Pirates Hideaway on Salt Cay

There is a secluded oasis on Salt Cay and when the Seas are rough for swimming we feel lucky to be able to go to Pirates Hideaway and enjoy the beautiful pool. Yesterday, I hopped on my bike with towel, water bottle and camera to ride South on Victoria Street to Candy's (aka Pirates Hideaway). The other ladies were already there when I arrived relaxing on the Salt Cay chairs and discussing New Year's Eve plans.

The pool is surrounded by beautiful tropical plants and is a refreshing change from the salt water. Don't get me wrong... the beach is my preference - but on windy, rough days it feels so luxurious to lounge around this beautiful crystal clear water and take a dip when it gets hot!

With butterflies flitting about and birds chirping in the trees, it's easy to lose yourself for a few hours of true relaxation.Pirates Hideaway is the only place on Salt Cay with a papaya tree and look at the fruit... it will be a few more weeks before these are ripe and I'm hoping that I'll get a bite or two!

There is another reason for our visit to Candy's lovely pool oasis... yesterday, December 30th was Debbie (Salt Cay Divers) birthday! Happy Birthday Debbie. :0)

The Osprey of Salt Cay

Salt Cay has been home to many osprey over the years. They have nested in many places on the island... on North Beach using abandoned telephone poles as nesting platforms, on the hurricane damaged communications tower on the West side of the island, on the old windmills in the middle of the Salt Cay main salinas and the latest spot is one of the new platforms built last year on the Southeast side of the island by South Creek.

In March 2009, two new osprey platforms were erected... one toward the North of the Creek and one toward the South of the Creek. And the wait began. The platforms are spread out enough to allow for three families of osprey on Salt Cay.

We took a ride down yesterday and the osprey are there!! As we drove up, the mother was sitting in a bush near the water close to the nest as the father osprey flew in with a fish for the two baby osprey.

The 2010 osprey family has choosen the pole toward the South of the Creek and there are currently two babies in the nest. I was not able to get close enough to take a picture of them, but Mama Osprey obviously loves the spot and feels very relaxed there. She just sat in her bush watching us.

Approaching the pole to try to get a picture of the little ones, the Father Osprey started to screech at us. We took the hint and left without bothering them.

When the osprey nested in the Salinas we loved to watch them fly over the house as they fished and fed their family. But, my lord are the baby osprey loud when they are out of the nest and calling to their parents!

Now we are able to watch as they fly over the island on their way South to feed their growing family and with luck the babies will be screeching a little further away once they start flying.

Another Day in Paradise

It may be a little cloudy on Salt Cay the past few days and we've had a bunch of rain since we arrived last Monday... but that's perfect - nice to come from 20 degrees to overcast and "cool" 70-75 with the trade winds blowing. We spent the first few days cleaning and opening the house, hooking up the solar hot water heater and washing clothes. Darned mice came in the house while we were gone and left little piles of sea grape seeds everywhere! Have not had that problem before!

Mike's taken the boat to Grand Turk today to see if we can get the DSL turned on at our house so that I can actually have internet there! What a treat that will be although I will miss my morning trips to Porter's Island Thyme or Debbie's Coral Reef Bar & Grill, but it will be nice to be able to have more time to sit and work on this blog and other projects.

We took a trip down to South Creek to check out the osprey nest yesterday but I can't upload the pictures until tomorrow... so watch for Salt Cay osprey report coming soon!