Kayak Express

Walkabout has been working flawlessly so far this season. We decided to take advantage of our two days of calm weather and head south to do some backwater exploring with the kayaks. A couple of years ago we had found this sailboat washed up.

We found the same exact spot and boat, but after a couple of storms and hurricanes, there wasn't much left.

Even the cabin top had come off and was several feet away from what was left of the hull.

It was so quiet in the backwaters, far from the maddening crowd in Hope Town during Christmas week. 

The wind picked up a bit so we decided to move to the serene anchorage between Snake Cay and Cormorant Cay for lunch. This is where many of our explorations started 30 years ago. I can still picture Dave diving down in the clear water and coming up with two starfish in his hands.

We hopped back in the kayaks and explored the creek behind Snake Cay. It is great having the two kayaks now instead of the double, so that we can each go our separate ways. This is all that remains of a boat we found half sunk about 15 years ago in the same spot. It brought back memories of how there were two soggy cushions floating around in the same abandoned vessel that we re-purposed into 'glug protectors' on the boat we had before New Horizon. That trawler, named Island Spirit, had chines at the waterline that intensified the sound of any waves or even riplets that hit the hull of the boat. The noise that reverberated inside the boat was torture (we only kept the boat for two years). These glug protectors were my saving grace to try and sleep. Dave tied them to the front of the boat as insulation, whenever we were at a dock or at anchor. Now the boat that donated to protect my sanity rests on the bottom and is a perfect little artificial reef and tropical fish nursery.

As I was skimming over the sand, there was a big swoosh ahead of me. I had disturbed a southern stingray and it startled me as much as I startled it.

Awhile later Dave was cleaning the bottom of the boat and the same kind of ray came over to check him and our anchor out. I'm sure both Dave and the anchor chain sweeping over the bottom rustled up some little bits of organisms for the ray to eat.

 

We also saw dozens of turtles swimming around in the cove, and we are glad to see that the turtle population is doing so well. What a great day and Walkabout is back in action taking us to places we haven't seen in a long time.