Bridge Inn Cat Island

... followed supper up with a short stop at our rooms where Andy gave Mom her birthday present. He intended to give it to her at dinner but forgot to bring it with him, so we did it in our stateroom instead. It was a lovely set of silver-grey freshwater pearl earrings. A very nice choice that he bought on the ship. After that we all went for a night time swim in the pools. It was really nice, and kind of odd as with the ship rocking back and forth the water in the pools would ...

... aquamarine water... we were also greeted by the local stingray..... and a little historical tour of the island..... and a moment on a sandbar.... This is privately owned cay (pronounced as key) ... 44 of them owned by one person. <br><br>I would say this is one real Bahamas......

On our way to the island tour, we were welcomed by a friendly stingray and gave us the experience of being suctioned by its mouth as we tried to feed him. But then, he realized that we don't have any food for him so eventually, he left but gave us the knowledge of not fearing them. They are gentle creatures of the sea.

A different kind of experience... feeding shark in broad daylight.....shoreside.....<br><br>Free port has one at Pier One, but you are like so high above the waters and in the evening. So all you are seeing are but splashes made by the shark as they feed. <br><br>Here, you will see the entire length of the shark under the very crystal clear waters, just one meter high.<br><br>

... case bread and feed it to them. Then a frenzy begins, in which the fish swarm you in search of goodies, the odd finger or body part might get involved in it, but no blood is drawn..... We also had the pleasure of dining at the yacht club where most of us had the Bahamian favourite, Conch Burger which comes in small battered pieces and tastes similar to calamari. Very Yummy. Much to Tom and Harri's disappointment this is where O'Vive left us to head for home, their company sorley missed.

... of washing. From where Bella is anchored over to the main town is a 10 min dinghy ride and in most conditions would not be a problem except for now. With little choice but to use the Laundromat Pete and I filled the dinghy with dirty washing and set off. The ride over is not so bad with the wind and waves on our backs it looks quite benign but with two large sacks of washing and the wind and waves on our bow, the return ride is somewhat different. We were prepared to get wet ...

... It's an all-too-real reminder of "there but for the Grace of God go we!" We rounded the high dunes to port and entered Thunderball (where 007 was filmed) where there are moorings and past Thunderball Cave to Staniel Cay Yacht Club Marina. We passed the Thunderball Grotto which is a sky lit underwater cave featured in several films including the 007 Film. We'll stop here ...

Bahamas Beach house of 3 1/4 acres The Boathouse is located on Pigeon Cay beach, in easy walking distance to the Pigeon Cay Beach Club. Our 3 1/4 acre property has a breathtaking, white sand private beach on the warm and gin clear water of the sea. Pigeon Cay is located on the leeward side of Cat Island making for calm waters &amp; beautiful clean beaches. Our beach is ...

... down so that you thought ' surely the bottom's gonna be taken out at any moment! '. And the next minute you were being rocked so severely that the passengers on the other side of the boat were either 5 ft above you or 5 ft below you ! And I really thought it was quite fun, it was a real thing of ' lifeboats wobble but they don't capsise ' you know , like the weebles ! Despite all the odds we arrived safely and, for once, I had no inclination to chuck up at all!

Away from the madhouse at Miami airport and we were please that we had not taken any check-in baggage, since the check-in line was so long we would have missed our flight! Then before we knew it, we were up up and away from the US for a week to the blissful islands of The Bahamas in the Caribbean. Our initial idea had been to stay in Nassau on Paradise Island since the flight went there, but after some research we opted to fly again from Nassau to a small ...