Heike's Beach

Heike is not a diver.  She not even a willing snorkeller.  No, while I'm off diving and snorkeling etc.,  Heike wants to lay on a nice sand beach with warm glass clear water with no waves to wade into and swim around a little. Small close by coral heads with pretty little fish like damsels, chromis, basslets, and  butterflyfish are a plus. She just wants to relax.

The beaches on the leeward side of the island are mostly ironshore.  That is, coral rocks reaching all the way to the low tide line.  At high tide, there is a small strip of submerged sand, and you can simply swim over the ironshore rocks.  However, the week we were on Salt Cay, low tide was around midday.  The water over the rock is only a foot deep and getting into the water is a bit treacherous.  Heike was lamenting the beach situation at the bar at Mt. Pleasant (cultural center of the universe on Salt Cay) when a guest from Castaways suggested the beach on the North side of the Island.  Heike rode one of Mt Pleasant's loaner bikes out the next morning and found  paradise.

	The view from the deck at Castaways of the fantastic North Beach.
	The view looking west from the beach at Castaways.  The beach starts on the eastern side of the spit of land that extends from Northwest Point in the background, and stretches for almost two perfect miles along the north shore of Salt Cay.  The excu$ive (and expen$ive) Windmills Resort, also in the background, is the only other development on this perfect natural beach.
	A few hundred yards east of Castaways, a small sand road leads to a beautiful grove of trees overlooking the beach.  This has to be the most perfect spot on earth. The view looking east along this perfect beach. That's uninhabited Cotton Cay in the background.
	Heike on the deck at Castaways. The building in the background contains 2 of the 4 rooms at Castaways, an identical building contains the other two.
	The snorkeling from the beach is great.  It is also close.  These pictures were taken less than one hundred feet from the shore.
	A Blue Tang.
	A Porcupine fish.  These large (up to 30 in.) puffer fish with big puppy dog eyes are quite shy. I played hide and seek with this one for about 10 minutes until I got this picture.

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