A mirage in the middle of the ocean

Elina and Christopher modeling for us on the sand quay. Photos by David Lansing.

The sand quay was like something out of a dream. An ivory round of sugar-fine sand the size of a backyard swimming pool ringed by cerulean water a foot or two deep that sloped out to a coral reef. And on the white patch, out here in the middle of the ocean, was a woven straw mat, two teak deck chairs, and a white umbrella. The whole thing was so surreal that all any of us could do was gape at it. And grab our cameras.

“Okay,” Elena said to me as we made our way through the shallow blue water to the white sand. “You’ve been all over the world. Have you ever seen anything like this?”

Katie coming out of the ocean.

I hadn’t. I walked along the edge of the miniature island while some of the others took photos. There were thousands of tiny little white shells on the sand and if you stepped into the shallow water, schools of blue and yellow and orange fish darted left and then right, all in unison.

Katie came over. “Take my picture,” she said.

“Doing what?”

“Just walking out of the water. I think it’s going to be my Christmas card.”

For a girl who grew up not knowing who the Brady Bunch was, she’s a natural ham. She stripped down to her bikini, walked to where the water came up to her knees, and then turned around and shimmied her way out of the water, throwing her arms up and tossing her hair back like she was Cindy Crawford doing a Sports Illustrated cover.

Then someone (perhaps me) suggested that Elina and Christopher sit in the deck chairs and pretend like they were a young couple on their honeymoon, and after that we had Grahame and Christopher pose together with Davui on the horizon behind them.

By the time everyone had taken as many shots as they wanted, the island had started to retreat; the tide was coming in. We packed up our gear and waded out to where the skiff was anchored and climbed back in. Grahame circled the white island once, then again, and before we’d made it all the way around the second tiime, the sand quay was all but gone. Disappearing beneath the emerald water, just a mirage on the shining sea.

Grahame and Christopher Southwick, owners of Royal Davui.

The sand quay just before it sinks beneath the sea.