In the Footsteps of 007

Ever since A Coruña, Spain, we have been waiting to visit Thunderball Cave. In the marina in A Coruña, we met two nice Dutch people who live on a boat named S/V Anna Carolina. They told us about Thunderball Cave. It is basically like a hollow island. At low tide, you can swim through a small gap on the side of the island and go inside the island to a huge cavern.

Yesterday, we tried to visit the cave but found out there was too much current at anything other than low tide. The problem is, we did not know exactly when low tide was because there are no tide tables for this spot and we didn't know how to adjust the information we did have. So this picture is of us in the dinghy on the first of our four failed missions to Thunderball Cave.

This is Porter in the dinghy

This is a picture of the island. From here, you think the island is normal. But when you swim into it, you discover the huge cavern.

This is me diving down in the water to get into the grotto. The entrance had lots of fish swimming in and out.

I am diving down to the floor of the cave, and you can see in the picture lots of specs in the water. They are tiny little jellyfish. These small ones are no problem because they have no tentacles.

This is me and Porter swimming on the surface in the main part of the grotto. Over our heads, you can see holes in the top of the cavern.Now you need to understand that there are very few gaps to the outside world. It is a big cavern and it was amazing to hear our voices resonate off the walls.The walls of the cavern were warn down from the water and were very sharp and pointy and in a shape that really caught my eye.

Here is Porter underwater in the grotto.

Once you are in the cavern, there are two openings. One of them we just came through, which is what you see in the picture above. There was a tunnel leading to the other one. The tunnel's ceiling was about five feet above the water. Above the surface, it looks like a tiny crack that you could not fit through, but once you are underwater, you can see that there is plenty of room to free dive comfortably out of the island.

  

In this picture of the grotto, you can just barely see the tiny crack in the background. I ended up swimming out that hole. I took a deep breath, flipped my feet up in the air, and pushed down close to the bottom. I breast stroked a few feet and then popped my head out to find myself outside of the island.

I was so excited and happy after snorkeling at Thunderball Cave. Can you see it on my face?

Here is Daddy photo bombing the picture of me after snorkeling.

Porter was pretty happy too. This may be the first time in weeks that Porter has smiled even though he knew a picture was being taken of him. That must mean he was pretty happy. The boat in the background is Sila.

See the red bumpy spot on my neck? That is a jellyfish sting. I know I said that the small jellyfish were harmless but the one that got me was twice as big and had something sticking out from under him. It must have been a tentacle because when it touched me underwater, it stung me. I am totally fine now, 3 hours after it happened. Swimming under the island was totally worth the jellyfish sting. I could have gotten 10 of those and it would still be worth it! - Jack Rabbit