Better Than Ever Expected

Williams Cay 

Looking forward to another great day, I got breakfast, my boat chores, and stretching done early. Glenda picked me up at 10:30 and we headed off to one of the many trails on Lee Stocking Island. Neither one of us had knew where the trail went or what we'd see along the way. No worries. In The Bahamas you can't really go wrong. We picked up the trail at a lone towering palm tree and followed the sandy path into denser foliage. We referred to a large stand of palm trees as the "dancing ladies" for their grass skirts. At the top of the hill, the view was incredible and we were excited to continue down to the beautiful eastern beaches.    

We walked from one end of the crescent beach to the other. The sand was clean and soft, and even had a hint of pink to it. The area where the waves were breaking was pristine and sank way under each footstep. Higher up on the sand was a large accumulation of wrack containing shells, vegetation, coral fans, and a huge amount of sea-borne trash. I picked up several large angel wings (still intact) and one sea urchin test (that's the official name of their shell). We were having so much fun just doing nothing. That's the way we roll.

Once reaching the northern-most point, we turned south and retraced our steps to find our trailhead. Along the way we took time to appreciate small details like the foaming leading edge of a wave. At the crest we paused to enjoy one last look out to Exuma Sound. This little trail led to views better than ever expected. 

We headed back to our motherships for a late lunch. Seems that while the girls were away, Greg and Barry had taken Paradigm Shift for a spin (literally) in order to recalibrate her autopilot. It's new position warranted a shot of our two Selenes sharing this scenic anchorage. Following lunch we all went for a dinghy ride in search of a good snorkeling spot. We circumnavigated Norman's Pond Cay without finding a spot that was sheltered from both the wind and current. 

As a last option, we gave the rock formation in front of our boats a look. Everyone put on their gear and the boys eased into the water. Following their report of promising underwater activity, the girls also jumped in. Low tide provided a nice view of the coral heads around the underwater crevices.  

Barry was adventurous and chased a school of fish. I liked looking at the multiple species of colorful coral and noted the white shell. 

After a while it was back to just having fun and messing around. By no means do we claim to have good underwater cameras, but we were able to get a few decent shots to remember the moment. The snorkeling ended up, once again, being better than ever expected. Dark clouds appeared overhead and we climbed back into the dinghies. Personal brag moment here -- since I last snorkeled here two years ago, I have worked hard to improve my strength and flexibility for getting back into the dinghy. I had to give myself a big "Attagirl" upon landing in Backroads. 

Cleaning my gear and wetsuit, taking a much-needed shower, and downloading all our photos filled out the late evening. Following dinner, I went out to the cockpit and watched the sunset from our stern. I was trying several spots and angles for capturing tonight's colors, when my phone dinged. Greg had sent me the photo below of the sun setting behind Crossroads. Tonight's closing shot turned out to be, once again, better than expected. 

This is my 500th blog post. How can that be? Since starting this site, we have traveled over 11,500 miles aboard Crossroads. The vast majority of those miles have occurred on the Great Loop and two separate trips to The Bahamas. Those three trips have been chronicled here. Thanks for following along!