On day 2, we drove to Dangriga, loaded our gear into a boat, and headed out into the Carribean. We passed by Tobacco Range, went through the barrier reef at Tobacco Cay, and headed out across deep water to Glover's Reef Atoll. It took about 90 minutes to get there. We entered the atoll at the south end.
When we landed on Southwest Cay, the people from a previous trips (the Ultimate Adventure and Glover's Weekend) had packed their gear ready to leave. They hadn't had great weather: it rained most of the time. We had some wind over the next five days, but no rain. It was great weather.
We were down to 8 guests, so there was plenty of room. We used about half the tents, with the singles each getting a tent to themselves. The tents were large, and had comfortable beds.
On the first afternoon, we went out for safety training: we dumped our kayaks and got back in, in deep water between the two parts of Southwest Cay. It was really windy, so some of us were blown into shallow water before getting back in, but we all eventually did it.
In the early evening, we looked for satellites. Duncan had brought a listing from Heavens-Above; it was based on assuming that we would be located at latitude 16.7250° N, longitude 87.8625° W. Jack's GPS confirmed that those coordinates were pretty close (off by about a mile), but I didn't write down the exact coordinates. We saw an American Lacrosse spy satellite, and a flare from Iridium 66.
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Pat on the island with the last of the rain and a rainbow in the background. |
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Amanda's tent on Southwest Cay. She had a pair of twin beds. Pat and I were in the tent just visible to the left. The tents behind were unoccupied. |
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Amanda in the hammock outside out tent, with her tent in the background. |
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Duncan in the "lounge" under the dining room. |
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The kayaks on the beach. |
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Jamie and Jack getting the kayaks ready. |
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Duncan relaxing in the hammock. |
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Amanda advertising Novack's. |
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Duncan climbing a coconut palm. I didn't make it high enough to get the coconut I was after. Jack is watching from above, and Jamie from below. |
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Jamie and Jack. |
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Rock and Lorret. |
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Joy. |
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Linette. |
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Mike. |
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Lindsay. |