…went to the beach!
And this little piggy…decided he better come too because it is so freaking gorgeous here in the Bahamas!!!!!!!!!
And duh, they totally set up shop because who wouldn’t want to build their home at one of the most beautiful places on Earth? ;))
These adorable pigs are living on what’s commonly referred to as “Pig Beach” here in the Exumas. And Pig Beach has always been at the very top of my must-see-and-do list since we started planning this little adventure. It’s technically the tiny uninhabited island known as Big Major’s Spot…adjacent to Staniel Cay.
For a few nights, we anchored right in front of pig beach. There are about 10 to 20 pigs living on the island with several theories on how they originated. Some say the pigs were dropped off on Big Major by a group of sailors who wanted to come back and cook them. The sailors, though, never returned; the pigs survived on excess food dumped from passing ships. One other legend has it that the pigs were survivors of a shipwreck and managed to swim to shore, while another claims that the pigs had escaped from a nearby islet.
In any case, they’ve definitely grown accustomed to people visiting by boat and bringing food scraps and tasty treats. While anchored right off the beach, we watched numerous dinghies and small powerboats mosey over to the island and feed the pigs. Believe me, they have the routine down pat, and are basically waiting in the wings until they hear the dinner bell, aka an engine approaching their beach. Then, they all scurry out of the trees and bushes and a few even get in the water and swim to the boats. This process repeats itself many times each day.
We waited until there weren’t any boats ashore and headed over to feed the pigs ourselves.
We didn’t have any “fresh” food (carrots, lettuce, that sort of thing) that we were willing to part ways with so we opted for some equally delicious saltine crackers. ;)) Okay, probably not equally as delicious, but saltine crackers are one pantry item we could definitely afford to give up.
As expected, the pigs immediately ran out as we approached the beach, and a few even swam out greet us! They are pretty fast swimmers believe it or not. But not as agile as those darn seagulls that scooped in to grab way more crackers than the pigs were able to while paddling in the water. Poor guys.
We didn’t really want any of the huge oinkers to try and hop in our dink, so I quickly jumped out with the GoPro and crackers in hand while Jer secretly dinghied aways down the beach to “park” the dinghy.
The family of pigs weren’t aggressive at all *with us* although they eagerly approached and kept opening their mouths for food. The big momma pigs did seem a little intimidating at first simply based on their massive size. But they all quickly settled down once we had run out of crackers and held up our empty hands to show them “no more food.” :))) They may or may not have actually gummed at Jer’s pockets after he stowed the plastic wrapper from the empty cracker sleeve. I think that may have freaked Jer out a little.
We hung out with the whole group of pigs for about 30 minutes…taking TONS of photos and some GoPro footage, and possibly even sneaking a few pets. ;))
This gold little spotted pig was my favorite. With the two pink piglets a close second.
Once we had soaked up the total “pig beach” experience we casually walked down to our dinghy (surprisingly without being followed) and dinghied away as another boat was headed to shore.
What’s not to LOVE about beach piggies, right? It was an AWESOME experience! Check out our fun little GoPro video of Pig Beach at Big Major’s Spot in the Exumas…
>>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing, as we cruise the Bahamas + Caribbean. …Learn more about us and our sailing + cruising adventures.
Posted in Bahamas, Boat Life, Sailing Blog, Sailing Love, TravelTags: Bahamas, Big Majors, Caribbean, Cruising, Exumas, LahoWind, Pig Beach, Sailing Blog, Staniel Cay, Swim with Pigs
So, I’m gonna talk about a ton or random stuff today. ;))
We sailed south from Staniel Cay the other day after a great few days anchored off of Big Major’s Spot. We didn’t do a ton at Staniel’s other than feed the pigs at the infamous “pig beach,” swim the super amazing thunderball grotto (video coming soon!), and walk around town a bit. It’s a cute little island and the Yacht Club is a great spot for lunch and drinks!
Plus, there is pretty bougainvillea everywhere on the island!!! My favorite!
Meanwhile, we are now anchored here in Blackpoint, Exumas just catching up on a few to-do’s, like our massive bag of dirty laundry that was so huge it took an entire day to clean. :(( I still can’t figure out how we seem to amass SO MUCH dirty laundry when all we’re wearing are a few swimsuits and coverups. But you should see the laundromat here…it’s awesome and has one of the best views ever!
We’re also thoroughly loving the FREE wifi all over the island! Unfortunately, it’s not totally available on the boat, but is still totally awesome, fast, and free pretty much anywhere here in town.
On Saturday, Jer and I met up with our new cruising friends on s/v Anthyllide for what I am lovingly calling a “hike-a-thon” of mega proportions, where we hiked all the way to the “white horse” cliffs here on Great Guana Cay (basically the cliffs overlooking Dotham Cut).
The hike was amazingly beautiful and we had an awesome time hanging with Kim and Scott on s/v Anthyllide! Blog post from our hike (with LOTS of pretty photos) coming soon!
Oh and we learned another very important lesson the other day…do NOT store crappy Walmart brand water jugs in your dry bag/ditch bag because they will bust open and turn the “dry” bag into a “wet” bag. Awesome. Thanks a lot Walmart for your dud-quality plastic bottles. They work like a charm. Not! Thank god I put everything else in ziplocs or our emergency dry bag would’ve been a wreck. (PS – We weren’t needing to use it or anything, just cleaning out our storage area on the boat.)
Hmmmm, I also read two books this past week. My Kindle Paperwhite continues to be one of my favorite items on board. Without wifi available at all times, it’s definitely nice to have a good stash of ebooks at hand. Speaking of which, I really should download a few more while we actually have decent wifi access here in Blackpoint.
Does anyone else have the same crazy need to keep the floors in your house/boat/etc. clean from crumbs (and sand in our case) at all times??? It drives me nuts to walk barefoot and feel morsels of who-knows-what stuck to my feet. Which is why when we lived in Naples, I probably vacuumed once per day at our house, if not more. Feel free to call me crazy!
But now that we are on the boat, I’ve succumbed to “foot-mopping” as I like to call it, where I take a piece of wet paper towel and proceed to drag it under my foot along the boat floor, trying to get deep into the edges and pick up as much sand as I can with one continuous sweep. We do actually have one of those bucket head vacs on the boat, but dragging it out of the cockpit locker is a royal pain and it sucks up a decent amount of power. Â I’ll stick to foot-mopping for now. ;))
And I finally busted out my Starbuck’s vanilla latte singles I’d been hoarding for the past month and a half. Boy am I going to be sad when they’re gone. They are so easy to make and muy delicioso! Ahhhh, I miss Starbucks.
^^btw, local fresh coconut bread makes killer toast — it almost tastes like french toast if you just drizzle on some syrup!^^
Hope everyone has a fabulous Tuesday!
xoxo
>>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing, as we cruise the Bahamas + Caribbean. …Learn more about us and our sailing + cruising adventures.
Posted in Bahamas, Boat Life, Other, Sailing Blog, Sailing Love, TravelTags: Bahamas, Caribbean, Cruising, Exumas, LahoWind, Sailing Blog, Tuesday Tell-Tales
It’s SO nice to have finally made it down to the E-X-U-M-A-S!
From what we’ve read and heard, the Exumas (a district of the Bahamas consisting of over 360 islands) are supposed to be some of the best cruising grounds in the world. And so far, they’ve definitely lived up to that reputation!!!
After our time in the Berry Islands, we stopped over in Nassau (West Bay) for one night and then sailed straight to Highbourne Cay at the north end of the Exuma chain. When we arrived at Highbourne Cay around 6:30PM, the main anchorage on the west side of the island was pretty crowded, but we were able to carve out a nice slice of water to anchor and ended up staying put for the next two nights.
Highbourne Cay is a private island, but visitors are welcome in the marina. And let me just tell ya…the marina facilities are some of the nicest we’ve seen. Strike that. They are definitely THE nicest.
We made sure to take advantage of their awesome marina grocery store and stocked up the boat with lots of fresh stuff we’d been out of for a few weeks. We picked up two packages of frozen chicken breasts, romaine, multiple packages of cheese (of course!), eggs, bread, bagels, broccoli, green beans, tomatoes, sour cream, and probably a few other things I’m forgetting. Everything was definitely much more expensive than we are used to back at home, but it was certainly nice to find a store that was well-stocked, super clean, and had tons of options when it came to produce.
While we were there, we treated ourselves to a nice little lunch at the marina restaurant, Exuma, perched at the very top of the hill overlooking the ocean. The food sure was awesome, but cost us a pretty penny!
Jereme had a killer burger and I was craving veggies so I indulged in a wedge salad for lunch. Both were dee-lish! We may or may not have also enjoyed a few frozen drinks too! :))
We haven’t had a nice lunch outing like that in forever, so it was a big treat for us, and we made sure to live it up.
The marina might be pretty darn nice, but I’m not sure it’s the place I would want to jump in for a swim if you know what I mean… ;))
A big family of nurse sharks apparently hangs out by the marina and beach, and have become so-called “pets” to the marina. It felt strange to dinghy over this group of “pets.” ;))
And although we were anchored directly in front of the Batelco tower, we still couldn’t get our wifi to work while we were in Highbourne. I think it might have worked once for about 2.5 seconds and I was miracuously able to press send on an email to family.
After two nights in Highbourne, we headed south a tiny ways to Norman’s Cay. Norman’s Cay has quite the colorful history seeing as its claim to fame is that it was under control by drug lord Carols Lehder decades ago. In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, Norman’s was used as the base of a very profitable cocaine smuggling operation. In 1978, Lehder came onto Norman’s and began buying up most of the property, all while running the locals out of and off of the island. He bought a house for himself, along with a hotel and airstrip to help aide in his drug smuggling.
We stuck around Norman’s for two nights, but only because we arrived pretty late in the evening the first night and wanted a full day to explore.
Unfortunately, Norman’s Cay was kind of a bust for us. The island is currently undergoing some major construction and we were surrounded by the sounds of dump trucks and other construction vehicles pretty much the entire time. Not exactly “paradise found” if you know what I mean. We also tried to go to the one restaurant on the island, McDuff’s, but they happened to be closed the day we went. And our attempt to scope out the famous plane wreckage in the lagoon was squashed when we realized conditions at the tip of the island were far to rough for our dinghy.
Maybe we’ll stop back at Norman’s Cay on a future cruise and see if we have better luck!
>>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing, as we cruise the Bahamas + Caribbean. …Learn more about us and our sailing + cruising adventures.
Posted in Bahamas, Sailing Blog, Sailing Love, TravelTags: Bahamas, Caribbean, Cruising, Exumas, Highbourne Cay, LahoWind, Norman's Cay, Sailboat, Sailing Blog, Young Couple
Sadly, I haven’t looked at a calendar in a week or two, and just realized that I clearly missed our 1-month cruising anniversary which happened to be back in April. Who knew it was already May? Sheesh! Time flies when you’re having fun. And I guess that’s what happens when you become so disconnected from the real world, or a decent wifi connection in our case.
Seeing as we are just a little over a month into cruising, I thought what better time to chat about the lessons we’ve learned thus far.
And boy, are there plenty! ;))
I could probably write a whole book on these so-called lessons, but here are our TOP 10 (okay fine 11) lessons learned (in our first month of cruising) that stick out like a sore thumb. I’m sure we will have plenty more lessons in our cruising future.
1. Purchase the appropriate mobile hotspot device for the Bahamas’ Batelco 3G GSM network. 3G people. Not 2G. Unless of course you want limited to zero internet access like we’ve had for the past few weeks.
2. Be extra super duper careful stepping down the companionway stairs after you’ve had a few (ahem alcoholic) drinks or your tushy may break a few stairs on the fall down. Just ask Jereme. ;))
3. Stowage 101. We are still learning this valuable lesson. One day we will properly stow our boat before getting underway and not have to scramble when crap starts flying everywhere.
4. Don’t broil with the oven door cracked (like I’ve done my whole life) because it melts the temperature control knobs. :((
5. Whatever you do, do NOT buy a Davis brand mast light. I’m guessing some fellow cruisers who have anchored near us probably just assume we’re jerks who don’t turn on our mast light at night. But we actually do! Every night. Except with our crappy Davis light (which we just had installed in Marathon before we crossed over to the Bahamas), we might as well be the furthest star in the galaxy. That’s how dull our light is. Luckily, we have a awesome Luci light (solar powered) hanging in our cockpit that we turn on most nights too (thanks EB!!!).
6. Do NOT buy the 2-gallon water jugs with the stupid retractable spout. They leak. Like crazytown.
7. Purchase a full fiberglass dinghy. Not the wood-backed kind like the one that came with our boat at purchase. I’m thinking we are about to learn how fast that wood rots. :((( More wood work in Jer’s future.
8. Definitely do NOT try to swim off the back of the boat while moored in a channel with strong current. I learned this lesson the hard way. Thankfully, Jereme was able to save me by swimming back to the boat and getting the dinghy. Meanwhile, I had floated downstream and was holding onto another boat’s mooring line. Awesome.
^^Right before I thought it would be a fabulous idea to swim behind the boat. Thank god there aren’t any photos of the aftermath. lol!^^ 9. Make sure all of your hatches are tightly secured when cruising, even the one located beneath the dinghy that’s stowed on deck, or you might end up with a very wet and salty bed from water intrusion after a few waves crash the front of the boat.
10. Invest in a waterproof phone case. Again, just ask Jereme. Or read about his fun falling-out-of-the-dinghy experience.
11. And don’t stress about over provisioning when it comes to non-perishable food. As long as you can stow it somewhere on the boat, it is not a bad thing at all in my opinion. And stock up on things you probably can’t get in the islands. I’m so glad we (ahem me) stocked up like the world was ending because food is super expensive at all the tiny grocery stores we’ve visited thus far, and it is WAY different than shopping at Publix (Florida peeps know what I’m talking about!). We have been so thrilled to have lots of fun snacks (chips/crackers/cheese/etc.) as well as muffin/cookie/bread/pizza dough mixes that only require water to make. The last store we were at in Highbourne Cay had a bag of Doritos for $9. Just saying.
I am sure there will be many more lessons in our near future. ;))
>>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing, as we cruise the Bahamas + Caribbean. …Learn more about us and our sailing + cruising adventures.
Posted in Boat Life, Other, Sailing BlogTags: Bahamas, Caribbean, Cruising, LahoWind, Lessons Learned, New Sailors, Sailboat, Sailing Blog, Young Couple
Jereme and I worked our way down the Berry Islands last week, hitting the south end of Hoffman’s Cay for one night.
We left the west side of Great Harbour Cay and motorsailed (due to a total lack of wind) a little ways down the chain of islands, past Market Fish and Soldier Cays, in addition to a few other tiny islands. It took us less than 3 hours to sail down to the south end of Hoffman’s.
Along the way, we caught another stupid barracuda…they are such a pain to take off the hook.
I think this guy might have followed us all the way from Great Harbour Cay, where I’m pretty sure he was living under our boat for the past couple of days. ;))
Without any civilization on the island, Hoffman’s Cay is a gorgeous spot to snorkel, dinghy through the crystal clear waters, and just enjoy the simplicity of cruising.
We spotted tons of sealife just cruising around the tip of Hoffman’s Cay, including lots of stingrays, a few sea turtles, a shark, and plenty of fish.
There’s also what’s known as a “blue hole” on the island, which is really the main reason we anchored at Hoffman’s for the night.
What’s a blue hole you might be wondering?
Here in the bahamas, there are several of these “blue holes,” which are basically underwater limestone sinkholes, or vertical caves, that go hundreds and hundreds of feet deep. At this particular blue hole, the water is saltwater.
We could easily spot the blue hole on our Explorer charts, but used another cruiser’s notes in Active Captain for intel on where we should actually land the dinghy in order to find the hiking trail that leads up to the hole.
The notes indicated to take the second beach from the southeast side of Hoffman’s and they were spot on! We landed the dinghy at a small beach where a former Boot Key Harbor catamaran, Wind Fall, was anchored. It’s such a small world because we met this boat in Marathon and saw them again in Great Harbour Cay, and now here they are once again at Hoffman’s Cay! We chatted with them for a bit and then went on our merry way to hike up to the blue hole.
It was an easy 10-minute hike through a narrow tree-covered path, with Oliver blazing the trail, of course. ;)) He was always the first in our party to spot the cool looking lizards (much different than the regular old ones we have all over the place in Florida).
You know you’re at the right spot when you see this…
Pretty neat, huh?
But then we realized there was another tiny trail that led down to the water and under the cliff edge. We checked out the scene, had a few cold drinks, and snapped a few photos, and headed back.
I’m guessing some folks might actually get in the water and swim, but neither Jer or I were interested in swimming with whatever creatures lurk beneath the deep blue water.  Although I’ve read that the water circulation is poor in these blue holes, thus creating a rather unfavorable environment for most sea life.
Our single night stopover at Hoffman’s Cay was pretty great and gave us one of the best sunsets we’ve seen yet!
Posted in Bahamas, Boat Life, Sailing Blog, Sailing Love, TravelTags: Bahamas, Berry Islands, Blue Hole, Boat Dog, Caribbean, Cruising, Hoffmans Cay, LahoWind, Sailboat, Sailing Blog, Young Couple
|
[…] be using ^^this photo^^ of my favorite island piggies from the Exumas, Bahamas to demonstrate sharpening because, seriously, how much fun is it to stare at zoomed in granuals of […]
[…] “This Little Piggy” – Oh hello, swimming with pigs on a secluded beach? Yes, please! One of my favorite […]
[…] Pigs Beach Exuma, Bahamas: Pigs beach, located on Big Major Cay, an uninhabited island and popular anchorage in Exuma, is home to many wild pigs that are very good swimmers. In fact, the swimming pigs have become the most famous attraction in the area. They swim right alongside people; they even swim up to the boats that anchor, hopping to get some food scraps and treats. Image via LAHO Wind Sailing Blog. […]
[…] source […]
[…] in the clearest turquoise blue waters I could ever imagine, found and harvested live conch, fed beach pigs in the Exumas, swam with stingrays in the Berry Islands and sea turtles in Culebra, hiked […]
I love your photos! I’m on my way to the exumas as we speak! I’m sure this is a little random but I love that beach cover up…the red and pink…I need it in my life! Do you mind sharing where you found it? Thanks and happy travels 🙂
[…] you want to check out any of our other videos… (Pig Beach in the Exumas + Swimming with Sea Turtles + of course, Oliver’s video I Luh Ya Puppy! are my close […]