They had suggested we call first, to confirm weather conditions were suitable for kayaks. We didn't bother, as today was another perfect day in paradise. (Also we have no easy way to make a phone call.)
When we got to the office, though, they expressed some concern about the wind. I assured them we'd be fine, as it didn't seem that windy to me. (Full disclosure: I have gotten us into some.... difficult-return-trip situations in kayaks, in the past.)
We packed some snacks, along with anything worth stealing from the car, into a dry bag, and were on the water by 11:30 AM.
We left the marina, crossed a channel over to the edge of an island covered with mangroves (aptly named Mangrove Cay), and hugged the coast to stay out of the wind.
Once we rounded the western edge of the island, we entered a shallow, sandy area that was sparsely covered in sea grass. (See Google Maps if you want to follow along.)
It was only about an hour after low tide, and the laminated map we'd been given labeled this area "caution: impassible at low tide" or something like that.
One of the rental employees had advised us that we might not be able to get through this area. His suggestion was just to get out and walk the kayak through the very shallow part, if necessary, or to go along the outer edge, by the channel... where it was very windy.
At first, it looked like it might just be deep enough to cross, but he was correct, of course.
It wasn't easy to walk in the soft, sandy bottom, so it was slow going... until I noticed that there was a baby reef shark swimming around. I didn't stop to get a photo.
Once I was back in the boat, we continued across the tidal marsh, or whatever it was, towards the "pine tree island" that you can see in the middle of the photo, above.
After passing this landmark, we had to quickly cross the deep channel before the wind and/or current took us in the wrong direction.
Just over a mile into our journey, we reached our destination: Little Water Cay, AKA Iguana Island. I hadn't even gotten out of the kayak before we spotted the first resident.
We beached the kayak and started following the boardwalk. There was an iguana at every turn, and they didn't seem shy.
A tour guide came out to meet us, and led us to the visitor center as he told us about the island.
At the visitor center, he passed us off to another guide. I think his ride back to Providenciales was just arriving at the dock as we saw the first few iguanas.
This new guide explained that there are over 5000 iguanas on the island, which is why it's not hard to find them. The boardwalk eventually led us back out to the beach, and the guide left us there to wander around.
After exploring the beach briefly, we returned to the boardwalk and started walking back towards the starting point.
You couldn't go ten feet without seeing another iguana.
This one seemed indignant when we tried to pass. We were stopped in our tracks briefly, unsure if he would let us through, as he seemed to intentionally move into the middle of the boardwalk.
The guide pointed out one of these small iguana burrows, earlier.
We ran the territorial-iguana gauntlet all the way back to the dock.
Upon returning to the kayak, we sat on the dock to have a snack and enjoy the view.
While we were staring out at the water, this sneaky iguana came out to see what we were doing.
She (I think that's a female?) was quite friendly.
It was approaching 1 PM by the time we got back in the kayak and made a mad dash back across the channel, towards the shallow grass beds.
We hoped that enough time had passed to allow us to traverse the shallow spots without walking again, but I still got out and pulled the kayak for maybe 5 or 10 yards.
We then battled the wind across the channel, towards the marina.
We were safely back on land around 1:30 PM.
As we hadn't eaten much since breakfast, we tried to grab a quick lunch at the restaurant adjacent to the marina, but it was closed. Instead, we finished the snacks. we had brought with us this morning, and hopped back in the car, intending to go to the Conch Farm.
I know that I spent the last two posts hyping up this attraction, but our plans were immediately derailed once we found the correct location.
Still hungry and with the next hour or so suddenly freed up, we headed back to the Grace Bay area in search of a new beachside restaurant to try for lunch.
A Google Maps search for "restaurant" offered a variety of options; we decided to try Solana, and it was a good choice. (We haven't had a bad dining experience anywhere here, actually.)
It was around 3:30 PM when we left Solana, and we needed a dip in the ocean to cool off after sweating all day, so we returned to Grace Bay Beach for an hour or two.
While we were in the water, a man walked a horse along the beach, in search of potential horseback ride customers. He saw me taking his picture and asked if I wanted a ride.
It looked like his sales strategy was just walking the horse up to random people in lounge chairs, and asking if they wanted a ride. He led the horse back the way they came, not even 10 minutes later.
I explored along the beach a bit while Sabrina took a nap in the sun.
And, for the third day in a row, we ended the day at the beach, as the sun dove towards the horizon.
Per our new ritual, we returned to the house to wash off salt, sand, and sunscreen, unloaded the car, and headed out in search of another new restaurant for dinner. We looked at the options close to the house, again, and ended up at Magnolia's Restaurant and Wine Bar, overlooking Turtle Cove and the place we ate last night (Mango Reef).
The food was excellent, and we had the small deck outside the bar area to ourselves for most of dinner, with a panoramic view of half the island.
The extent of tomorrow's plans is "snorkeling", and the weather forecast is more of the same.
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