Conception

Our original plan was to jump from Rum Cay to Cat Island before the next blow moved in, but thankfully we made the decision to stop at Conception Island.  Conception Island is a 25,000 acre park established in 1964.  It is a sanctuary for migratory birds, nesting birds, and green turtles.  The island is totally uninhabited with no facilities.  You can only visit here by boat.

The northern part of the island offers amazing beaches, beautiful snorkel sites, and great protection from winds out of the east.  Right Hand is the third boat from the left.

(Drone pictures courtesy of Stefan, S/V Invia)

I know we are weirdos😁

Parts of the beach were very pink.

While at Conception we saw 9 rainbows in one day.  The pattern was amazingly consistent throughout the afternoon.  The clouds were sweeping across the island from east to west.  Once we saw the start of a rainbow we had 20-30 minutes before the rain would arrive.  Each rainbow would start as a small piece, and as the cloud got closer the rainbow would fill in and become full.

We saw six full rainbows, where both ends seemed to touch the island.

Three of the six were double rainbows…that’s how I came up with nine in one day.  The rain would only last for 10-15 minutes then the sun would return and the whole process would start again, usually within 30 minutes.  Who would imagine it was possible to see three double rainbows in one day?  This is the sailing vessel Invia…when I shared this picture with Stefan, he happily gave me his drone pictures.

The northern part of the island offered fabulous coral formations.

There were amazing ‘groves’ of staghorn coral.

We encountered numerous perfect specimen of brain coral. However, to our surprise, we encountered very few fish.

This Oyster catcher, and her partner, kept a close eye (beady red eye) on us the whole time we lounged on their beach.

The southern part of the island contains a large mangrove and tidal creek habitat that is an important nursery for fish, sharks, rays, turtles, and lobster.  If you look closely at the picture you can see an interior blue ‘river’ with an entrance at the south end of the island.

This is what it looks like at sea level.

They can’t see me…

Oh darn, they see me…

We saw more than 30 turtles in one afternoon.  This green turtle is clearly tagged.

White-tailed Tropic birds (notice the very long tail) put on a very acrobatic show as they swoop and dive around each other.

The day before we left this National Geographic vessel arrived, and were ferrying people and camera equipment to various parts of the island.  You might see an article or documentary in the near future.

Ten years ago, when this cruise was in the planning stage, my mind was full of (imagined) images of the types of places I would visit.  Conception Island is the place that made many of those images come to life!  This is living the dream!