2016-02-02 - in Lee Stocking Island (Caribbean Research Station anchorage)

After school, laundry and misc. boat chores, we finally headed over to the abandoned Caribbean Research Centre.  It was functional the last time we were here, but closed the doors a few years ago.  When it did close, we had read that it looked as if they only had a couple of hours to close things down.  Everything was left ‘as is’.  There are a lot of small buildings all open and available to visit.  It was interesting to poke into these abandoned buildings and imagine what it might have looked like during full operation. 

With Dylan in his beach buggy, we made our way over to the ocean side of the island.  We didn’t know exactly how to get there.  There was a series of tubes running alongside a rugged road.  We did some thinking and thought that, since it was a marine centre with various tanks for marine life, they would need salt water.  We followed the pipes and came to an arrow in the road made of rocks. 

Beach is ‘that way’, it suggested.  We made our way down a hill and there it was.  These are some fabulous beaches with the softest sand that I have ever felt.  What was interesting, in this beach is that it was littered with some remnants from a ship that went missing during Hurricane Joaquin in the fall.  We had heard that it was a container ship that had gone into the hurricane while it was happening.  Unfortunately, the ship and crew were lost.  All that is left is a daily wash onto shore of various products such as Avon, Kraft Mayonnaise, Front Line Flea products, GNC Health shakes, yogurts, MNMs in small cylinders to name a few things.

We spent a while in the surf and then made our way back to the research centre.


On the way we hit a few coconuts from the trees that lined the road and drank their sweet milk.  

A few other kid boats had arrived and were heading to the beach.  Connor was excited to be asked to join and went back with them to do some boogie boarding in the surf.