Philip M. Haggerty

We arrived at Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas. The Cay is a flat island, about two miles long and one deep, with a long curving beach on the west side, and a lagoon on the east side. The only structures are those designed for cruisers, and they are very limited. There were a number of water related activities, although, as I noted, Edith’s Yoga class was moved on shore to the beach, which she appreciated. I went for a walk past the portion of beach area with service buildings and beach furniture, and found a road down to the lagoon where there were kayaks and jet skis waiting for customers who started arriving shortly. The HAL vessel Zuiderdam, about 1/3 larger than Zaandam, was also in port. I then found a small beach farther up the lagoon, and since it was pretty isolated, went skinny dipping briefly. I returned to the main beach area where I went in for a normal swim. The beach is at least a mile long, and except for the first few hundred yards near the landing area, was not used by swimmers at all.

The sand is beautiful and the water crystal clear, although there was no surf. We were due to depart at 2:00, so we returned at noon for lunch. This was the only tender stop, but the transfers were managed quite well, although we waited until almost 3:00 when the last tender arrived. The captain actually had the ship under weigh and the tender had to chase us down and debarked its passengers while the ship was moving.

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