Pipe Cay, Big Majors Spot, Thunderball Cave

May 23

After running to Compass Cay marina to post the last blog, I took the Whaler and circumnavigated Pipe Cay. I took the cut south of Little Pipe Cay and ran west along the southern bank of Little Pipe Cay. This gorgeous little island has signs all over it requesting you to honor their privacy, which is a pretty common sign around here.

Pipe Cay, as I understand it, is not private. On its SE shore, there is a channel deep enough for MERCY close in to the edge of the Cay, very visible, that I followed to the west, and out to deeper charted water. I turned north, went up to the entrance to the old DECCA station, that has huge iron pilons marking the entrance. From the DECCA station, there is deep water across the banks all the way to Middle Bight, Andros.

There is a very high sea wall, and an old, wide launching ramp. Derelict buildings and pieces of equipment are scattered through the area. It was easy to imagine bringing in a supply boat here.

I continued my journey to the north, and Mercy-dog and I stopped at one of the multiple gorgeous beaches that are all up the western side of the island. There are limestone/ironstone rocks separating these beaches.

I had to jut back offshore a bit to clear the jagged rocky islands that stick out to the west, and then immediately cut back to the east on the south side of the sand bar, which is barely do-able with the outboard. Then, up next to the rocky shore, you drop into a deep channel, that appears to have some great snorkeling along the bank, and a deep, sandy, though somewhat narrow anchorage. From there I popped out by Compass Cay, and ran back to the MERCY for lunch.

I moved the MERCY at low tide from my beloved Thomas Cay anchorage to touristville, aka Big Majors Spot, to do the more typical, must do tourist things.

Going out, I hugged the shore of Thomas Cay, after clearing the bar I was anchored behind, and then ran along the south side of Wild Tamarind Cay (Rat Cay) to the west. The shallowest water was cutting to the SW, I saw one 4.9' spot, and we were at the low of a full moon.


I anchored at Big Majors Spot with 25 other boats, all but a handful for over 50ft. Big Majors Spot is famous for its swimming pigs. Tourists take their food scraps into "pig beach" on the SE end of the anchorage, and the resident hog population swims out to the boats to greet you. I have heard that they'll try to jump into smaller boats if you are too slow tossing the food overboard.

The cruisers have set up a site, further to the north, on a beautiful sandy beach, where they gather to sit, and eat, and drink, and make new friends.

I could have easily done this by Whaler, mind you, from my previous anchorage, but I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. The anchorage is a great holding sandy bottom, in a pretty sheltered place. Unfortunately, there is a LOT of boat traffic. Boats zoom in from all over to see the pigs, and then scurry away at full speed through the anchorage. There are jet skies from the yachties, and rental boats from Staniel. There were swells coming in out of the south all night, and I wondered why I'd moved down here.

I also went to Thunderball Cave. This is always on my "must do" list. If you have never been there before, the best time to go is a low, slack tide. After you know where it is, any slack tide is good, if you don't mind snorkeling underwater a couple of feet to get into the interior. Thunderball Cave or grotto, is a dome shaped, water-filled room, that is open in the top of the dome, allowing light to enter. Light also enters through the water openings through the entrance holes in the rock. When the tide is moving, there can be a lot of current, but generally not enough to be a problem for someone who is comfortable snorkeling, if you use the eddies to your advantage.



The grotto was used back during the filming of the James Bond movie. The light creates an interesting atmosphere, and the shade is a welcome from the heat of the sun. There are a lot of interesting tropical fish around the entrances.

If you like Thunderball, (and you will!) you should also make a point to visit the cave/grotto at Rocky Dundas. (West of the northern tip of Compass Cay.)

For my friends planning to meet me over here, I'm trying to whet your appetites.

Cambridge Cay

In the morning, we headed north along the western edge of the keys, until we turned to the east towards Compass Cay.

We puttered a good bit, looking around before enterring Exumas Land and Sea Park and taking a mooring at Cambridge Cay.

I realized that I didn't have the correct cash to pay for the mooring in the honor box, so I wrote an IOU, saying I'd be into Wardwick Wells to settle the account.

Allen snorkeled to check the mooring, and found a nice black braided line (that matched our lines) that someone had evidently lost trying to grab a mooring.

We took the Whaler over to Rocky Dundas to snorkel the caves there that are every bit as good as Thunderball, with less people! We were the only ones there! I was wondering if my memory would help me find the entrance, but the Land and Sea Park has put moorings outside the entrances, so they are easy to find now! Once again, the caves are hidden at high tide, but at low tide, have a few inch opening above the waterline.

Big Majors Spot, Staniel Cay, and Thunderball Cave

We had such a great time at Black Point that it was difficult to leave. But, the summer was flying away, and we still had a lot of ground to cover before getting Allen home in time for school.

Allen windsurfed for the rest of the morning, and around 1pm we left the cove. We went out around Harvey Cay and headed in towards Staniel Cay, and then turned to anchor off Big Majors Spot, a place that I had been before. We anchored amidst a bunch of huge yachts, and I wondered how many of those folks had ever had the opportunity to experience the great things that we did in our out of the way places.

We went in close to Big Majors Spot to look at the pigs that swim out to the boat for snacks. We watched some others feeding them, but, they left us as quickly as they realized we hadn't brought food to share.

From there we went around the end of the island, to Thunderball Cave. This small island has an interesting domed shaped grotto with a cavern whose rim is underwater at high tide. It isn't dark on the inside, due to the sun coming through a hole in the roof. This site was used in the filming of James Bond 007's Thunderball, and the thousands of tropicals have grown accustomed to tourists feeding them. The sergeant majors approach in droves. It is fun snorkeling under the rim and coming up in the cavern, and then going from section to section. There were a lot of folks that came while we were there, but the current and high tide inhibited some of the folks who weren't used to snorkeling.

When we left the cave, we idled around the side of Staniel Cay, which has grown up a lot since I was there last, and circumnavigated Big Majors Spot before returning to the boat.

Allen windsurfed around again that evening.