Adventures of Luck of a Fool: February 21, 2017 Flamingos on Long Cay

This morning we went on a “wild flamingo hunt”. We had been told by some other cruisers that there were flamingos just north of where we were anchored. We didn’t know if he meant in a lagoon inland or on the shore itself. But we figured we could spend a couple hours looking before we had to cross the Bight of Acklin for protection from the next cold front.

There was a beach reaching to the east just south of the area that was shown to us on the map. So we decided to take our dinghy to that shore and search for them. The water was really shallow. Before long, we were walking with our dinghy in sand and grass. The bottom was very uneven, and we would occasionally drop into “holes” in the sand. We were grateful that neither of us turned an ankle or twisted a knee. As we were trudging through this mess, Dave saw a flock of large birds fly in and land north of the area we were headed to. We had the outstretched beach and trees to shield us. Closer to the shore, we started to sink into the sand, more like mud. Dave even broke a sandal strap. I think it took us at least an hour to get to shore from our sailboat.

On shore, we anchored the dinghy and headed to the tree line. As we crept through the trees like deer hunters, we finally saw them. Sure enough, it was a flock of about 20 flamingos. We weren’t sure how easily they would spook, so we continued to slowly get closer within the tree line. Eventually, I was able to walk out into the water with them. But I could tell they were moving away from me and may take flight at any time. I had my camera ready to video them as they flew away. It was amazing to see them in the wild. Some were more colorful than others. I guess they get their pink color from eating shrimp.

When I looked at my photos, there had been moisture inside the lens which fogged the center of the photo. So none of my videos of them flying turned out. The earlier photos did, so I think leaving the camera turned on had an effect on moisture within the camera. Darn!!
We opened it to air out once we returned to the boat. I’ll have to watch that in the future.

We headed east across the Bight of Acklins that afternoon to Delectable Bay. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? It was on the west side of Acklins Island between Camel point and Jamaica Cay point. It formed a wall of land on the east and the south to protect us from the next front that will be SE-S-SW. We were the only boat anchored in this bay.