Birthday Girl at Staniel Cay

Photo #1: Rachel next to a whale skeleton at Warderick Wells

Photo #2: Jim and Kathy at Allans Cay

Photo #3 Visiting more iguanas on South Allans Cay

Today is Kathy's birthday. We're in the Staniel Cay Yacht Club having lunch; conch, grouper, and Kalik beers. The weather channel is on the tv and we have a good internet connection. But we just tried to call my Dad on the Skype phone and the call failed. Kathy will use her Batelco card to make some calls outside the restaurant. We found a wonderful basket store down the street, and bought Kathy the handbag of her choice, just beautiful, and woven by the store owner Shirley whose birthday is tomorrow. She gave Kathy an additional basket as a gift.

We have spent 3 days here snorkeling in the Thunderball Grotto, where they filmed the James Bond flick of the same name. The cave is awesome, the fish numerous, and we're having a really good time. I've hunted fish in the surrounding reefs but the reefs are in poor shape, white, bleached, and lacking fish. I did see my first "real" shark while in the water, probably a 6 foot reef shark which paid no attention to me. I say real, because we've seen a few nurse sharks but they are gentle and no threat. So the only fish we've had lately were caught by someone else. There is no fishing allowed in the grotto. And the fish know it too.

We'll be here a few more days, waiting for mail and exploring the area. There are more reefs about 6 miles away I want to see. They are off the beaten track, so maybe some dinner will be there waiting for me.

The weather is unsettled with 20kt winds out of the NE for the next 3 days so we'll stay put for the time being. Exuma Sound looks intimidating right now with huge breakers pounding the rocks.

I'll write a full report for posting later. Otherwise we have to keep buying Kaliks to keep our table, and that is expensive not to mention falling out of the dinghy on the way home to Stardust later today.