Thursday March 28, 2024 Conception Island to Rum Cay

Deb here. Excitement today, since we made the decision last night to head to Rum Cay instead of back to Cat Island. Hannah and Erick had never made it to Rum Cay and were curious to check out this island, about 10 miles from Conception Island.

We got underway and had delicious homemade sourdough toast for breakfast. We arrived at Rum Cay by 10:30 or so. A bit later we loaded into the dinghy and headed to the government dock, which had been rebuilt recently. Rum Cay has a total of about 90 residents, and when we docked we learned that a “Grill and Chill” party was happening at 1 that afternoon for residents, involving ribs, chicken and a party. The few locals there were really welcoming, and we walked on to check out the town.

Intel from a couple of boaters we’d met was that Kay’s is a not-to-be-missed restaurant, and we saw Kay’s as we started our walk. We went inside Kay’s “Sand Bar '' (which really is a bar with sand on the floor) and talked with a few people hanging out. One woman, Sue, lives in Gila, NM now but lived in Bisbee for 15 years back in the 1970’s to mid-1980’s bartending at the Copper Queen and climbing the stairs to High Street at the end of her shift. We met Kay and asked about dinner, but she said we’d better return tomorrow since the Grill and Chill was taking place that afternoon.

We continued on and it was a hot sunny walk to the point and the site of the old marina. Apparently a hurricane really devastated this Cay in 2017, and the island has never fully recovered. Lots of goats were wandering around, and Sue had warned us that the goat situation had gotten out of hand.

Back to the dinghy and out to the boat for lunch. The Grill and Chill still hadn’t gotten started, so we thought lunch on the boat was a better option. Hannah put together tasty half BLT’s on homemade bread, which we enjoyed with Erick’s pasta salad from the day before. These two really know how to eat well!

After lunch we climbed back into the dinghy for snorkeling. We checked out some coral heads not far from Bonnie Lynn, and although not the greatest snorkeling in Erick and Hannah’s opinion, John and I were pretty happy to see colorful fish…. those blues and yellows are especially stunning. John got a bit more excitement than he’d wished for, coming face to face with a large shark as he was snorkeling. He wasn’t sure how to respond, but the shark swam off away from him. Hannah guessed it was a nurse shark and asked John what it looked like, to which he replied “big”!

Post-snorkeling we all rinsed off, changed, and had rum drinks and snacks. Erick and Hannah taught us the High Stakes version of Farkel, which John won. Erick made incredible cracked conch for dinner, which he served with a huge cabbage salad made by Hannah. Coconut ice cream for dessert and off to bed. Another wonderful day.