Included in our welcome packet when we arrived at Great Harbour Cay Marina six days ago was a Dinghy Adventures flyer. Having walked the equivalent of a marathon the past two days and collected my limit of specimens from Shelling Beach, a dinghy adventure would be a welcome change of pace. We timed our departure around the approaching high tide. Pete, Fernando, and Judy followed behind us in their dinghy. We exited through the narrow Bullock's Harbour Channel and turned south, heading to the entrance to Shark Creek. We advanced into the mangrove-lined creek for a bit of scouting as we awaited the arrival of the buddy boat. We had good depth at the mouth and great view of the grassy bottom through the clear water. Little mangroves stuck their heads above waterline.
The creek had plenty of water depth, but the width quickly narrowed. We shut off our outboard and paddled in deeper, drawn by the prospect of seeing turtles, sharks, and rays. Our buddy boat elected not to continue by manpower and retreated the way we entered. We never caught sight of our target animals, nor did we hear banjo music, but the current began to catch us. We quickly determined we had missed our tide window and needed to abort the mission for today. To Barry's chants of "paddle harder," I did just that. Unfortunately, while paddling there were no photos being taken. I'm sure they would have been instant classics. We made it back to wider water and then powered up for the trip back to the marina.
I spent the afternoon engaged in my latest book, moving from sun to shade, from flybridge to upper deck to Fiberglass Beach. The talk around the marina has been the weather. The forecast has changed yet again and it looks like our opportunity to leave will slip back at least another day. Guess we'll have to figure out something new over the next two days.
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