Go While You Can

We've learned that when the wind dies, you don't wait for a better day. We try and do as much as we can while it's calm. That's exactly what we did the the day of the gorgeous sunrise in the last post. We loaded up the kayak and water skis in the skiff and headed south to Tilloo Cay. We anchored off the beach, put the kayak in the water and headed south along the shore.

Anyone missing a dock or two? What power mother nature has to throw all this up on the rocks!

Then we moved to Pelican Cays. It's not very often you can kayak here because of the ocean swells, but today was an exception.

The beach is gorgeous, but most of the island is iron coral that is very unforgiving.

The first time we came here back in the late 1980's, there used to be a house up on the hill, surrounded by hammocks hanging in palm trees. Then one year we came and the roof was gone, the next the house was caving in, and now you can't even get near what's left of the foundation. Nature has reclaimed it all.

I started collecting a few shells along the high tide line. It sure is great beachcombing at this time of year, before it gets overrun with boaters.

While taking my photos, surprise! Part of my display started crawling away. You can see it in the upper right hand corner above.

I followed my little live display and it led me to all of his friends crawling over the beach, racing to their very own Crabfest! There were piles of them every few feet!

I left the rest of my display back on the beach because this is a no-take zone as part of the Pelican Cays Land and Sea Park...not to mention I don't have room for anymore shells anyway!

Next stop was Tilloo Pond where we anchored and kayaked, looking for the many turtles that seem to like this harbor.

That's when the wind started picking up and we headed back to find a protected cove so Dave could do a bit of water skiing. Sorry, no photos this time..he was going way too fast!

We just couldn't resist hitting one more beach before heading back to New Horizon, especially when it's popular Tahiti Beach, with not a soul to be found on it. Or at least no humans on it. This was our greeting party...two live immature conchs, called rollers (because they roll in the surf).

 

Then Dave found this gorgeous horse conch.

                

We threw all three of our finds into deep water so no one else would find them. Some collectors wouldn't hesitate to take them home and boil the inside out. Worse yet are the unsuspecting tourists who take them home and then realize they WERE alive and are now stinking. Case in point..my shell display that crawled away.

This part of Tahiti Beach is really just a sandbank and only walkable at low tide. Every year the sand shifts with the storms and sometimes (like last year) there's hardly anything there, and other times (like now) it is huge.

We timed our trip just perfect, both with tides and weather. Remember the saying "nothing is certain but death and taxes?" Add wind to that list too. It's for sure it's going to start blowing again...and right now it's back to near gale force!