St. George's Island, Bahamas

At just 2 miles long and 1/2 mile wide, St. George is not the biggest island in the Bahamas; but it is bursting with delights Keith and I have not see in 2 months.  Better known as Spanish Wells for the settlement that occupies the island, this darling spot has several restaurants (the more typical beach bar and grill type places), even several small gift shops.  It is clean and well kept up and there is a nice grocery store available on the island.  There is something to be said about civilization.  We arrived here on Wednesday, February 26th.

The first British colonist to the area were the Eleutherans.  These were British from the island of Bermuda that left there seeking religious freedom.  Their boat wrecked on the reef nearby known as the Devil's Backbone and the colonists lived in a cave known as Preacher's Cave for a period until they were able to build more permanent structures.  Eventually the settlement of Spanish Wells was formed.  Today about 1,600 people live on Spanish Wells.

On Friday, February 28th, we decided to book a private charter with a local to see some of the less visited cays and get a real feel for the area by boat.  We selected Tyman's Fishing Charters which is a local, family run business.  The owner, Tyson and April Newbold along with their daughter Brianna, were wonderful to us. The weather was not ideal with heavy cloud cover and temperatures around 68 in the morning, but we put on our big boater pants and jumped in for some snorkeling.  One spot they took us to had a wreck that we got to snorkel.  This boat was hauling fertilizer when she hit a reef and sank.  No one lost their life, but the boat was a total loss.  It once stood well above the water, but over the years it has rusted and sank lower into the 30-40 feet of water in which it now lies.

Wreck snorkel

Tyson also put out some lines to troll for a bit and we caught a nice Tiger Grouper.

I found a few small shells and some sea glass, but Tyson and his wife April give us some shells from when Tyson was a lobster fisherman.  How thoughtful of them to do this.  The shells are super cool.  Here are some of them.

This is a picture of a Flamingo Tongue Snail.  This snail lives with his body outside his shell unless he is attacked by a predator, at which time he contracts into his shell.  We found several of these guys on our snorkel trip and were able to keep a few of the shells.  The picture of the snail below is from the internet as they are only about an inch long and difficult to get a picture of with the Go-Pro.

These are my Flamingo Tongue shells

The next shell is what I believe is a Nautica shell.  Similar to a Moon Shell or Shark's Eye.  I could be wrong but I believe these are Gaudi Nautica.  These guys are also similar to the Nautilus shell.

These colorful shells are very unusual.  They are spiny on the top shell and flat on the bottom where they attach to coral or rock..  It is a bivalve.  Tyson called these a jewel box shell.  These are much more colorful than the ones I have seen from the western Florida beaches.

 Top view

Bottom View (smooth where they sling to coral or rocks).

Getting bigger are two examples of the Tulip shells Tyson gave us.  There are 8 species of  these large, tropical to subtropical sea snails.  The are predatory and will eat other mollusks and gastropods.  I think their spiral shells are beautiful.

Finally the giant Helmet shell.  There are some 80 species of this sea snail (a lot of types of snails in the ocean).  This specimen, the King Helmet, can be found in waters from the Carolinas to Brazil.

The underside is as cool looking as the top

Once again it looks like the wind will keep us in port for the foreseeable future.  This is certainly a nice spot to stay for a period of time.