Port 5.5 Compass Cay (Swimming with the Sharks)

OMG – How did I forget this ?
Swimming with the Sharks, really Mike , you forgot to Post this one ???

So it’s been a really fun trip.
It’s been a really adventurous trip.
It’s been a really exhausting trip.
The calendar has been heavily booked.
I do all the blogs at night, after adventures or after a day of consuming alcoholic beverages.
I have lost track of days & what I have & have not posted.
If I was a cell phone, I am running on about 60% battery right now.

So, here is what life looks like for Mikie after 3 weeks at Sea.
It fits in down here quite nicely, I look like many of the other guys that don’t own a razor.


Back to the story.

We arrived at the Compass Cay Marina for only 1 night, after the Land & Sea Park (Port #5), but before our current location of the Staniel Cay Yacht Club (Port #6).

Compass Cay is famous for “Swimming with the Sharks”
There are many islands which copy, but Compass Cay is the creator.

Background

The famous Sharks which live at the Compass Cay Marina are visited by over five million people year round.

The Compass Cay sharks found in the marina are a species called Ginglymostoma cirratum (commonly known as “Nurse Sharks”). These animals can live up to 25 years and grow up to almost ten-feet-long. A fully grown adult can weigh anywhere from 200 to 330 pounds by the time it is at its full carnivorous potential.

But first, let’s do our normal marina walk-around.

Compass Cay is another really small marina, but apparently a somewhat exclusive marina sought after by the “Rich & Famous”, Well at least the moderately rich folks.

Of the 6 boats in our sight (the marina only holds about 18 boats), at least 3 of them had servants bringing the owners their dinner. The boat next to us had 2 servants running food/drinks back/forth for only 3 clients.

Anyway, the 3 clients got their dinner served to them on the stern of the boat & after dinner had wine poured for them on the bow.

The Detroit Power Squadron did not teach us Murphree’s or the Luck’s about this kind of boating.
There was no DPS class on this topic.

The Mahi Mahi had Deena & Jonell !
I think our dinner, service, and ambiance was better !!!


Back to the initial Walk-Around
The small marina had a very much Key West look & feel.
Upon walking up the winding road to the marina restrooms, we passed by –
* Lots of wood plaques with boat names.
* Lots of bottles and knick knacks hanging on the trees (aka – a bunch of crap).








But let’s get back to the main reason for this Blog Post – THE SHARKS !

It was soooo cool.
I must admit that I was slightly nervous.
Jerry & Jonell were out, it was just me & Deena for Swimming with the Sharks.
So I did the gentlemanly thing & I let Deena go First !

With our guide “Beef” helping us out by Chumming the water, we slowly lowered ourselves into the blue abyss.

Oh, by the way, here is “Beef”, you can see why he has his name !

That’s all for now.
Hopefully by now, You have already seen the blog posts from the Staniel Cay Yacht Club (Post #6).

There will be 1 more post from Staniel Cay – The Thunderball Grotto (the James Bond Cave).
Stay tuned, next issue.

Todays Trivia
Question = What is the difference between nautical speed measured in knots vs mph ?
Answer = Scroll Down .

.

.

.

.

.

Scroll Down

.

.

.

.

.

Scroll Down

.

.

.

.

Scroll Down

Question = What is the difference between nautical speed measured in knots vs mph ?
One knot equals one nautical mile per hour, or roughly 1.15 statute mph. The term knot dates from the 17th century, when sailors measured the speed of their ship using a device called a “common log.” The common log was a rope with knots at regular intervals, attached to a piece of wood shaped like a slice of pie.
10 knots = 11.5 mph
20 knots = 23 mph

Click the link = https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_currents/06measure2.html

10 thoughts on “Port 5.5 Compass Cay (Swimming with the Sharks)

  1. Great commentary Mike! Interesting facts that I myself was unaware of, so I appreciate all the information you provided here.

    Like

  2. Hmmm I got the knot question right! Surprising. I am waiting for Deena to let us know how the shark swim went. They call the critters Nurse Sharks, but the teeth and tail are still attached. And chum in the water! Oh no!!😊

    Like

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s