I Love Compass Cay, Part II

As you all know, we arrived Friday morning (yesterday) here at Compass Cay Marina.  It is a gem of a place famous for the sharks you can swim with or pet or just watch from the dock.  It's interest because it's pristine and clean and small but clearly a favorite of many yachters...big ones.  We are the smallest boat here by 20 feet easily; however, the folks who come here and live here for a month or two or six are all so nice and make you feel welcome.  The owner Tucker Rolle is a legend from what I can tell and has visitors that run the gambit from tour boats from Staniel to vacationing families from Staniel to huge motor yachts to celebrities to little ol' Stray Cat.

You may recall from my manic post yesterday that we finally enjoyed breakfast beers upon our arrival.  We also got to bet the sharks since they were still up on the dock in the high tide.  Of course we swam with them too!  Those who follow our S/V Stray Cat Facebook page saw the video of Mark in the water with them.  We'll have to load it to YouTube and update this blog when we can--it's very very very cool.  Never fear, Jon and I got in soon thereafter.  It was wonderful to sit and relax and drink beer a the little marina and chit chat with some of the other boats.  This included a 91 year old WWII veteran who was here on a 70 foot wooden sailboat.  I still do not believe he was 91...so active and engaging!  What an honor to meet a veteran from the greatest generation.  Also we met a lovely lady named Robin who it turns out is the daughter of the man who wrote The Secret Life of Plants,  Peter Tompkins, and her brother is also an author, Ptolemy Tompkins.  They were delayed in their departure due to broken engine mounts...see, even yachts have boat troubles.  We had skipped actual food for breakfast so were very happy to eat up some awesome burgers that the staff prepared.

After that we took a walk over to Crescent Beach--whoa, so gorgeous and we had it all to ourselves.  I mean three other people came along but still, this is exactly what we were looking for...deserted beach, warm blue water.  How can we ever leave this place?

There's the guy who brought me to the Bahamas!

Our memento...Gadino Petit Verdot

Posing with our bottle ;-)

Jon and his posse

I stayed in last night but the fellas got the chance to hang out with the other boats and crew at the marina...talking boats and airplanes into the night.  That's right up their alley!  Today we got up at our leisure and I had to deal with frustrating insurance issues which put me in a funk.  Jon was smart and just got away from me (Jon is indeed a wise wise man), but Mark tried to make me feel better and ease my wrath.  This may surprise many of you but I am not exactly the easiest person to deal with...no no it's true, shocking but true.  Ha!  I don't know why I have to be like that...Mark says he doesn't know why either.

After that foolishness, I got my act together and we went out in the dinghy to find Rachel's Bubble Bath on the north side of the Cay.  It was a good trip over and a short and pleasant walk along a salt water creek to the formation.  And it was beautiful.  Again, pictures below are worth a thousand words but not even close to what we experienced with our own eyes.

There it is

The water coming in from the Sound...it was a harsh narrow and rocky cut that lead to quiet pool

What it looks like from the Bath side

My attempt at a cool GoPro shot

When we returned it was cheeseburger time!!  After a tour boat left we watched a couple of the boat owners clean mahi mahi they had caught a few hours earlier.  I hope Jon was proud to know that he caught one as big if not bigger than theirs and cleaned it like professionals too...and on the back of a pitching and rolling boat in the Tongue of the Ocean to boot!  No fish cleaning tables here, heck no!  A cute blond visitor got to feed the skin to the sharks and when she left, I got a chance...even got to do it twice and I did team Stray Cat proud.  No screaming and dropping the skin--I held on and was not a girl about it at all!  Plus, we even got a few filets to have for ourselves...I got the filets that is, by sitting patiently and quietly and cutely.  Actually it was really nice of them and I appreciated it very much.  Fresh fish for breakfast tomorrow!!!  Here is the video that Jon took! http://youtu.be/JOousAWEhFw

Afterwards, I made Mark go for a walk to the low tide airstrip with me and we paid a last quick visit to Crescent Beach on the way back.  The guys had a final cocktail night over at the marina and I did (as you can see) major blog updating finally.  We are leaving in the morning and, am I nuts or can I already hear the wind picking up...do we know how to time our departures or what?!  We are heading to Big Major's Cay tomorrow to see the pigs then over to Staniel to do some provisioning and laundry.  Ha, we go from swimming with sharks and feeding them to doing laundry.  That sounds about right.

On the airstrip

Old plane washing well

Low tide, clearly

Last walk on Crescent Beach

A dude just trying to cross the path

This has been another wonderful stop and I know why people come back year after year...maybe this is our new vacation spot since we want to take a break from Key West anyway.  Wow and you are all caught up!  Talk to you soon--swimming pigs, people...swimming pigs!