We lifted anchor and headed further north up the chain of Exuma Cays in search of the famous ‘Thunderball Cave’. An underwater grotto that was used as a set in several movies including Splash and James Bond’s Thunderball and Never Say Never Again. But first we needed to get there.
Our vessel has a 2m draft, so we needed to make the trip up on the more exposed Exuma Sound side of the Cays. And although I am a seasoned sea dog it was a bit of a bumpy ride for our company.
The faster boat speed, and our new-found good luck, meant our fishing improved too. We sailed through a school of Mahi Mahi (also called Dorado and Dolphin fish) and both rods went off!
We arrived at Staniel Cay low water spring tide (very low water levels) so we anchored up just off the channel rather than in the shallower anchorage.
Of course all my humans wanted to do was get their snorkeling gear and have a look.
The fish within the cavern are used to being fed by visitors and are happy to take your offerings.
I will bore you with more photos of the cavern and reef at the end of the blog.
Thunderball Cavern was not the humans only mission here. Our friends on Wandering Star (see links) insisted that the Staniel Cay Yacht Club had the best conch fritters.
You will note that the humans actually dressed up a bit to visit the place.
The gang were not disappointed, but were also surprised how good the onion rings were.
Now you will note that this is ‘pub grub’ because the dinning room food was out of our Cruising Budget
At least we could see the diners food being prepared. The local fisherman clean their fish dinners on the pier right beside the yacht club.
The entertainment aboard that evening was watching James Bond’s Thunderball…….of course.
In the morning the humans were off on a ‘supply’ trip, but not before taking me to the beach.
A little more investigation revealed the town was quite lovely. And the locals are both friendly and very proud of their town.
With slack water (no tidal current) approaching it was back to Thunderball Grotto and the surrounding reef for one last visit.
