This morning we took the dingy to Thunderball Cave, filming location for the James Bond film Thunderball, for a snorkel trip. Its recommended to come at low slack tide so you can simply swim in. It certainly is a lot smaller than what Hollywood portrayed in the movie. It was a beautiful little cave with multiple entrances from water as well as from the land above.
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Thunderball Cave |
If you notice the 8 people in the picture, this is a group of GA rednecks from Marietta. What a small world we live in, we come to the Exumas and run into people who live only a few miles from us. One of the ladies in the group surprised her husband for his 50th Birthday with a trip to Staniel Cay with 6 of their closest friends and arrived on a private jet. It seemed as though everywhere we went for the next two days we ran into them. Great people who we shared contact information with and hope to meet up again when we return home.
When we returned to the Marina we decide to give Fat Bottom Girl another necessary wash down, and later treated ourselves to a nice lunch at the Marina along with the customary bloody Mary & beer combo. While enjoying our lunch I was approached by a local gentlemen who sat beside us at the bar. The conversation began discussing the weather, as we were in the midst of a light shower and he commented on the need for rain on the island. He was a rough looking character and made the comment that most people shun him and won't give him the time of day, he attributed this to his good looks (ha ha). We ended up talking for hours while David played pool and shot the shit with the self proclaimed "Island Concierge". As the evening ended the gentleman thanked me for being so nice to him and taking the time to share a few beers and good conversation with him. At that, he informed me who he was. He goes by Captain Tony and he owns Staniel Cay as well as two other surrounding islands. He usually never tells people that because they are so put off by his looks that they won't talk to him and if they know who he is then they are nice just because they think he has something. He said I had a good heart and good soul and was a very nice lady (oh how sweet) and he could see kindness in my eyes. The next morning he came to the boat with a gift, two beautiful cleaned and polished conch shells wrapped up. One is so large that it is considered a Queen conch. What a thoughtful gesture!
Now I don't know if Tony truly owns the islands, but everyone working at the bar concurred. It doesn't matter to me one way or another, I was just proud to have met him. He was a true gentleman!