December 18 – 23, 2012
Our week at Big Majors Spot was a whirlwind of activity.
Daily, Colin would finish school early, so he could play with the boys from What If and Good Trade. Justine and Colin worked extremely hard to complete all schoolwork that needed finishing before the Christmas holiday.
Each afternoon, we either snorkeled or explored the surrounding areas. Periodically, Wil would try his hand at spearfishing, but with no luck. We snorkeled in the Thunderball Grotto, a cave famous for its part in the filming of the James Bond movie, Thunderball.
west entrance to Thunderball Grotto
getting ready to snorkel Thunderball Grotto
Colin and Justine experienced their first large barracuda while snorkeling. Justine and I (along with Kris from What If and Kyler from Good Trade) were ahead of Colin and Derek from What If. We came across a large barracuda and watched as it lingered near us. Soon, it started heading in the direction of Colin and Derek. I alerted the boys, letting them know that the barracuda was headed towards them. Suddenly, we heard what sounded like two girls shrieking. The boys were screaming like frightened girls as they scrambled into the closest dinghy. We couldn’t help but laugh!
One day there was some swell breaking at a small inlet nearby, so I drove Wil and the paddleboard over for a quick surf session. It had been such a long time since Wil had surfed, so he was a bit wobbly in the beginning. However, he quickly found his footing and proceeded to catch about a dozen waves. He was a new man afterwards!
Due to a wind shift, we all eventually moved from the north tip of Big Majors Spot around to the southwestern side near Pig Beach. Daily we could watch tourists and boaters visit the pigs with treats in hand. Each morning, a local boat would dump a trash can full of scraps on the beach for them. The pigs would start squealing and immediately swim out to greet arriving boats.
pigs swimming out to greet a tour boat
Simon from Cat arrived to spend Christmas with us. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner onboard his boat one evening. His offer to cook dinner for us came at a perfect moment because it was almost dinnertime, I had no idea what to cook, and I was wishing we could go out to eat just once. Somehow he must have known!
We spent much of our socializing time with What If, Good Trade, Tangerine Dream, and Cat. The anchorage gradually filled up with many more boats arriving for Christmas festivities.
Wildlife seen during our stay at Big Majors Spot: nurse sharks, a green sea turtle, barracuda, large sting rays, starfish, gars, snapper, grouper, and many other varieties of fish.
