2020-02-13, Little Ragged Island, Snake attack!!

 Haven't done much since last week.  Took some nice walks, and relaxed on boat.  Dean made a nice batch of cinnamon rolls.

Look much better than Kris's cookies from last week.

 Dean dropped Kris off, and she did a solo walk one day.  Only about 3 miles.

View of Duncan Town on Ragged Island.  Not very big.

Salt flats on Ragged Island.  Still working, but not much

Walked from near boat, to town, and then to beach.  Found a small cemetery on the way.  I think since this was outside the fenced in area at the entrance to the cemetery, it must have been the cemetery designer - because they mention "Architect"?  Or could be a grave.  

Inside the cemetery

Nice limestone terrain

One of the few places in the world you can go, and know that these are the only footprints the beach will see this day, maybe this week, maybe even this month.

This washed up on shore a long time ago

You never know what kind of terrain you will encounter while going for a walk.  Sometimes sand, sometimes smooth rock, and sometime very rough sharp rock.   One common thing on this walk was goat poop.  There are many goats on the island, the islanders use for food.  The goat poop doesn't seem to decompose at all.  It collects in the rock divots, and a lot on the beaches as well.  It is pretty dry and hard, and doesn't smell, so just a distraction, and irritant when it gets in your shoe or flip flop.

Smooth rock walking, with goat poop

Rougher rock walking, with goat poop

Rougher walk walking, but less goat poop.

Winds were too high for snorkeling.  So more walking was in order.  Dean went on this trip.  This was 4.25 miles or so, but not much beach, so rough walking.

You can see a small pink dot in the middle of the photo.  That is Kris out on a sandbar.

Soft sand,  feels good on the feet, but gets tiring to walk in

Cool looking cactus.

Dean breaking trail

As always, interesting rock formations

Nice view from south shore of island

Took a break from walking.  Went to town and got groceries, not much, just lettuce, tomato, butter, and eggs.  

Couple of days later - another walk.  Only 2.5 miles

Nice sand bar, had to avoid a mangrove swamp, so a little ocean walking was in order.

Not all just flat trail, quite a few hills.

Finding our way along rocky shore

Nice limestone cliff.

Amazing sculpturing from wind and water on the limestone

Lots of ocean undercutting the limestone cliffs on this walk

Were able to follow goat paths sometimes for the easiest route

Beautiful water colors on east beach

Panoramic view of east beach

Panoramic view, can see both sides of island at it narrow point

This walk had lots of really interesting rock formations from wind and rain

On path back to dinghy - easy walking now

Most nights we go ashore for and hour or so visit around 5:00 with the other boats anchored in harbor, and we stay till a little after sundown.  Last night we had an extra visitor.  It was about 3.5' long.

This Bahamian Stiped Boa (Chilabothrus striglatus striglatus) is a fairly common visitor to the beach where the cruisers gather, and has put in several appearances.  Kris was setting on a bench, when she felt a tickle on her ankle.  She reached down to brush off the offending tickle, saw the snake rubbing against her ankle, and jumped up and screamed like a little girl.   Dean sitting next to her jumped up as well, but did not scream like a little girl, as he did not know why Kris jumped up, just that he had better move too.  He saw the snake after he jumped away and turned around to look.  The other cruisers were glad it was Kris and not them.  We took a branch and gently prodded the snake back in the bush.   They are not harmful to humans, non venomous snakes, so did not want to harm it.

We will be here for a couple more days, then move north.

Panoramic view of the anchorage.  Anchored here (from left to right) with Galileo, Dragonfly, and Counting Stars.