We walked for what felt like miles, in and out of the water, and then made our way back across the island. It was maybe a quarter-mile across at this point, but 110 miles long! There were only about 11,000 people living on this long, skinny island. This island was once very popular and prosperous, but after Bahamas gained independence in 1973, most of the large, high-end resorts either closed down or sold. Now it seemed quiet and nearly abandoned.
We quickly popped back out on the west side of the island, where it was so smooth and quiet. We were hot from our walk and were excited to jump in the water. But as we were getting ready to jump in, we saw a huge dark shadow moving our way in the water, followed by a smaller shadow. It got within a few feet of shore we realized it was a HUGE sting ray followed by a second, large stingray. We watched them hunt along the shore for a few minutes and eventually make their way back out to deeper water. Needless to say, we did not end up jumping in the water.
We were talking with the crew on shore and we all agreed that we wanted to stay the evening here and have a beach-fire before motoring overnight back to Nassau. We went back to the boat for dinner, then filled a cooler with beers, sodas and drinks and took the zodiac in the dark back to the beach, where we’d been gathering wood all afternoon. We lit quite the fire and hung out for hours before making our way back Nassau. It was the perfect end to a fun-filled week on the Liberty Clipper!
