Saturday May 3: Great Guana Cay

It's happened again. Somehow I lost a couple of days - maybe I should be worried ....

We left Hopetown on Tuesday, traveled a short 10 miles back to Marsh Harbor. This time we were able to get into the Marsh Harbor Marina (complete with the Jib Room restaurant with it's great conch chowder).

Next thing I knew it was Friday and we were headed out! It was very hot and also very windy with the winds blowing right into the marina. Very noisy slapping of lots of waves on boats.

Steve checked out Mermaid Reef (just off of the shoreline north of this marina), rode into town a couple of times to do a bit of shopping - and most importantly to pick up a couple of cinnamon rolls!! Then it was time to leave as we'd been there two nights.

It was still blowing pretty good but we traveled with the wind to Water Cay on the south side of the Sea of Abaco. Fairly well protected from the winds. Supposed to be a good place to snorkel.

It didn't take long for Steve to be in the water and swimming away. He checked out all of the islands to the right on the picture above.

I was on the flybridge reading and trying to keep track of Steve. Every once in a while I could see his flippers or a splash of water!

It ended up being a nice place with lots of fish and rock tunnels. Gives the fish a good place to hide.

Stay or not stay? The winds weren't supposed to change directions so this should be a good place but we also wanted to be at Great Guana Cay tomorrow in time for a snorkel off of the north beach while the winds were still from the south. What to do ....

In the end we went another 7 rather miserable miles fighting the waves/wind and ended up at Orchid Bay Marina on Great Guana Cay. This gave us time to check out the island and with shifting winds due in it just seemed like the thing to do.

The marina is actually in a relatively small cove that is open to the south so even though we were tied to a dock last night it was quite bouncy.

But no slapping waves so that was ok.

Picked up a golf cart and off we went, exploring. The roads here are very narrow - some not even wide enough for two carts to pass each other let along a car or truck.

Plus you have to drive on the "wrong" side of the road. It has taken some getting used to - even when we ride our bikes. I'm sure I'm quite dangerous so it's a good thing these things don't go very fast :-)

We managed to find Nipper's - a well known bar that sits on the beach side overlooking the Atlantic. It's quite the place with the colors of the Bahamas everywhere. And a swimming pool to boot!

Very quiet this day though.

We continued the drive around the island (I don't think there could possibly be more than a few miles of roads but enough hills that the golf cart was the way to go).

Along the main drag north, we found the bobber tree. There are a hundred or so buoys of various kinds hung from the tree with names and dates on them.

The sign on the tree says:

 Dream in Bobber, Hang it on the Tree; Island Breeze will set Dream Free; Your Dream will come true When it finds you.

Wonder if it really works???

Found a few beaches along the way.

Today, Steve got his snorkel in. I thought he was swimming to Europe he went so far out :-)

The reef he found was not the close one but it was a lot better than the one that is about 75 yards off of the beach.

It would have been a better dive than snorkel as the good reef was in about 15 feet or more of water.

The waters are still gorgeous even thought the sun wasn't fully out today.

And breakwalls DO matter! This is the breakwall in front of the marina here.

We are very happy to be on the inside :-)


Tomorrow?? Not sure. Rain due in overnight and a wind swing to the north for tomorrow.

We were hoping to get through the Whale cut tomorrow but I don't think the weather is going to cooperate. So we'll see. Talked to a local fellow here that has a boat similar to ours. He says we can just go through Don't Rock Passage ......if it's at least half tide. Mmmm maybe that's an option we'll explore.

Regardless, if we can go, we'll start making our way back to the West End and then back to Florida.