Highborne Cay

We arrived in Highborne Cay today and what a beautiful island.  We made a special trip here to see the island because we just finished a book called “Life on a Rock” by Kate Albury.  Kate and her husband Peter left their life in Nassau in 1990 to move to Highborne Cay after accepting a position as the island managers for the next seven years..  The book entails the trials and tribulations of living on and managing a relatively desolate island.    We found this island to posess all of the beauty described in the book and more. 

We secured our anchorage and got ready for a fun filled day exploring the island by dingy – but our crane had other plans for us.   We raised the boom and BAM it stopped dead in it’s tracks.  No crane, means no dingy in the water and David and Jackie are boat locked.   We dug through the volumes of books and owners manuals to find the Steelhead Marine Owners Manual. We tried every troubleshooting technique offered and nothing worked.   We were able to get a repair tech on the phone and he said it was a bad solenoid.   By this time I had made a few phone calls in the event we had to have a part flown in.  I was directed to a very helpful man named Bill with Watermakers Air.  They have two flights daily from Ft. Lauderdale to Staniel Cay Yacht Club and would only cost $35.00 (plus 45% of the cost of the part for the duty fee) to get the part.   While we waited several hours to hear back from Steelhead Marine to determine if it was in fact the solenoid, David took the remote controller apart.  It basically looks like an Xbox controller, however the Xbox controller is probably built with much better quality than this Mickey Mouse contraption we have.   Once open, he discovered a tiny piece of metal not much bigger than a pencil lead.  Since it had a defined shape he assumed it went somewhere.  He found a tiny hole and went to move the piece of metal and realized it was magnetized.  He placed it in its home with his pocket knife and BAM the controller worked again.  Halleluiah, we could get off the boat.   Finally the following day, Steelhead called back convinced it was the solenoid and we had to inform them that it was not and that the Captain had saved the day and fixed it.

Our Anchorage at Highborne Cay

Dingy freed and in the water, we took off to the marine to fill up Little Girl and find David some cigars.  While there, we discovered the local nurse sharks in a feeding frenzy at the fish cleaning station.  They were beautiful and all the children staying at the marina were having a great time! 

Sharks at the fish cleaning station

Later, we ventured  north to Allen’s Cay.  This is a deserted island home to thousands of rare iguanas.  These iguanas are the rarest and most endangered iguanas on earth.  They can grow upto 24/lbs and live to 80 years of age. 

As we approached the island we could see probably 30-40 iguana running on the beach.  When we beached the dingy another 30-40 came out of the woods and ran right up to us.  It was amazing, they just followed us around, never getting too close but close enough for me.  There was one big guy who wanted to take our shoes,  he just stood over them like he was guarding them.

Allen's Cay Iguanas

Walking Allen's Cay

This guy wanted our shoes!

We snorkeled for a little while and the area appeared to be a nursery for baby conch, baby coral and such.  We returned to the boat for some good music / icy cold cocktails and fabulous sunset on the cockpit.  This was a good day!