Snorkeling Sandy Cay and Mermaid Reef

 While we were spending the five nights anchored in our "only one night" anchorage off Lynyard Cay (it was that fantastic!), we went up to Sandy Cay to snorkel twice. Both times were amazing. 

I mentioned before that someone said it's the best snorkeling spot in the Abacos.  The good part of hitting it first, is that we did actually enjoy the best snorkeling spot in the Abacos.  The bad part is that it will all be downhill from here.

We had learned that the Pelican Cays Land and Sea Park maintains a couple of moorings near the reef.  They were not rated for a 50-foot boat, and besides it is easier to grab a mooring from the dinghy.  We took the 2.5-mile ride on two consecutive days to enjoy the reef.

The water is that amazing clear water of the Bahamas.  Heck, I think I've bought bottled water that is not so clear. 

We shared a mooring with a family that was taking a sabbatical for a year and cruising the Bahamas and Caribbean on their trawler, Seven Lambs. The waves were a little rough for the youngest, but they stayed a while. We saw a nice variety of coral: fan coral, brain coral (I could stand to have some extra brains, myself), branch coral, and many others.

The number of fish was amazing, and many different kinds,  We plan to look for some identification sometime, but we definitely saw parrotfish (who love Jimmy Buffet), yellow-tail snappers, and the ubiquitous sergeant majors.

At first glance, I thought this was a man-made structure. God, however, is a much better architect. I often sing praise songs in my head while diving or snorkeling.  Today's was "Oh, Holy Night."  Maybe I was actually humming it too.  The fish did not seem to mind.

Maybe staghorn coral?  Anyway, it was fascinating.

I did freedive to the bottom, and did some videos.  Apparently from the shaking camera, it takes a lot of effort to get my chubby body underwater, even with a four-pound weight on. This shallower one is better.  I will work on holding the camera steady, and work on getting rid of the chubby belly.

Yesterday, we motored up to buy diesel from Abaco Beach Resort and Boat Harbour Marina.  $4.86/gallon sounded bad until we remembered that our last purchase in Florida was $4.99/gallon.  I'm glad we don't own trucks at the moment.

We had heard that Mermaid Reef was a manmade reef with lots of fish, but not much coral.  Mermaid also had moorings for small boats.  We anchored Miles about a half-mile away and dinghied over.

Remember the thing about the snorkeling being all downhill after Sandy Cay? We put on our gear, jumped out of the dinghy, and saw about six of these mounds.  WOW! WAY downhill!

I scouted around closer to shore and only saw sand. If ten fish constitutes "lots of fish", we had better lower our expectations.

I decided that before we flopped back into the dinghy (a bit harder to do than when we were fit), I would swim the whole line of moorings to see if we missed something. Sure enough, there was a nice reef with large schools of fish. I wonder how they know when it's a no-fishing area?

The fish were extremely friendly. We assume that some snorkeling excursions toss some food in the water to bring the fish close. Cindy thought the sergeant majors were going to swim down her swimsuit.

It was true that the coral was not as varied or as amazing as at Sandy Cay, but there was a lot of rust colored carpet coral that looked very healthy, and we saw about half a dozen fan corals that looked a bit anemic.

A friend has told us about another nearby reef, where he saw some of the biggest fish that he saw in the Bahamas.

We were glad to find out that our underwater experiences to come aren't going to be all that "downhill"!