The answer is “yes” – though we didn’t see any sign of that today. When we approached Pig Beach at 2:00 pm, the inhabitants were all having a siesta. Though they woke quickly when I pulled out a bag of carrots, and I was immediately surrounded by huge, various-coloured animals, nudging me with their snouts to feed them.
Normally, they will swim out to your dinghy for handouts. But we once had the experience of having one try to get in with us. Somehow a 300 lb. porker sitting in our laps didn’t appeal – so we went to their beach instead, to visit them.
The back story is that during Y2K, the local Bahamians were worried about their food supply from the US being cut off – so they “seeded” Big Major Cay with pigs for food. Since the disaster didn’t materialize, the pigs weren’t eaten, and began to propagate – resulting in an island full of feral pigs, that are now being fed instead of being eaten by the locals and the tourists. Their learned skill of swimming out to the dinghies has made them a well-known tourist attraction, prized by the Bahamians. There have even been books written about them!
Apart from visiting the swimming pigs, we've spent a restful week waiting out the most recent cold front in the spacious bay near Staniel Cay. Yesterday we had a “sundowner” on our boat with a Canadian couple we met here, and our days have been filled with work in the mornings - Schulich, boat, etc., and afternoons exploring in the dinghy, and hanging out on near-by beaches. Then happy hour - usually with tea or a “Bahama Mama” (rum and juice), and a snack.
Tomorrow we leave the harbour for points unknown as yet .. we'll keep you posted on the blog. For now, life is good (despite cleaning toilet parts with muriatic acid - below!)
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