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.

Sunday April 21: Man-O-War Cay

On Thursday, it was finally time to leave Marsh Harbor - after all we'd been there a week! 

The winds were going to be blowing in a storm front on Saturday so we decided to move to Man-O-War Cay and spend a few days there. Randy and Cindy were headed back north and would join us there.

Only 6 miles so an hour trip. Still windy but still very easy travel across the Sea of Abaco.

The entrance to the harbor is one of the narrowest it seemed. Just make sure there isn't a boat coming out when you want to go in! Randy and Cindy had beat us in so it was nice to have help coming in. It was hard to figure out exactly where we were to dock. You know - directions like turn when you go past the big white boat. Oh, ok. And to which of the 15 big white boats might you be referring? Gotta love it ....

Lunch at a nice place right at the marina - with the discussion afterward centered on whether or not our boat was sitting on the bottom! The consensus was 'yep sure enough'. 

Low tide and we're in the front dock :-) It was only the front of the boat sitting so no problem.

Friday was again a beautiful day - still pretty windy though. Time to rent a golf cart again - the very best way to see the whole island. 

The roads are made for carts not for cars. The only evidence of anything other than golf carts was one small utility type of truck. Even the folks that live here use golf carts.

Pretty fun place - as long as you can remember to drive on the "wrong" side of the street!!

Sea of Abaco left and Atlantic Ocean right

It was a great drive to the northern middle of the island where the width of the land is such that you can see the Sea of Abaco to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east.

Steve viewing the ocean side of the island

Steve and Cindy

There is a nice public pavillion type structure at this narrow spit of land.

Cindy is still beside herself being in the Bahamas and seems to randomly jump for joy at the thought every once in a while :-)

She caught Steve in a contemplative relaxing position as he ponders the view :-)

A more relaxed ocean side view later in the day

In other words, stay off!!

Many of the homes are painted in fun colors and most are very nicely kept.

A popular style house was the shotgun or shogun style - a long narrow house with the front door directly in line with the back door. In theory this facilitates the cooling of the house using the offshore breezes.

Post Office

The post office was just cute :-)

As was this golf cart that was voted (by us) as the best on the island!

Cat on the boat one night :-)

The weather prediction was quite accurate with Saturday being overcast, cloudy, rainy and a bit of thunder and lightening thrown in.

It was a good day to relax and do some reading. The plan was to leave Sunday morning, travel to and anchor outside of Hopetown for a short time. Enough time for Randy and Steve to take the dinghy into town and then walk over to the Atlantic side to check out the reefs just offshore.

It was quite rough so not the best conditions but in settled weather it will be a stop to revisit.






Sunday morning as we prepared to leave, I went to the flybridge to get everything ready and look who I found!

The very cute and friendly cat had apparently enjoyed the night or morning in the toasty warmth :-)

Either that or she was studying the charts to see if she wanted to come with us!!

Tuesday April 16: Extended Cruising

So the standard definition of extended cruising is jokingly better known as 'fixing your boat in exotic places' - like the Bahamas!

Back in November, our alternator died - fortunately we had a spare! Old but still working - it was a quick swap out at Safe Cove before we left for Banana Bay. And with our many trips to the clinic with my thumb, we took the opportunity to have the newer alternator rebuilt in Miami. Which was a really good thing as the replacement installed at Safe Cove died the first day after reaching the Bahamas.

Randy, Cindy and Steve on one of the northern beaches of Green Turtle Cay

But swapping the alternators out was put off until we were going to be some place for a few days. Right now it was time (as dictated by the weather) to cross "The Whale" and enter the beginning of the Abacos!!

The waters south of the Whale Cay are very shallow so most boats have to travel (including us) need to travel the red line out onto the Atlantic in order to proceed to the Abacos.

Thursday the 11th was the day! We enjoyed Green Turtle but it was definitely the best day to move on. Destination was Marsh Harbor - 28 miles as not nice weather was coming - again!

We could not have had better calm waters! This is Love You More with Whale Cay in the background on a beautiful sunny day! Until it wasn't .....

The weather was as predicted but it arrived early and we hadn't yet made it to Marsh Harbor!

If there is one thing we have learned, don't come in to dock in any kind of weather if it can be helped!

So we slowed down! Watching the tornado (??) reaching out from the clouds was quite interesting. They were over the land and didn't appear to be headed our way so we just stayed on course.

Rained on but it soon blew out and just stayed clouds hanging around. By then we were safely in and tied up - with the sun again making an appearance later in the day!

And we've been here since :-) Randy and Cindy left a few days ago to visit Hopetown and then Little Harbor. The plan is to meet up with them again at Man -O-War Cay in a couple of days.

Marsh Harbor is the fifth largest city in the Bahamas with a population of around 5,000.

It was here that Steve thought he could get the part he needed to complete the alternator installation. Sadly no luck there but ever the innovator, he figured out a way to hook up a switch (which Randy provided!) and install it in the dashboard. Very convenient and easy to use, it will take care of the issue quite nicely!!

The teak continues to get a couple of finished coats that didn't get done before leaving Banana Bay. Two coats of clear coat. It helps protect the finish from UV rays.



Nice that it's finally finished. Sharon would be proud :-)











Plus there was more electrical work that needed attention.

Steve was working to wire the new alternator switch when the boat suddenly lost all power!

Working in a very small closet to figure it out didn't help - plus I think our brains were just not working right. It took us a day and a half to figure out what happened.

The culprit was a ground wire that had gotten knocked off - not sure how that happened honestly but whatever - success in the end.

We are actually ready to travel again! The wind has been blowing between 10 and 20 mph so being here at Marsh Harbor has worked out fine as far as we're concerned :-)

There is a nice open air restaurant here called The Jib Room that sadly doesn't serve breakfast but they have a nice lunch that we checked out.

Conch chowder and fish tacos. Perfect lunch :-)









And more beautiful sunsets ......

Wednesday April 10: Green Turtle Marina

What we learned from our trip here in 2014: getting to the West End is NOT the same as getting to the part of the north Bahamas where you really want to be!! As you can see from the Google earth picture above, it's another 3 days to travel to be ALMOST to the Abacos.

Travel over mostly open water - although the depth varies from 7 feet to 20 feet. The kind of water I like - if we sink, simply climb up to the flybridge and wait :-)

Preparing to leave at 6:45 am.

So backing up to last Saturday morning as we prepared to head to the Hillsboro Inlet.

There is a bridge there that opens every 15 minutes - our goal was the 7:15 opening.

We were right on time and followed Love You More out of the inlet in sort of crazy water as the tide was also coming in as well as the waves. It was a beautiful start to what we expected to be an 11 hour trip.

The sun was just coming up - partially shining through the clouds.

Love You More leading the way.

This was our view the whole way across to the West End - just following Love You More. They have an autopilot and we don't so it made it way easier to just follow them. It's difficult to keep a very straight heading by watching the GPS.

Steve's 50" mahi-mahi

All was calm - seas about 2 feet (getting calmer the further  we went). Then about 20 miles out, I called Randy to let him know we were slowing down - Steve had a fish on the line!

Randy replied that so did Cindy!! Sounded like we had run across a school of Mahi-Mahi!!!

Cindy landed hers first and confirmed that it was a dolphin fish and we had seen Steve's jump so knew that it was also.

Cindy's 36" mahi-mahi

But it was a battle to get his in the boat. It didn't seem that big in the water but it was clear that a net was not going to bring this fish in.

I grabbed the gaff (carried it years now :-)). Fortunately Steve had seen the guys on the fishing boats in San Diego use a gaff and knew that he had to wait until the fish was parallel to the surface of the water to grab it with the gaff.

Randy and Cindy were able to get hers in with a big net!

And that was the most exciting thing that happened on the 11 hour trip on Saturday :-)

Of course there was then what do you do with such a large fish?

Cut the head off, cut the tail off and stick it in the cooler! The cooler is 21 1/2 inches long inside to give an idea of how huge the head of this fish was!!

Cleaning the rest of the way could wait until we made it to the West End.





The waters continued to calm until finally about 4:30 or so, so we could begin to make out the land of the West End.

Our yellow quarantine flag - which means we had not checked in with customs - was flying as we entered Bahamian waters.

We then continued on into the harbor, tied up and proceeded to the customs office. Fortunately they are willing to stay a bit later if they know boats are heading their way.




And then finally, it was time for a celebration of being fortunate to have a weather window that enabled us to plan and make the crossing.

Of course Randy and Cindy were prepared with a chilled bottle of champagne :-)

It was a long time not only planning the trip but a long time spent in Banana Bay making sure everything was prepared and ready for it.

There is a beautiful resort here including a great pool but no one had enough energy to even check it out :-) Steve did manage a walk around the grounds though to take a few pictures.

Sunrise at Great Sale Cay

There was no time to rest though! We also learned last time that when the weather is good, go. The plan was a leisure leave time of 9:30 to travel the 55 miles to the Great Sale Cay (pronounced 'key').

It was well protected for the east winds - enough so that we just tied the boats together for the night.

Good weather forecast again for Monday so we'd be off again around 8 am - next headed another 46 miles and 6 1/2 hours.

At anchor at Crab Cay

Crab Cay was our anchorage Monday night. We again tied the boats together but the shifting winds (from east to south) made us wonder why we did that! No issues - just a lot of wave slapping the hulls.

Beautiful water - Steve headed out to snorkel not long after the boats were settled :-)

We thought about spending another night here but once again the weather is king! Tuesday morning the weather prediction was for thunderstorms Wednesday night so we thought moving into a marina might be a good idea!

So we came in yesterday to Green Turtle Marina on Green Turtle Cay. It was a good decision as the wind picked up yesterday and the thunderstorms arrived today.

It's been a nice stay. Breakfast out this morning for the first time since we left Banana Bay.

And yesterday we rented a golf cart to take a ride into New Plymouth - the original settlement here. For some history of this cay, click here.


Fortunately we found an ice cream place that had sherbet (still not great for saturated fat but lower than ice cream :-)  ) right downtown.

Stopped at a couple of hardware stores, groceries stores, liquor stores - the usual :-)









Plus a stop on the way back at a beach for Steve to again try the snorkeling :-)

Ok but not great - tide was too low, sun not out and quite a bit of current!

Tomorrow we'll continue east while the prediction for low waves to cross "the Whale" holds.

Not sure where we'll head!