Conception Island, the Green Flash, the Southern Cross, & Shell 101

Conception Island is an uninhabited island, part of the Bahamas National Trust Land Sea Park system. On top of the protection that the Park system gives it, Conception is a little more difficult to reach than most islands in the Bahamas. There is only 1 anchorage and you can’t stay there if the winds are from the west or are strong. So, it limits the number of cruisers that make the effort to go. There were only 8 boats there during our visit.


We followed the yellow foam road (cruisers will use anything to mark a trail…) over the island to the southern beach.

The usual beautiful pristine beach, but note that wall on the far end.

Yes, you have to climb it to reach the further end of the beach. There is a rope that someone has left there for that purpose.

The beach beyond the rocks is small, with a little cave carved out.

Next day, we took our dinghy along with 2 fellow cruiser boats to the interior of the island. It’s basically a little mangrove area, with a natural channel that is cut into it by tidal current. The trick is to hit the entrance about an hour before high tide (so you’ll have enough water to get over the coral reef at the entrance). From there, you turn off the dinghy engine and let the current gently take you through the mangroves.

Once in, we found pockets of fish hiding in the edges of the mangrove roots.

With not so patient barracudas waiting just outside the edges of the mangrove roots.

Lots of sharks, too, mostly small 3 foot ones. There were at least 3 much larger ones that roamed the anchorage, waiting for fishing leftovers, I guess. Also in the shallow water were turtles. Slowly making their way just below the surface of the shallow water. That is, slowly until they raised their heads for air and spotted us. You can’t believe their speed – Luke estimated their getaways at around 20 knots. Like little torpedoes.

We had to be out of the grove shortly after high tide, again to get over the reefs at the entrance. So, we went along with friends Cathy & Don on a 5 mile dinghy ride (smooth water, comparitively) around to the Atlantic side of the island. This side has no land between it and England or Africa. It’s littered with trash like these remains of a boat. I was told it’s a Haitian fishing boat.

We walked for a couple of miles on the beach. See that cliff at the far right corner? That’s where our dinghies are...

We went over the brush covered hills to yet another beach.

We did beachcombing, of course. Here are Don and I looking for fishing floats. Turns out Luke is the one who found a new metal one!

The green flash!!! We definitely saw the full thing!!! About 18 cruisers were gathered on the beach for Sundowners and a bonfire. As the sun slowly set over the extremely clear western sky, the very tiny round end of the sun turned a definite bright green and then that green expanded for a second on both sides. The green flash! Most of us saw it and no, we were only on our first beers.

The island is low, and with no civilization, the night is very dark. By 2:30 a.m., the moon had set and the sky was black with more stars than I’ve ever seen. The best part is that the stars go all the way to the horizon – no mountains like at home or land masses to block them. It gave me the sudden feeling of the earth being round. Yeah, I know, sounds silly, but the blanket of stars seemed to just envelope and roll around the earth and horizon. THEN, Luke spotted the Southern Cross constellation! I don’t recognize anything much except the Big Dipper and Orion’s Belt, but this was just as easy to see. It was just above the southern horizon, a cross or diamond of 4 stars, with the southern tip of the constellation almost touching the earth. What a great evening and night treat!!!

I’m going to start trying a little Shell 101 with this blog. I’ll show you some of the shells we’ve found, plus a bit about them. The first is the largest shell we’ve found (except some conchs), a Trumpet Triton, sometimes call a Corn of Abundance. This tattered one is about 10 inches long. They can get as long as 18 inches. Found in S.E. FL, the West Indies, and Venezuela, the shell is usually brown with the dark spiral whorls. Note the dark brown “teeth” around the opening. They live under rocky outcrops near shore to depths of 20 fathoms on soft sand.

And here is what a perfect specimen looks like…