Day 272
April 8,
2016
NM Today: 14
NM Total:
4156
We moved to Norman’s Cay anchorage this morning. The
original plan took us there by way of Highborne Cay, but upon further
consideration we decided to bypass Highborne today and go directly to Norman’s
Cay. We traveled the 14 nautical miles at around 7.6 knots. With no need to
rush we decided to take our time and give the boat battery more time to recharge
itself from our overnight at anchor.
When we entered Norman’s Cay, several boats were there
before us. At Allen’s Cay we were the only power boat. At Norman’s Cay we found
a mix of sailboats and power boats. Clark dropped his anchor very close to the site
of the plane wreckage in this anchorage. The chart shows the anchorage marked
with a circle and clearly shows the plane on the chart.
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Norman’s Cay Nautical Chart
(click on picture and zoom in for details) |
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| Anchored Near Plane Wreckage |
After lunch Clark suggested we go out to explore. I have
made a list of things to put in my backpack whenever we take out the dinghy. It
came in handy today to just run down the checklist before going exploring. Out
first stop included the “ruins” and the “planned marina”. We beached the dinghy. I climbed out because
I had on water shoes and pulled the dinghy in far enough that Clark could step
out without getting his shoes wet.
For our next stop we decided to go visit the miniature
island. This island came complete with one palm tree and one bench beneath it
(The bench had seen much better days.)
Here we anchored the dinghy meaning that Clark had to take his shoes and
socks off to disembark from the dinghy and walk to the beach. While there, we
saw two women come in with their dinghy, drop an anchor, climb out and go
shelling.
Conch Shells of all sizes littered the beach here. One of
the women talked to Clark and told him that each Conch shell must be inspected
to “see if anyone is home”. If the Conch shell is inhabited, it is proper to
leave it behind and take only those not in use. I had no desire to take any sea
creatures on the boat, so I already planned to leave those with sea life still
in them behind.
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| Mini Island Complete with Palm Tree |
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| Park Bench on "mini" Island |
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| Beach Littered with Conch Shells |
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| Selfie at Palm Tree |
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| Selfie with Anchorage in Background |
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| Some Other Forms of Sea Life |
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| Evelyn "Shelling" on the "mini" Island |
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Woman (we met while Shelling)
showing us her Sand Dollars and a Sea Quill |
Just beyond the miniature island sat a resort consisting of
numerous cottages each with a somewhat private beach area and protected dockage
(protected from wind and waves). Clark motored in to the docking area where we
found very prettily landscaped grounds complete with flowering bushes.
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| Cabins at Norman's Cay Resort |
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| Resort Dock Area |
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Resort Landscaping with Pretty Flowering Plants |
I thought we had completed today’s tour but found myself in
for a surprise. After visiting all the island sights, Clark suggested we should
go visit the plane wreckage. We had seen several day boaters during the day
come along, drop anchor, and jump off their boats to snorkel and view the
wreckage. I found it not at all surprising that Clark wanted to take a look as
well.
I did not particularly want to go in the water since it
meant getting all salty yet again, but I did not want to miss seeing the plane
wreckage, so into the water I went. Even though the plane wreckage sat fairly
close to Sea Moss, the current here
is strong, so we went by dinghy, dropped our anchor and climbed over the sides
into the water for a look-see.
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| Snorkeling at Plane Wreckage |
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| Plane Wing |
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| Plane Engine Under Water |
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| Plane Fuselage |
Getting out of the dinghy proved easy enough. I found
climbing back, however, to be a daunting experience. Clark is very nimble, and
I knew he would have no problem getting in or out of the dinghy. I am about as
nimble as an elephant and just about as graceful as one as well.
We had anchored where the water was shallow enough to stand
to assist my getting back into the dinghy when the time came to leave. When we
were done exploring, Clark found me the shallowest spot near the dinghy in
which to stand to give me as much height as possible. He swam around to the far
side of the dinghy to hold it steady just in case I had enough leverage to flip
the whole thing over on top of myself.
When ready I basically threw myself up onto the side of the
dinghy and found myself neither in nor out but hanging on while teetering
precariously on the edge. It did not help that the dinghy had a variety of
obstacles, e.g. the fuel tank / gas can and anchor, that I did not want to fall
on. In order to proceed, I needed to
move my hand to get a better grip but thought I might land flat on my face if I
tried it, so I asked Clark to put his hand on my right shoulder to hold me up
while I moved my hand.
I am not quite sure how I accomplished it, but somehow I
managed to land sitting in the bottom of the dinghy with my head hanging over
one side and my feet hanging over the other. Now all I could do was laugh as I
thought I might be stuck that way. I told Clark I could not get a grip on
anything because I was too slippery whereby he proceeded to make all sorts of
jokes at my expense about what a slippery person I am. With a lot of wiggling I managed to get myself
fully in the dinghy and then into the bow of the boat.
Going out in the dinghy and swimming in the anchorages are a
lot of fun but a lot of work as well. Just the prep and cleanup of the dinghy
takes Clark a considerable amount of time each time he deploys it. When we go
swimming, all the clothes, towels, and snorkel equipment must be rinsed in
fresh water and then put out to dry. We are both very busy after an outing
cleaning up the mess we made having fun.
After finally getting everything in order, I set to and made
dinner. Unfortunately some of my food is stored in a less-than-handy storage
area. To get one jar of spaghetti sauce for dinner, we had to move two
bicycles, 2 water coolers, and an ice chest. Then we had to open up a
compartment in the floor where we store our food. I held the floor hatch
opening while Clark stuck his head in to pull out the sauce. Since he had his
head down there, I had him pull out a couple of other things as well. Once we
had secured our spaghetti sauce, all the items we moved to get access had to go
back. Sadly we did this same exercise twice today as I did not plan to make
spaghetti for supper earlier in the day. I just decided that is what I felt
like when it came time to cook dinner.
The generator had to be run again tonight to recharge the
boat battery. I used my electric appliances to cook which worked well but left
the cabin a little steamy. Clark
suggested we eat up on the fly bridge which sounded like a wonderful idea to
me. He carried all the plates, forks, and other paraphernalia up top. All I needed
to do was sit down to eat and feel the cool breeze.
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