Sunday has us doing the monument hike (which we should rename mosquito hike!) and then a play on the sea side. After we took a break for lunch, it was back to the chat and chill for more chatting, chilling, playing, and ray petting.

On Monday we moved up to Rudder Cut Cay, one of David Copperfield’s islands. We got to swim with the turtles and watch them eat. It was totally magical! There was also a friendly nurse shark who hung out under the boat, and some nice snorkeling around the edge of the island. I’m still waiting on the elusive octopus! We took the dinghy down and snorkeled the piano playing mermaid statue before heading to our next stop, Little Farmers Cay. We are for sure back in shallow Bahamian waters!

We moved a whomping 1 mile to our next anchorage, Oven Rock at Great Guana. It was great to hike with friends to an awesome cave, and it was great to stay in one place more than one night. Inside the cave we found a cave cricket, some hermit crabs, a teeny tiny shrimp, and 2 bats. I didn’t dive deep enough, but apparently the cave has a thermocline if you go deep enough. People can even scuba down there. The water was salty.

We snorkeled all around the cave/rock projection here the next day – saw 2 gorgeous puffers, a ray, a large anemone, and your usual Bahamaian fish and feather dusters (social, split town), spaghetti worms, and tunicates. The water was HOT on the southern side, so hot we wondered if there was a thermal vent (though it’s admittedly been hot with no rain for days). I think I could see the coral bleaching occur before my eyes 😢 🥵

Another beautiful day sail brought us back to Staniel Cay, though we declined to go visit the pigs this time. Ha! We paid $15 for some eggs and $7 for a loaf of bread. Then had another amazing snorkel at Thunderball Grotto, this time spying cool things like a large perniculata sponge and a flamingo tongue cyphoma. There were so many beautiful fish, corals, and sponges. I’m still holding out for an octopus!