Tahiti Beach

Tahiti Beach is (in my opinion) one of the places God goes on vacation!  From the Google Earth photo below you can see the sand bank and sand bar.  On the right or east side is the Atlantic Ocean.  The shallows of the bank are protected from the wave action of the ocean by the rocks and northern tip of Tilloo Cay.  There is some tidal current allowing for just a soft ebb and flow that makes for perfect water temperature and a gentle sway beneath you when you are floating.  At low tide, the fully exposed bank extends for about a half mile in all directions.  There's excellent shelling and snorkeling to be had.

In 2012, the Abaco Life magazine asked for folks to send in photos for a contest entitled, "Good Morning Abaco".  The following picture was taken on the western side...the tide had only exposed a tiny wisp of the sandbar.  I said, "Nicholas, jump!" and snapped away.  (These were in the days before "burst" was an iPhone feature.) This is the picture that was published.  I won $50 and have the magazine page framed in our house.

I'm so proud of this little boy and this photo!

We timed our visit to Tahiti Beach so that we would be there for the falling tide.  It took two golf cart trips to shuttle the kids, snorkel gear, water, and other beach supplies to the dock area near Baker's Rock.  We got there around 2:00 and low tide was supposed to be around 4:00.  Perfect:  a little bit of water yet to recede...a little bit of slack tide to just float...a little bit of cloud cover to protect our exposed skin.

Looking to the east.

Emma and Zack "floating" in about six inches of water just at the edge of the turtle grass beds.

Nicholas screams and talks THROUGH his snorkel.  He was squealing over this handsome helmet conch!

Female helmets are more round.  The one we found was more triangular=male.
(Image from: http://www.n-the-florida-keys.com/images/empire-helmet-conch-florida-keys.jpg.JPG)

Conchs have blue eyes.  I patiently waited for HIM to poke his eye stalks out.

He was camera shy.  So, I put him back in the water and hoped he'd show me his eyes.

He stuck his whole foot out.

I remembered that my current iPhone is waterproof.  So, I thought I'd be all fancy and take an underwater pic to capture those blue eyes.  Nope.  Distracted by technology, I missed the shot!

Mommy -n- Summer.
(Shawn photobombing)

Since I still had my camera...  "Hey, Summer.  Stick your hair in the water and fling it back like we did when we were in the tidal pool on Guana five years ago."  (The burst option on the iPhone is a GREAT feature!)  Needless to say, Summer is much taller than she was when we first tried this shot.  So, we had to do several takes because I kept chopping off her head.  The following photos are the best of the series.

The O.G.
2012, Great Guana Cay

Back to marveling at God's vacation spot...

If you squint at the tiny white pole by the white house, you will see a tiny dark dot in the water...that's Nicholas, THE FEARLESS.

Shawn floating.

That poor conch.  He was so patient as we pestered him.  But, look at my cute mermaid princess.

But first, lemme take a selfie!

Nicholas the photobombing.

We ventured out with our snorkels to check out a depression on the east side by the rocks.  It was a far swim, but I figured we could leisurely make it over.  We were in a turtle grass bed with about six inches of water  when we all started to feel stinging and noticed small welts popping up.  Abort!  Abort!  That sandy hole wasn't that special and not worth the effort or venomous encounter.

After hoofing it back to the golf cart that I parked in the shade of a silver buttonwood tree, we loaded up the first jitney of gear and people:  Emma, Zack, Summer, and me.  Nicholas came over to the cart to get something and walked RIGHT INTO a branch.  He fell back, didn't speak for about twenty seconds, and then yanked off his hat and hollered, "F---ing hat!  Can't see sh-t!"  I clutched my pearls and debated about fussing at him for his language.  But, he was clearly not in the mood.  So, I let it slide.

A nice goose egg developed later.

After we got everyone and the gear safely home and Millie had been fed her supper, I decided to go for a walk with my fluffy side-kick.

There were huge anvil clouds forming, but the beach and the wrack line were calling for me.

Millie dug hole and frolicked about.

I picked up trash.

That evening we went to Sea Spray for pizza and karaoke.  Zack bravely sang "Wagon Wheel" as a duet with a local guy.

Emma got six ring tosses in a row!  Mic drop.

It was a FULL day!  All wounds were on the mend and we were happy to go to bed.