Picture Perfect Mornings on Salt Cay

My backyard changes every day. At the beginning of every day, I walk out the back door to the Sea and enjoy my first morning minutes watching the waves. The oyster catchers walk back and forth along the shore picking up little bits of food along the way. An osprey glides gracefully overhead with a sharp eye on the reef and a morning meal. Occasionally a little white crab will dig himself out of the sand and poke his head up before jumping out of the hole to skitter along the beach. It's just fifteen steps from my backdoor to the gate... fifteen of the best steps I take each day.

If the seas are calm enough I pull my kayak down into the lighter way and paddle North to the Lighthouse Cliffs and back. Lighter ways are places along the West side of Salt Cay that were cut out of the reef to allow lighter boats to load and unload salt during the salt industry days on the island. The lighter way in front of our house was maintained by the Morgan saltraking family.


Snorkeling out the lighter way toward the buoy is fantastic. (Click on the picture to view it larger and look hard to see the little red buoy out in the Sea). The lighter way ends at a little reef that is absolutely beautiful. Lots of the snorkeling places around the island are beautiful, but this always feels like my own little aquarium. The sea fans gently swaying while the brightly colored little fish swim in and out of the rocks.


I never tire of walking along the beach collecting bits of beach glass and little shells. And now that the beach deck is done I have a great place to put my treasures. The picture to the right is looking from the water's edge up toward the beach deck and the house beyond the gate. Every day brings a different shape to the beach and the hurricanes of 2008 really made some big changes... there is more sand going out further into the water. With a little less sand up toward the beach deck. It's hard to see it in this picture but there's a little step down from the wood walkway to the beach.



There were some songs I couldn't get out of my head all day from an album by Edie Brickell called Picture Perfect Morning... listen to it sometime if you get the chance - it's a good one.

The morning progressed wonderfully and by mid day we found ourselves having cracked conch at Debbie's Coral Reef Bar & Grill with a few friends who were headed back to the States. With soft trade winds keeping us cool, it was fantastic to relax while we watched the activity in the harbor.

Just as we were finishing our lunch, we watched the largest yacht any of us have ever seen cruise past Salt Cay! Debbie hailed the yacht on her marine band radio and invited them to stop by so we could buy them a beer. :0) They were very friendly but let us know they were headed to Grand Turk (to clear customs probably) and were just cruising. The name of the yacht is the M/Y Mayan Queen IV. Looking it up we found out that it is 301 feet long! Amazing!

We celebrate the differences and contrasts on Salt Cay! This was certainly a fun one to experience.

The rest of the day was spent snorkeling, laying in the sun, reading and a little light gardening. Okay, and I did a load of laundry and hung it up to dry. Regardless of what we're doing, at 6:30PM we head out to the beach deck every day to watch the sunset. A picture perfect evening begins...