Adventures of Luck of a Fool: May 24-25,2022 Snorkeling Current Island, restocking in Spainsh Wells, anchor in Royal Island Harbour

5-24 We took the dinghy back to the southern end of Current island again. This time we were on the same side of the island as the area we wanted to snorkel, so the ride was shorter and smoother. It was smart to wait for a calmer day. The Pimlico Islands run along the end of Current Island with about a mile between them and Current Island. We decided to start snorkeling on the ocean side of the Pimlico Islands where there is usually more growth. There were a lot of great coral heads, reefs with canyons between them, and lots of fish. There was a gentle current to swim as we held onto the dinghy.

we snorkeled on the left side of Pimlico Island today and along the left side of current Island previously

Current island is on the right

black in center is a sea urchin

triggerfish

We stopped about half way down the chain of islands in a beautiful rocky cove to have lunch. After a nice break, we swam with the dinghy again. There was a break between 2 major island that we thought we would swim past, but the current was flowing between them and started pulling us through with the dinghy. At first we were fighting the current and trying to pull the dinghy back away from the inlet. Finally Dave yelled “just go with it!”. So we swam with the dinghy between the 2 islands over coral. Luckily, the tide was high enough that we floated over it. If it had been lower, the dinghy might have gotten stuck on the coral. Or we could have scraped our bodies as we passed over the coral. Once we were through the inlet, we were in the calmer waters between the Pimlico and Current Cut Islands. WHEW!! That was a little scary!

snails on the rock

the break between the 2 islands before we knew we would be going through there

you always seem to find these in pairs

We got back in the dinghy and motored over to the shore of Current Cut to get out of the wind. We found the beach we were at last week and beached the dinghy for a rest. We were too tired to swim anymore and headed back to the boat after resting.

After we were back at our boat, we decided to move it back to Spanish Wells so we could provision. It only took about an hour to move the boat and anchor. What a day!

5-25 Wednesday. It was late morning by the time we went into Spanish Wells. We went to Pinder’s for diesel and gas and a few groceries. They were still out of gas, so we took the dinghy to Spanish Wells Marine and Hardware that was close by. They were closed for lunch, so we HAD to go to Buddha’s for a hamburger, fries and beer. We sat at the bar for the first time and the service was much better (faster). Will remember that for the future. Buddha’s is about 4-5 blocks inland up a hill. Nice walk. We returned to our dinghy, that was tied to the sea wall, and motored back Spanish Wells Marine. They don’t have a dinghy dock, or we would come here more often. They have to hand the fuel hose down to us in our dingy about 5 feet below their dock. Dave likes to visit with the owner. We reminded him that we bought our used Portland Pudgy dingy from him in 2017. He remembered us (or said he did).

After we returned to the boat and unloaded the dinghy, we moved the boat to Royal Island Harbour. It’s only about 5 miles, but takes us an hour by the time we lift anchor, move and anchor again. We were surprised to have the anchorage to ourselves. I felt like going for a swim. So I took snorkel gear to check the anchor. Then decided to check out the area. There weren’t many coral formations, but I found a few very large starfish, sea anemone, mangrove jellyfish and sea biscuits. Sea biscuits are in the sand dollar family but are larger and fatter, like a biscuit. I didn’t take pictures of the ones I picked up, but found a stock picture.

the half circle is the top bar on our anchor, the line below in the anchor chain, the line on the left is the line to a buoy to mark where the anchor is located