Today is Sunday. After enjoying an advent devotional our daughter, Jennifer published, we struck out for the trail to Lynyard Cay's windward side to walk the beach & do some more beach combing.
We thought it nice that previous cruisers had gathered flotsam from the beach & piled it hear.
With the wind down to generally below 15 to 20 knots, we decided to try our luck finding the famous blue hole where several men had died trying to plumb its dark depths. It was a 2.5 mile trip in the dinghy to the entrance to the mangrove estuary and then another mile inside the mangroves to where the hole was supposed to be.
We had been here before and never could find the hole. This time, we found a blog post where a cruiser had uploaded the GPS coordinates. Jim loaded them into our handheld GPS and off we went.
The entrance to the mangroves was quite shallow with a number of large red sea stars greeting us as we entered.
The hole was maybe 100 feet across and with 16 inch deep water around it, a startling inky deep pit into oblivion. The kind of place divers want to explore. Unfortunately, 3 men died in this hole exploring the passages under it. This is the bronze plaque that was erected on the shore that told of their demise.
Our picture of the hole did not do it justice! The water was choppy and the sun was at a bad angle.
A couple of boaters free-dove on this hole a few years ago. They reported they were able to get 60 feet down and couldn't find the bottom or any of the side passages.
Carol is waiting while Jim snapped the picture of the bronze plaque.
We continued our dinghy exploration into the mangroves and found 1 more blue hole - - kewl!
We also saw over 50 sea turtles! They were everywhere. As our dinghy would travel through the mangroves, the turtles would explode into a burst of speed. They looked like little rockets. They were way too fast to capture with our camera. Sorry! Some were quite large - maybe 3 feet in diameter!
Since we arrived, the tide had come up some so we decided to try exiting the mangroves via a different route. The water was cascading through this area like a rapid river. Near the exit, we ran out of water so Jim hopped out to pull the dinghy through until we were deep enough we could put the engine back down.
Our total trip today was around 7 miles, quite an accomplishment for our little dinghy!
Tomorrow, the Lord willing, we plan to cross the Northeast Providence Channel in the Atlantic to get to Spanish Wells - - a 50 mile trip. The ocean in this area is around 14,000 feet deep!
We've been watching the weather closely, trying to figure out the best time to make the jump & tomorrow looks like it will work. Our greatest challenge will be moving through the cut from the islands into the open ocean. Today, the breakers were really pounding with 4 to 6 foot crashing waves. Tonight it's supposed to relax some. We're praying that happens!
