Cat and Gun Cays

Monday

Happy Fourth of July! Becca says Carl does not have to go to Instagram to see beautiful boats/yachts, he just has to look up to see amazing size, awesome power. Today, after a cinnamon bun, we set sail for Cat and Gun Cays to snorkel, swim with the rays, and just to enjoy this incredible blue and green water. Crystal clear with tons of fish nibbling on the coral fans, this is a very healthy reef. Purple fan coral, yellow brain coral, coral on stalks and many hiding holes, makes it's hard sometimes to see the more stealthy fish - but I guess that's the point. Carl goes off with Dave spear fishing, and Becca and I are moving along the edge pointing out parrot fish, trigger fish, all kinds of butterfly fish and fish will will only have in memory. Until, happily tooling along the reef, we both see a reef shark coming up right below us. It was about as big as Becca, and we both start paddling away from it. Thank goodness we are together for protection and to corroborate our story. Suddenly Carl is there, warning us about the shark - which curiously had come up to him and he poked with his spear to move it away. Needless to say, our adrenalin was pumping like crazy. We snorkeled some more along the point - but were very wary now. Tom said it was a privilege to see a shark in it's natural environment. Dave returned with a lion fish and Carl with a small trigger fish, both of which Dave made into ceviche later. There was much discussion about that lion fish with it's bright orange color and porcupine quills for fins. For closer access to the beach, we sailed around Gun Cay and anchored. Still a little spooked, we blew up the paddle boards to transport our bait, beer and bodies to the shallow sand, as rays and nurse sharks were swimming around. The sharks were skittish, the rays more curious. I didn't know how to feed them, and my first attempts to toss the fish bits to them were unsuccessful. I noticed that they came toward Carl when he held the Go-pro under the water, so I tried that with a piece of fish and the ray came right at me - full force. I dropped the fish, jumped back and the ray pounced. It followed me for more! This was fun and I got comfortable with them coming in hot. This spot was like Beer Can Island - beer, boats and music, though Carl says the boats are bigger here. When we got back, Dave had our ceviche snack ready to enjoy and we chilled back to Bimini, sails out and cruising. Dinner was a potato, cauliflower, and lobster (forgot to mention those) cake with fried zucchini and salad. After dark, a great fireworks display on the north end of the island (the Cuban's resort/casino) and we headed to Big Game, thinking there would be a big party. Nope, we were almost the only ones there - but we had fun. After a drink, a couple of games of pool, with much instruction and a few games of corn hole, we were ready to call it quits for the 4th - one we'll aways remember!