Sunday April 28: Enjoying a Week of Anchoring Out

Monday it was time to head south. The place we anchored Sunday night (west side of Marsh Harbour) was a place of convenience - it was just a place out of the wind!

The weather was looking good to be able to snorkel at what Steve considers one of the best snorkel spots in the Abacos - near Sandy Cay.

The problem with it is that it is very near (right across from) an opening to the Atlantic and as such is subject to swells of large size! We had a great plan though: travel Monday to a nicely protected spot just a couple of miles south of the opening and the reef - easy dinghy ride. Tuesday take the dinghies to the reef, snorkel, return and repeat Wednesday if the weather held. That was the plan.

Reality? A bit different! But back to Monday .....

Love You More anchored in front of us at Talloo Cay

We followed Randy and Cindy into the anchorage - what a lovely place! The beach is actually private property and the owners have signs up indicating such. Kindly though they don't mind sharing their beach - just please don't go on the land beyond it.

Worked for us! Those guys took umbrella, chairs and dogs for a shore visit. First time Gigit and Cricket have been ashore for a day so they were happy :-)

Steve of course was off snorkeling along the rock shorelines to check  our what was around - lots of small fish but nothing terribly exciting.

Tuesday: it was time to go to the reef!! The sun was shining, winds were acceptable so off we all went (in separate dinghies). Well, it wasn't exactly the smooth ride we expected! The swells were coming in the opening more than any of us liked - but Steve was kind of determined to snorkel anyway.

So we stayed and hooked up to one of the dinghy mooring balls (in other words don't tie a big boat to these or they will just be pulled out!) while Randy and Cindy decided to wait for the next more calm opportunity.

Spotted eagle rays - internet picture

I stayed in the dinghy being tossed a bit by the swells - ok - tossed a lot by the swells! I kept my life jacket on  if that's any indication :-) Steve was of course in heaven! A school of 5 spotted eagle rays went right by him.

It was a challenging 45 minutes that he spent on the reef and he was very good about waving to me so I knew he was safe. Even though I had nightmares that night about him getting sucked into the rocks or out to sea .....



After we returned to the boat, Steve decided it was time to clean the bottom of the boat. We had this done by a diver in Banana Bay but the prop was particularly getting some hard growth on it.

So he dug out some scuba tanks to use for cleaning the prop in particular. Way easier than trying to use a snorkel to clean it.



And since he still apparently had some energy left, the kayak came out and he headed to the beach to check it out. Me? I spent the time reading :-)

Of course we are still in the habit of docktails at 5 pm from Banana Bay, so Randy and Cindy (and Gigit and Cricket of course!) came via dinghy.

It's always enjoyable to get together in the late afternoon.

Time to move on as we've been here 3 nights and the winds were due to change direction.

Love You More followed us out of the anchorage Thursday morning as we headed out with a destination of Black Point Cay - perfect for the south winds due in.

But could we possibly go by the reef and Steve not snorkel? Of course not! So it was a stop and drop Steve in the water while Randy and Cindy continued on to Black Point.

So I hung around keeping Yesterday's Dream within pick up distance of the reef. Swells were acceptable to 'hovering' but still larger than I would like :-) It was another great snorkel with lots of larger fish (without the shark from last time 4 years ago!!).

At Black Point, we had no sooner anchored near to Randy and Cindy than Steve was back in the water again! More rocky shores to investigate :-)




Steve provided the taxi service that night since our dinghy was down anyway and they weren't all that far away from us :-)

We took a day trip 3 miles farther north for some more (of course) snorkeling but returned to Black Point as the south winds were due to bring a storm in.

And the storm did indeed come! Thanks to who ever it was that wrote the program Anchor Lite!! It allows us to monitor (via the gps on our phone) our position. I was up watching it to make sure the anchor wasn't dragging when the storm went thru. I don't know how I ever slept at night when anchored out without it!

When we woke up Saturday: perfect - I mean not a ripple - calm! Not to let this perfection go to waste, Steve and Randy headed back to the reef. It was PERFECT to snorkel. A swell of MAYBE 1/2 foot!! They had a great swim :-) By the time they returned the wind had picked up from the north and it was time to book it to a marina for us!

So we headed off to Marsh Harbour and a marina ... (6 days at anchor is enough for me!) while Randy and Cindy were going to stay out another day or two.

And so today Steve put me to work! A small leak in the fiberglass holding tank. No big deal but I can just sit under the floor where Steve can't.

Nice that I could finally help!! So I applied two layers of fiberglass cloth to seal the leak. Easy to do with me below and Steve up above mixing up the epoxy resin (note to Safely Matt: I am wearing a respirator while working :-)!!! )

Time to relax .....

Randy and Cindy will join us tomorrow.