July 25, 2012
I have been singing the praises of anchoring in the bay instead of “out on the reef” as other people call it (or “the blue water” as I call it). That area is often too crowded, too vulnerable to wind, and not as pretty as it is tucked into our bays.
But there was an exception, an area that few people seemed to venture into or even know about. I don’t know why, but maybe it’s because it’s not as well marked, not as easy to see, and there’s not much written about it. Plus, when there are a lot of masts in a different area, you think that’s where you’re supposed to go, and it’s just easier to follow the crowd.
Our brave friends on Aleris deviated from the crowd and ended up finding this beautiful spot. The water was like glass, they could snorkel on the reef not far from their boat, and there were only a couple of other boats there. It was more vulnerable to the wind than our bay, but they had a secure anchorage in sand, and they weren’t surrounded by other boats.
We passed through this beautiful area on our way to see the stingrays. What a find! We were tempted to move Legacy out here, but decided to just enjoy it from the dinghy. We snorkeled on the nearby reef over the famous underwater tikis (large carved stone tikis that for reasons I don’t know have ended up underwater). On the way back to our boat, we stopped at an underwater wall that dropped from about 10 feet to over 50 feet. More wonderful snorkeling. Here are some pictures from this great day. -Cyndi
Did you notice the stingray in the lower left corner? How about in the picture above?