve definitely been dead, but…freshly dead? Then I read that micromovements of the hairs are how sea biscuits (and sand dollars) move around the ocean floor. Also, sand dollars and sea biscuits are both subspecies of sea urchins! We’re learning a lot on this trip.

Now I am prepared to collect my sea biscuit treasure, I just need to find one!

5.17 – Friday

At the southern tip of Green Turtle Cay I can see a gorgeous light blue stretch of water, I’d love to go paddle it but it’s a little far. We decided to anchor off the tip of land as staging for paddleboarding, we probably spent about 30 minutes pulling up and re-anchoring, and ten minutes actually traveling to our destination.

I thought Kyle was right behind me when I hopped on the board and paddled towards shore, but after I beached it he was still at the boat getting ready. Oops. I immediately found a beautiful sea biscuit, definitely dead, and not smells-like-its-just-barely-dead either. DEAD dead. So I am happy I have collected a sea biscuit!

Kyle joined me on the beach and we walked around looking for more but didn’t see anything. We paddled over to the bright blue area and wow, it was so shallow but so beautiful. The waves were almost as high as the water was deep, so despite the shallow water it was still a balancing challenge. We didn’t see any sea life though.

We went back to the boat, then moved the boat over to New Plymouth – another trip where we spend more time messing with the anchor than actually moving. There is a ton of small boat traffic around this anchorage because this is a huge tourist destination, so we tried to anchor in an area where boats wouldn’t go by so closely that they might hit our anchor chain, but it’s impossible to overestimate the stupidity of small boaters.

Kyle finally got to try out something he’s been threatening since we bought the boat: he strung up a hammock between the hulls and chilled out with a beer and a book! I’m disappointed excited to report he didn’t fall in when trying to get out of the hammock!

We didn’t go ashore tonight but we have big plans for our anniversary tomorrow!