Random Pictures

Food shopping..expensive! Our folding 2 wheel
dolly from BJ's...priceless!

Jane loves her Kindle.

Sunday morning brunch pot luck.
The bar was covered with great food.

Marina residents only at brunch.
This was the best pot luck food we have had!

A happy and well fed admiral & captain



Marina owners Linda & Tom



Hilarious random sign on the street near the marina!!

Marsh Harbor Marina

Here are some pictures of the marina we are staying in. It is on the northeast side of the harbor, giving us protection from any northeast fronts that might move through. Today, though we have 20-25k winds from the southwest which is pushing us off the dock about 4 ft. It's not easy getting on or off the boat in these winds. Our marina is in a residential area so it is quiet and we think safer than the other 3 on the main street of town.

The restaurant, bar, and office all in one

I wonder if we should leave a burgee?

Fresh water pool

Beautiful flowers

Green Turtle Cay to Marsh Harbor

After talking to Chris Parker on Tuesday morning we decided that it would be best for us to leave for Marsh Harbor as soon as possible because a bad weather window heading for our area would keep us tied down until sometime next week.
We charted our course on the GPS, a total of 23 nautical miles, and hauled anchor at seven forty five. We knew that in just a few hours we would face our greatest task to date, Whale Cay. This area is notorious for weather and sea conditions and it did not disappoint. For two hours we had four ft seas and fifteen to twenty knot winds. This is a narrow passage between reefs and it opens out to the Atlantic Ocean with all its power and glory. We were glad when we passed through following two other sailboats and shortly after came back into the shelter of the outer islands.


You can see the route passing outside Whale Cay



Outside whale Cay...4' waves

Another hour and a half saw us safely entering Marsh Harbor and our home for the next month or so. We are tied up at our slip at Marsh Harbor Marina and once again the weather and the islands have not disappointed us.

Could not get this in right side up so
turn your computer. Our marina is along the top.

Picture of the bar...also restaurant...also the "office"
and Internet. We are at the end of the dock and
have a nice view of the harbor.

After checking in at the bar Peter spied a local boat with lots of lobsters. Once again he bought 4 for $20. Two of these tails were much larger than those we got on Spanish Cay. That night we had the lobster split and stuffed (TG for Stovetop) and baked in the oven. Yummy!!

Unfortunately you can only eat the tail on these!

Green Turtle Cay

Our boat is anchored in the harbor
clearly seen from the top of the hill

Taken at the top of the hill
at the BTC office

We left Spanish Cay marina on Monday morning in perfect weather and perfect wind headed to Green Turtle Cay only 15 miles away.  Our entire trip only took 3 hours before we anchored. Our plan was to stay for a few days to explore the island we had heard so much about. We anchored on the outside since it was low tide and entrance into either of 2 harbors needs at least mid tide for our draft. So once the anchor set we put the dingy down and went into the town, New Plymouth.  Jane walked to the BTC office at the top of the hill to get a new sim card for our pay as you go phone. She was told they would not have any until Thursday. So we went to a grocery store with a small selection of produce and walked out with about 5-6 items $39 less in our wallet. Items in the Bahamas are more expensive but it seems even more so in the Abacos than the Exumas.  Anything pre packaged is really pricey so those things need to be well stocked on your boat. After we left town we dingied through both harbors to find mooring balls and boats anchored.  There did not seem to be enough to keep us busy for a week so we decided to leave before getting stuck longer with a front moving through over the weekend. 



Part of a bronze garden which commemorates
the settlers..white loyalists and freed black slaves



Statue above the bronze plaque

Yeah!!

GO PATRIOTS

Last Day Spanish Cay...Go Patriots!

  
Our last day started out rather late. We sat around until 10:30 just relaxing then decided to go in the dingy to explore another beach on the island. This beach seems to be the main resort beach with lots of sand and good protected swimming. While we explored the beach we could see piles of wood gathered after Hurricane Irene and waiting to be burned. Peter discovered a buoy marker which washed up on the shore...hope it's not one we need for navigation!  We found some beautiful shells and a colony of little hermit crabs crawling along the beach.  After this trip it was lobster salad sandwiches for lunch. Now it is time to watch the Patriots in the marina bar...all 5 people on the island!  We will blog again when we arrive in another destination which has Internet available. Until then...adios!


Hurricane damage



Lovely coconut trees

Buoy missing from someplace!

Little hermit crab!

Today's collection of shells

Good Bye Spanish Cay..for now.

A Day in Paradise

Today was a beautiful beginning to our trip to the Abacos. After doing laundry and getting cleared through customs (waited for the officer to get here about 10:30) we rode our bikes the length of the island, had a picnic on a deserted beach, collected lots of shells and coral on the beaches, and walked out into shallow water to see some coral. We could see the Atlantic breaking along reefs that line the entire outer bank of the island. At the farthest end of the island we arrived at the airstrip and watched a small plane circle then land. There is no traffic control out here...only visual control. The couple unloaded baggage, secured the plane, then were picked up by the island transport.  there are 4 private homes, 5 condos, and 18 guest rooms...along with the marina (which is now empty except for us and another boat from Maine).

Shipwreck Bar...still standing after
Hurricane Irene

Damaged seawall

The starfish are huge!

Now this is driftwood!

Visitors landed!

Some of our beach finds.

Returning to the marina we went swimming and snorkeling off the back of the boat. Peter dropped his snorkel tube in the water so our friend, Ray, from Maine dove 10-12' down to  retrieve it. Later peter dingied out to a little fishing boat and was able to buy 4 lobster tails for $20. We had lobster and wine for appetizers and then stew for dinner.

Peter's snorkel apx 12' down.

The hero Ray who dived to get it!

Peter checking out the bottom of Kinvara

Tomorrow we watch the Patriots win the AFC in the marina bar....all 5 of us on the island!!!

Spanish Cay

After a long and restful night at Great Sale Cay we had coffee watching the sunrise. There were 2 boats also anchored. s/v Island Gal II is a boat we met on the ICW to Lake Worth. They also left the inlet with us on Wednesday. The other boat, s/v Magic, was anchored next to us at Mangrove Cay and he followed our route to Spanish Cay. He is a single hander from Portland, Maine with his Maine coon cat.


Jane plotted the course into the GPS according to the way points in our Explorer chart. Our GPS also has a course line but we back it up with the Explorer charts and VPR. This stands for visual piloting rules. In other words.....keep you eyes open and take nothing for granted! Once again we were reminded of the challenges of sailing in Bahamian water. When the sun is out and clear you can easily see the colors of water depth. But when clouds are in the sky they create dark spots which appear as coral heads or shallower water. The perfect scenario is a sunny day without clouds. Our routes across the bank however did not have any obstructions and was fairly deep all the way....15-20'.



The admiral...on duty!



The captain...off duty!





We arrived at Spanish Cay by 3PM and tied up. Our first visitor when we arrived was a four foot shark who did a swim around the boat to check us out, not as friendly looking as the dolphins we had greet us on the ICW. Our friend on s/v Magic arrived by 4:30PM. We can't clear in until morning since the customs officer is not here. We are the only visitors on the island. It is off season here. They advertised $1.50 per foot but gave us the slip for $1 per foot. We don't need to hook up to electricity since our solar and wind generator are giving us the boost we need.


Our reception committee



Great Sale Cay Jan.19th.

Great Sale Cay 26 54.86N 78 37.49W

     After such a pleasant crossing of the banks to Mangrove Cay yesterday, we woke at 11pm to howling winds and 2 to 3 foot seas. Kinvara was bobbing around like a cork and needless to say it led to a less than perfect nights sleep.
     We decided at 8am this morning to forgo our planned cooked breakfast and get under way to our next destination, Great Sale Cay, some 20nm away. The Admiral took the helm and the captain donned his life jacket and went forward to retrieve the anchor. Once again the crew worked like a well greased wheel and we set our course away from Mangrove Cay.
     The wind was on our port beam so we put up full sail and we were soon skimming across the 12 to 15 ft deep bank at up to 7.7 knots. What a ride. The sun rose and warmed us and the captain put Margaritaville on our awesome Sirius radio, which just happened to be broadcasting a recording of a Buffet concert. Life is good.

     We dropped anchor at Great Sale, our second uninhabited island, at just after 11am. Once we completed our anchoring and tidying up the cockpit the admiral cooked the most incredible brunch of ham, eggs and home made hash browns mixed with onion. A toasted bagel and iced coffee topped an awesome feast.

We anchored inside the "crab" claw

A few hours after we arrived we saw another sail on the horizon. We acted like Robinson Caruso after being alone on a deserted island for years. As we write we have spotted another boat approaching and once again we watch their approach with anticipation. Maybe this one will be captained by Jack Sparrow!!

Fresh Irish brown bread has just been removed from the oven and a pair of stuffed chicken breasts have replaced it. Dinner in an hour; salad, brown bread and stuffed chicken breasts. Does it get better?? The sunset was spectacular this evening.

Incredible!!!!!!!!!

We hope tomorrow will bring calmer conditions as we plan to make our next land fall at Spanish Cay. We hope to be in Green Turtle Cay on Saturday and spend at least the weekend there. They have cable TV on the dock so we will be able to watch the game on Sunday. Go Patriots.

Mangrove Cay, Jan 18th.

Wednesday, January 18 we made our crossing of the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. The crew woke at 4AM for coffee, breakfast, and a final check of the boat. The anchor was raised at 5AM and we headed out Lake Worth Inlet. We were in darkness until dawn started about 6:30. We spotted a few motor boats, a few sailboats far ahead headed our direction and a Bahamas cruise ship coming into West Palm Beach.

When daylight was fully established we passed by 2 large cargo ships. One ship appeared on our AIS as a dangerous target so Peter spoke to them on the VHF and they altered course to pass on our stern. We thanked the Caribbean Sina for this. If we had altered course the gulf stream current would have pulled us north and we would lose time trying to get back on course.

Caribbean Sina...thanks

We had really good conditions for most of the crossing with 2-3' waves. The last 2 hours in the stream the waves increased 2-4 and the angle of the waves made us do a lot of rolling. We did get our sails up for a few hours when the wind direction was favorable and increased to 10-12mph. The rest of the day it was light and variable. Bravo Chris Parker, once again he was spot on with his forecast.

Once on the Little Bahamas Bank we again delighted in the beautiful color and clarity of the water.s. Skimming along in 15 feet at seven and a half knots takes getting used to. It amazes us that you can clearly see the bottom in 15' of water. Peter put his fishing rod out to catch something...only seaweed.

We decided to keep moving in daylight to reach our first anchorage at Mangrove Cay, a small island of just mangrove trees. We dropped anchor at 5PM 12 hours after we left the US. Again we marveled at following the anchor rode along the bottom. Jane was able to see it drop and set in the sand. Before making dinner we sat in the cockpit to relax and watch a glorious sunset.

This water was only 15' deep.

One boat we passed during the afternoon came into the anchorage just at dark. He had a four legged friend aboard and his first duty was to get the pooch to the island to make a long awaited pee. We hope his trip was successful because we did not see any easy access through the mangrove on the island.




We are flying the quarantine flag until we can check in with immigration on Spanish Cay. We don't expect to get there until Friday.