Little Stirrup Cay (Anchorage)
Slaughter Harbour
This is one of the Royal Caribbean Cruises private islands where the cruise ship anchors and ferries the passengers ashore for a barbecue and a day on the beach.
We are a little bit embarrassed to admit this, but we had heard that it was common practice for cruising yachts. We anchored in Slaughter Harbour and rowed ashore to join the cruise ship passengers for lunch. Since we did not have any onboard refrigeration, we were out of fresh meat at this stage and were left with only canned and dried goods onboard, which were not nearly as appealing as the hamburgers that were being served onshore.
We simply stood in line with the others and had a wonderful lunch. We had been told in the marina that cruisers do this all the time.
It got a bit confusing when we tried to buy a beer, and they asked for our cabin number, so we had to settle for juice and iced tea, which was free.
There is supposedly a plane wreck underwater in the anchorage, but the water was too murky to see.
Howard and Jayne [ Rynegiest ] 12-Jul-1992
Great Stirrup Cay (Anchorage)
Private Cruise Ship Island
We anchored off here next to the old Norwegian Cruise Line Norway and rowed ashore again for another fine barbecue rib lunch with the cruise ship passengers. We were quite seasoned at this after doing the same at Little Stirrup Cay the day before.
We had been told by someone at Great Harbour Marina that it was common practice for cruisers to partake with the passengers.
We got here early in the morning and went snorkeling on the reef. A few minutes after the Norway dropped anchor we were greeted by one of those memorable scenes, with about 75 cruise ship passengers all equipped with the the same color masks, snorkels, and buoyancy vests, swimming frantically out toward the reef. It was somehow reminiscent of that famous 1952 Life magazine photo of an audience watching a 3D movie all wearing their 3D glasses. I wish I had a camera with me.
Howard and Jayne [ Rynegiest ] 13-Jul-1992
Panton Cove (Anchorage)
We spent a couple of nights anchored in here.
The first day we took a nice stroll on the path over to the north shore.
The next day we sailed down to anchor in Half Moon Bay for the day, but hightailed it back here when the wind direction changed. We got back as it was getting dark and were grateful that we knew our way in, and the entrance can be quite scary.
Howard and Jayne [ Rynegiest ] 14-Jul-1992