A Visit With The Pigs

Big Major's Spot   

Final farewells with Ti Amo were exchanged as they passed alongside us just after first light. I watched as they shrank into the western horizon and then turned my attention back to the sun rising in the east. No "red in the morning warning" was a good sign for safe travels. Soon thereafter, Carl and Debi on River Rat were passing by as well. Once the sun rose high enough to illuminate the sand on Pig Beach, we hopped in the dinghy and visited the world-famous swimming swine. The porcine patrol greeted us as soon as we landed on the beach. We brought a few nibbles of food for them and Barry attempted to appease them with hand signals for "no more" while looking like The Pig Whisperer attempting Jedi mind tricks. "This is not the food you're looking for."

The tour boats had already arrived and there were plenty of other folks on the beach with us. We left the feeding to excited newbies and stood back and observed the pigs performing. The big ones were intimidating, the medium sized ones cute, and the babies were adorable. 

They were also smart. This one knew very well that Barry had more food in his pocket, and grabbed his shorts to show him where. I found an interesting sea star in the surf and picked it up to show its large size. I saved the last of our apple scraps for this well-mannered little guy.

While pigs and people were splashing about, I followed a large ray gliding through shallow water. I was excited to get this shot of it swimming through a school of fish. From there it was back to Crossroads to reload the dinghy and head over to Staniel Cay. We dropped off some trash and then stopped for lunch on the deck overlooking the docks. One final mango daiquiri hit the spot. As we ate, a fisherman filleted a snapper at the fish cleaning table and tossed the head and bones into the water. A feeding frenzy erupted among at least six sharks. We stopped for a quick look at the "friendly" sharks before we headed off to the grocery store. The seawall is painted with images of the famous pigs

and a large "Welcome to Staniel Cay" message. We walked the yacht club's beach to get the whole image. The mail boat had come in overnight and the Pink store was well-stocked with fruit, veggies, bread, and dairy products. We headed back to Crossroads and unloaded everything into the refrigerator. A brief shower thwarted our run into an afternoon gathering on Pirate Beach. We waited a bit for the rain to clear and then went over to Spartina and visited with Pete for a while before calling it a day and returning to Crossroads for dinner.