Big Majors Spot, Exumas.

Swiftwing
Sun 26 Apr 2009 15:35
Five miles on from Black Point is Staniel Cay and Big Majors Spot. I wanted to go here to dive into the 'Thunderball Cave' of James Bond fame from the film by that name and to see Bacon Sandwich and Pork Chop, a couple of the local feral swimming pigs. I'll show you them first as they are much more interesting than pictures of caves and beaches.
Feral pigs being fed on the beach but we weren't going to let them off so lightly.
Bacon Sandwich spots Bev's bag of goodies and swims  straight out for the boat.
 
He collects his cabbage stalk and chases it around the dinghy.
 
Pork Chop thinks that he is missing out and seconds later tries to get into the dinghy after the bag of goodies.
 
Bacon Sandwich having got the lions share, Pork Chop heads off with his nose in the air. You've never seen pigs this clean. We got out of there fairly quickly as I thought they might burst the dinghy.
 
Aha Mr. Bond you would never suspect that this is a submarine pen. The 'Thunderball' island which looks like a mushroom.
About to dive for the entrance.
There was quite a tide running through the cave so Bev decided to stay outside in the dinghy. The inside was completely hollowed out to the top of the island and was completely smooth inside. There were a couple of holes at the top allowing quite a lot of light in. I'm sorry that I don't have a picture of the inside but I left the camera in the dinghy and it was quite a swim against the current to get back out.
 
The whole rocky coastline was eroded away like this.
The water was so clear that we could see our whole anchor chain in fifteen feet of water.
Somebody's dream ended here in our anchorage. This boat was about 45 feet long and made of fibreglass. It didn't look as if she had been here long but had already been stripped of anything salvageable; even the teak planking from the cockpit had been removed.
 
Fairly typical American style boat with a centre cockpit. The sprayhood on this type of boat stands about five feet high and resembles a greenhouse.
 
Again fairly typical. Three hundred and sixty odd islands in the Exuma chain and quite a number of them have no housing at all one holiday house.  This one was closed up when we passed.
 
This is on the chart as a shallow passage into this anchorage. It must only have clearance of a couple of inches at high tide!
Swiftwing at anchor with washing out to dry.
 
Rock head at the entrance to the anchorage. The tide rips through here creating overfalls along the Staniel channel.
That's all for now.