June 2, 2019: Honeymoonin
After spending a couple of days on an island populated with tourists, we decided it was time to find an abandoned island to ourselves. Before heading off we needed to do a little bit of provisioning. As we took the dinghy to shore, we were having issues with a fuel line. Needing to swap it out we pulled/rowed the dinghy (endearingly named piccolo) back to the big boat. We weren’t too far, but as power boater after power boater came by, no one gave us a tow.
Once we got the dinghy going, we hunted around for food. What we hadn’t thought of was that it was Sunday and everything had closed early or hadn’t opened at all. We ended up buying 2L cokes at Big Game for $12. It was around 3pm when we finally weighed anchor and set off to Honeymoon Harbor. With little wind we motored for 2 hours to get there. When we got there the beach was littered with power boats and a boat was in the spot that we had initially wanted to anchor. They soon rushed out of there and it was three boats left including us. We decided to take a dinghy ride around the island and if the spot was still open when we got back, we’d move the boat. When we got back it was already taken by a catamaran. Darn! The boat was a bit rocky, but not intolerable.
June 3, 2019: Throwin Tuuci Shade
Today was the day we’d explore the Gun Cay and hike to the lighthouse at the southern tip. We ended up walking the beach, trudging through brush, and walking on some rough rocks to get there, but it was definitely worth it.
We even stumbled across a photo shoot for Tuuci Shade. We had seen three figures carrying something up the beach and after exploring the lighthouse we walked over to check out what they were doing. It turns out they had set up a bright yellow umbrella and there was a powerboat with two large cameras and a drone taking photos of it was the lighthouse in the background. After talking to the guys for a bit, they got a call on the radio where the director asked us to stick around and “stumble upon” the umbrella. It was a somewhat awkward but fun photoshoot.
We took the opposite side of the island back to the boat and rewarded ourselves with some hammock time at sunset and finally let the sting rays come close to us. We would later learn that there is a sanctuary close by where the stingers are cut from the rays so they are completely harmless.
June 4, 2019: Chillin
Because I had enjoyed our day here, I convinced Josh to stay one more. We made it into a beach day and hung out with the rays and nurse sharks. We met another couple who had anchored close to us and had a bonfire on the beach. We got some intel from another group that told us there was nothing on Browns or Oceans Cay but we could still go on the beach. Perfect. Just what we were looking for.
