Cruise: Half Moon Cay

Half Moon Cay is the private island in the Bahamas owned by the cruise company - so no big pier means small boats take you over to the island which is essentially just a really nice beach without anything much else to do. Sounds good right - except when it is raining like crazy which is what we woke up to that morning!

Half Moon Cay in the rain

We weren't going to let that stop us though and as the rain subsided a little we headed down to get the boat over to the island. I thought the boat ride in the wind was fun but other people didn't seem so happy, it was only 5-10 minutes though.

So just as we start to walk towards the beach to find a spot it started raining again. Proper tropical rain where you are soaked after about 30 seconds. Once again, being someone who works on understanding tropical rainfall for a living I found it quite exciting, but all the other people huddled under shelters didn't seem quite so enthused. In fact, people seemed quite angry about the rain. The heavy rain didn't last too long and we found some sun loungers down the beach under a tree. I relaxed and watched people for a while and Matt took a swim. It really was beautiful even in the rain - and the rain meant a lot of people stayed on the boat (crazy people) so it wasn't so busy.

We knew there was a guided nature hike you could pay for on the island so we decided to just follow the nature hike trail alone. It wasn't very long but it was an enjoyable stroll to see some of the native plants and a few animals - of course Matt found some Bahama's mushrooms!

On the nature trail

The trail led along the island towards the far end of the beach and we came out by where the horse stables were for rides along the beach. It did look like fun but I didn't think it was worth the price when you could walk.

View from the end of the beach, including a wedding. We ended up sitting by them later that night at Karaoke

We walked back to our spot on the beach and both headed into the water for some snorkeling and swimming. The water was so clear and warm and the sand so soft. We weren't really expecting to see much so close to the beach but as there weren't a lot of people we were pleasantly surprised to find a school of fish right by the beach. They weren't scared of us and at one point had me completely surrounded.

We found a little fishy all by itself!

Fish everywhere!

What a great view with the dark clouds and perfect blue water

 After getting out of the water we had some slight drama on finding someone had lost their S&S card (i.e. what gets you back on the boat, into your room and to pay for anything). It was about 1.30 ish at this point so we decided to head back to the boat to deal with it and have lunch rather than staying on the boat and taking the chance that someone wasn't using the card themselves.

Hungry? Our cabin was on the other side at the back - the row of windows below the red line

We got back on the boat (this is why you take some ID with you off the boat), got a new card, had lunch and watched some more rain! It really started raining a lot more consistently at this point and the ship actually ended up leaving a little early as everyone had left the island. We both enjoyed Half Moon Cay even in the rain (it was still warm after all) so I can only imagine what it is like in the sun!

The evening consisted of more karaoke (not me, no one wants to see that), drinks and food. I can't quite remember if this was the night we had the most delicious black bean and vegetable enchiladas for dinner or not but they were amazing. Maybe my favorite food from the whole cruise! We also enjoyed the Quest game with the cruise director. Let's just say that some people are crazy and will do almost anything and leave it at that!

Time to sing for some people

One more day in the Bahamas on land to go. This cruise was going by way too fast!

Rain won't stop us from having fun!