Snorkel Adventure

Manjack Cay
N 26 49.202 W 077 22.068

This morning, the weather was fine, as forecast. We set out in the dinghy to go snorkeling on the reef. We packed, a dinghy anchor, fins, masks, snorkels, towels, fuel, camera, and a bottle of water, and off we went.

It wasn't easy finding a way out to the ocean side. The tide was low and many places were blocked by shallows less than 6" deep. We had to row. Along the way we were treated to the view of numerous starfish and colonies of conchs in the shallows.

Eventually we gained the sea, started the motor and set off for one of the two mooring bouys put out there for snorkelers. A volunteer organization

www.reefrelief.org puts out moorings so that visiting boats won't damage the reefs trying to anchor. We had the coordinates for two of the buoys programmed in to our hand held GPS.

The bad news is that we couldn't find either of two buoys we looked for. We went to the exact GPS coordinates and looked around, but there was nothing in sight. In any case, the waves were 2-3 feet high. We thought that was a little too rough for snorkeling in water less than 3 feet deep. One risks getting scraped on the coral.

We returned to shore, and we found a delightful beach. The beach had lovely white sand. Also, there were no people, no man made structures and no vessels in sight. We were totally alone. What a treat. We snorkeled from the beach, and a few hundred meters off shore, we found some coral and some very pretty fish. I'm sure it wasn't as colorful an spectacular as the big reefs, but it was enough to enchant Libby and me. We had a marvelous time.

After snorkeling, we combed the beach for treasures. We found some lovely shells, including two magnificent conchs. I also found 200 feet of 5/8" polypropylene line that I untangled and brought back. The line is too big to carry on Tarwathie. We have no place to store it. Perhaps I can give it away to a larger boat.

On the way back, we picked up a big, fully mature, conch. It had a beautiful red shell, and the resident conch was alive and kicking. We took it back to the boat with the intention of eating it. However, when it came time to kill it, we chickened out and threw it back in to the sea. Libby never forgave me for throwing two live lobsters in to boiling water on our honeymoon; the conch reminded us of that.