A Sight To Remember

Hope Town
N 26 32.275 W 076 57.514

Yesterday, snorkeling at Sandy Cay, and last night at anchor, we were protected from the sea by a series of barrier islands. One of those islands, in the Pelican Cay group, treated us to a most spectacular sight. I tried more than three dozen times to photograph it, but failed. A verbal description will have to do.

The past few days, the winds and the waves have been very light. Inside the reef, the waves have been almost flat. Outside the reef, the ocean swells were no more than 2-3 feet. The nearby islands have shores which are sometimes sandy beaches, but more often they are vertically sheer coral rock, forming cliffs no higher than the high water mark.

The island I have in mind is not big. It is about one half mile long and one eight mile wide. It's primary feature is a sand dune about 15 feet high. The top of the dune is covered with grass and by three trees (exactly three trees) also about 15 feet high.

As we watched this island looking out toward sea, every once in a while a wall of white water would shoot up from the ocean side shore to a height a little bit higher than the trees. Since there was no visual evidence of surf anywhere else, the sight was very startling. It was even more startling considering how calm the waters really seemed. Even at anchor this morning, more than 4 miles from the island, we could still see the white walls of surf surge behind those trees.

Anyhow, I tried and tried with my digital camera to photograph one of those surges. I tried still shots, and video shots, and high speed 7 shot per second modes, but none of the pictures captured the sight.

My God, I wonder how spectacular the sight must be when the seas are really rough? Perhaps not any more spectacular than now, because the vertical cliffs are only a meter or so high, extending roughly from the low tide to the high tide levels. Giant 20 foot waves would roll right over that stubby cliff right on to the shore.