Surprises, Half Moon Cay to Alligator Pt Cat Island

Mercy, the dog, uses a "litter box" that consists of a black plastic cement mixing pan with holes drilled in it, with a layer of round river rocks lining the bottom. I remove solids immediately after use, and rinse the rock with a bucket or two of sea water. When I am done rinsing, I leave a bucket of water sitting there for the next use, particularly at night, to keep me from opening the transom door and walking out on the swim platform.

In the morning, at daylight, I noticed a lot of dirt in the bucket, which upon closer examination was moving. Remember this is crystal clear, gorgeous water! Allen and I pulled a couple of the critters out for examination under a magnifying glass, and there were what we think are larvae lobster! There were also a couple of tiny crabs in there, and a worm that Allen has named, "Will." I guess the drifting larvae were attracted by the cabin lights. During the course of the day, Allen has been refreshing the water from the wash down pump. We put a tiny piece of tuna fish in the bucket, and the creatures have been eating that. We're hoping to take them to Lee Stocking in Exumas to the marine lab, and find out just what we have! It must be my imagination, but I think they've gotten bigger! They have large eyes (proportionate), legs, and tails. We sure could use a microscope!

No cruise ship was coming in, but we departed and left for Cat Island, where we anchored up close to the beach just north of Alligator Point. The coast here has gorgeous small sandy beaches between huge rocks. The dogs played on the beach and in the water while we snorkeled the low ledge just off the rocks.

We took the Whaler into the interior of the island via the mangrove creeks, and had fun exploring. We went ashore near the point and wandered some more.

I drug Allen on the dive plane, looking for conch, but all we found were too small. He did, however get a spider crab with the largest claws I have ever seen on a spider crab! Tom boiled them, and Allen gloated as he ate them!

We watched a movie with Tom on a large screen tv with surround sound. (Pirates of the Caribbean, of course!) When they fire the cannons, you can feel it through the couch!