Log – May 2017

While it was much calmer this morning, it still was quite windy. After breakfast, Fred decided to snorkel to put on a zinc on the shaft. He figured out a technique using masking tape to keep the screws attached while putting the zinc on the shaft. It was very hard and something he usually does using SCUBA. so he stopped after the first zinc. It’s still choppy, and since we still planned on moving, we decided to leave the dinghy on deck and explore the beach at a future time. We left the anchorage around 10:05 and motor sailed into the 20 knots on the nose and associated chop. Not too many boats out and about except for those heading with the wind. Arriving in the Manjack anchorage around 2:20, there were quite a few boats – but plenty of room. We dragged on our first anchoring attempt, had a chain castle while raising the anchor, which also came up side-ways – after a few minutes Iris got it sorted out and we set well on our second try. Time to get our dinghy in the water, at last! We were quite close to one of the wrecks along the shore and we decided to swim to/fro and snorkel. Enroute we noticed that our anchor wasn’t as buried as we’d like, but it was well set. When we first visited Manjack, at least 20 years ago, there used to be a vessel against the shore. Now one can only find various parts of the boat but lots of small to mid-size fish. It was good exercise! Wildlife sightings: Cormorants enroute, ray in the anchorage, small schools of fish at the wreck; Communications – although a cell tower was in view on Abaco Island, we had to keep the phone out in the cockpit to access data – still LTE/3-4 bars Note: Iris used Xfinity Connect to make phone calls. The caller would see the calls as from our home phone. Thus VOIP worked well and we only used phone minutes and texting locally.

We had a quiet night with the wind shifting slighly more southerly. It was a gorgeous day and we had breakfast in the cockpit. Fred used some of the ‘spare’ water to wipe off the boat from yesterday’s slog. Our plan for the day is to do our Manjack favorites. At around 10:45 we dinghied to north Manjack, using the trails and ‘avenues’ to cross to the eastern shore to the deserted Atlantic beach where we hiked for a bit. We then passed by an oceanside house we’ve mentioned in past trips – it now seemed occupied – with items in the kitchen window. We continued around the northern tip of the cay via trails which were for the most part mosquito free! When we got to the northernmost bay (called the lagoon on trail signs), lots of small excursion boats were there feeding the rays and sharks and swimming with them. We continued around the northern tip sans trail to where we’d left our dink. Our ride back to our anchorage was a bit rougher as now we were heading into the wind. Par for the course. Since the tide was good for visiting the Manjack/Crab Cay beach area, we continued there directly and walked on one of those beaches. Back at the boat we had lunch, did some emails and around 3:30 went for another snorkel on the wreck. Fred continued to work on cleaning the bottom. While several of the boats around us had changed, all was calm. Wildlife sightings: Rays and sharks.

While we’d considered staying at Manjack for another day, we both listened to Chris Parker on SSB as well as checking our preferred weather sites and decided to move through Whale Cay cut to the ‘southern’ Abacos before winds kicked up some more. We put our outboard up and the dinghy on deck for our short ‘passage’. Anchor up around 10:05, we motor-sailed through ‘the Whale’ and then anchored at Baker’s Bay around 1:30 for a lunch stop at a minimum. Baker’s Bay used to be one of our very favorite anchorages when all that was ashore was the ruin of a former Disney Cruise destination, woods, and miles of deserted Atlantic beaches. However after the ‘notorious’ Baker’s Bay Golf and Ocean Club was built, the shoreline resembles that of South Beach mansions, the marina does NOT welcome non-club members and walking ashore is probably not allowed or probably not above the tide-line. So the bay is no longer visited much by those anchoring out. We decided to spend the night for ‘old times sake’. There was a small dredge making a racket during the early afternoon, but he stopped work at 3pm. Swimming around the boat we confirmed that we didn’t have a great set on our anchor however we had a lot of chain out, we hadn’t budged in 3 hours, and we were good for predicted conditions. Two other sailboats anchored near us at dusk. After dark only a few houses on shore looked occupied. Wildlife sightings: Dolphins enroute; Big ocean-going barracuda under the boat while swimming. Communications: Fantastic LTE signal/5 bars cell.

Baker’s Bay was quiet overnight and it didn’t rain. The water in Marsh Harbour is not great for swimming, so after breakfast we went for our last ‘joy’ baths for a couple of days. The anchor came right up at 9:45 and we motorsailed to the harbor, anchoring at 12:15. We were visited shortly thereafter by a single-hander on White Rose, a 39′ Rival cutter out of Ft. Pierce. He’d seen us at Great Sale, Angelfish Pt and Manjack. He was an experienced sailor and aerobatic pilot and was in Marsh Harbour to pick up his wife arriving by air. We talked boats for awhile. After he left, we put the dinghy in the water and went ashore. First order of business was the dumpster. We were pleased to see that one had been placed right at the dinghy dock! When in MH we’re always on the hunt for something and this time was no different. Fred was in search of a max-prop zinc. We tried both hardware stores and National Marine. They referred us to the Marsh Harbour Boat Yard/Yamaha, which was pretty far away. We went to Maxwell’s Superstore for some fresh lettuce, tomatoes and fruit. We intended to dinghy back to the boat with our purchases and then go to dinner later, but the harbor wasn’t too blustery so we changed course to Conch Inn Marina’s dinghy dock. While it was still quite early for dinner, we made a late lunch, early dinner stop at the upstairs bar area at Curly Tails’. Mangoes restaurant had re-opened a couple of months earlier, but was once again closed indefinitely – a disappointment. Back at the boat, Fred called the boat yard which did have the 70mm max-prop zinc so that’s our project for tomorrow! Wildlife sightings: Lots of cars! Communications: Perfect! Far better LTE/cell signal than ever had with purchased wifi.

It was hot, humid and it rained overnight. Usually Iris is the one to move to the main salon when our aft cabin gets too hot – but Fred moved this time. After our morning generator run, we dinghied to shore and hiked to the Marsh Harbour Boatyard. We’d only seen the boatyard from offshore, so it was interesting to see it up close. It was a large operation. Success!! They had what we needed so we purchased 2 prop zincs and an extra shaft zinc. We asked the clerk about an alternative route, partially dirt road, back to the harbour and she said she hadn’t walked it in a long time, but we could try. There might be some wild dogs close to the start of the road. We were trying to negotiate some large puddles, and had already encountered some dogs when a pickup truck stopped and the driver asked where we were headed. We told him of our intended route and along with mentioning the dogs, his advice was “Don’t walk in the bush”. Ok – we didn’t need more warnings if a local advised against. We trudged back, stopping at Maxwell’s for a cold drink and were back at Windwalker by 11:15. After lunch, Iris worked on a website update. At around 3:45 a line of thunderstorms came through and we put all the electronics away and closed ourselves in for the heavy rain. HOT! But it only lasted about 20 minutes. The forecast remains windy and the predicted front, one reason why we were in Marsh Harbour, hasn’t passed yet.

At 1:05am the front hit. Heavy rain, some lightening, but we didn’t check to see how high the winds were. One of our goals for the morning was to get fuel so that if we choose to continue south to the Berry Islands, as we did 2 years ago, we wouldn’t have to come back to MH. But our dinghy was in the water and the winds were a steady 25knots with gusts higher. Not only was it going to be an ordeal to get it up on deck, approaching any of the fuel docks was going to be problematic as well. We ran the generator (for the fridge) since we weren’t going anywhere soon. And waited. And waited. We saw gusts of 30knots. At 1:30 we got tired of waiting and said forget the fuel dock; we’ll get fuel another time or at another place. So we got the outboard off the dinghy and raised anchor about 1:45 or 2pm, headed to Sugar Loaf Cay. At least there we’d still have some wind protection but be able to make water and swim. We motor sailed with 28knots true enroute, dropping anchor at 3. There were 3 other sailboats and a motor yacht already anchored. Unlike our experience in 2015, we had a great set and when Fred swam on the anchor later he noted that it was a good sandy bottom. We both did our ‘joy’ baths. Although the anchorage itself was protected, something about the geography had wakes from ferries and vessels over a mile away come as large waves, which then rebounded from the rocky shore – getting us in both directions. Our dinghy was hitting the boat, and our anchor snubber fell off the chain briefly. It’s a beautiful spot, nevertheless. At 5 the power boat left and the sailboats remained. By evening the wind had gone down to about 8knots and the temperature had dropped so that it was almost chilly in the cockpit! Iris got up in the middle of the night to look for a purported meteor shower. When she saw nothing, she looked online and found that she’d missed her chance – it was the day before! Back to bed. Wildlife sightings: None. Communications: LTE/5 bars cell

The wakes were starting early and we didn’t have far to go, so we got underway at 8:40. 2 of the other sailboats were raising their anchors at the same time. We motored to Tahiti Beach and aimed for a small sandy spot. Iris missed it, so we pulled up the anchor and tried again. It helped that Fred told Iris to use the same signaling techniques she uses for picking up moorings and that did it – got it right in the middle and we set well at around 10am. There were several boats – catamarans, motor-cats, trawlers and some mono-hulls already in the anchorage. By 1pm we’d dinghied to Tahiti Beach, walked on the beautiful sand, waded, snorkeled on the anchor, Fred put on the prop zinc (using his masking tape technique), and tightened the shaft zinc with multiple, exhausting free-dives. Phew! Time for some recreation! At 1, we dinghied about a mile across to Cracker P’s on Lubbers Quarters Cay. The bar/restaurant is no longer open for dinner, and if we missed our chance this Sunday, they wouldn’t be serving again until Wed. We both ordered some very potent house rum drinks and a very unusual grilled conch entre – marinated in rum/brown sugar. Iris spoke with one of the owners who said they stopped serving dinner during the recession (except for full moon parties and other special occasions), and it’s not hurt them financially. They’ve been doing it for 18 years and so far it’s been a good season. We walked on their small beach, accompanied by a black cat. Same one we saw 2 years ago at Lubbers’ Landing? Probably not. We were back at the boat at around 2:30. Just snacks for dinner as we were full. Wildlife sightings: cat, some fish while walking and snorkeling. Communications: LTE/5 bars cell.

We left Tahiti Beach around 9:15 and were anchored in our reliable anchorage by 11:45. Fred was suffering all day with some abdominal distress (from yesterday’s outing?) so we didn’t do anything too strenuous. There was a power boat and sailboat already anchored when we arrived and a catamaran arrived at 4. Since there was about a knot of current, we only snorkeled against the current with a quick return to Windwalker and our required ‘joy’ baths. Wildlife sightings:turtle, enroute; fish and conch while snorkeling. Communications: Strong 4g, 2-3 bars cell.

One place we’d never gotten to in many trips to the Abaocs, was the famous Pete’s Pub in Little Harbour at the south end of the Sea of Abaco. Weather conditions never seemed right and we draw too much to easily get into Little Harbour except at high tide. But our goal this trip is to do stuff we either had never done or not done in awhile (eg Bakers Bay). No wind, mild weather – no excuses today. We raised anchor around 9:30 and motored towards our destination. The water near Sandy Cay National Park was unbelievably blue – we tried to capture it in a photo. Our plan was to anchor just outside the harbour entrace off a small beach. We weren’t the first with that idea and the shallow spots seemed to be taken. We dropped anchor in sand, however our chain went right over some coral and if we dragged our anchor could become fouled in the coral. So we moved and anchored further out than we’d hoped and felt more of the swell wrapping around from the ocean. But – we we only needed enough time to dinghy ashore, explore and then head elsewhere for the night. We dinghied through the harbour entrance into the very protected, small harbor and could see the attraction immediately. High cliffs on one side, no wind, and quite a few moorings. We needed to work up an appetite, so after tying up to the nearest dock, we ‘hiked’ to North Beach (where we were anchored) and the ruins of an old light house. Time for lunch at Pete’s Pub – which advertises heavily on the local Abacos VHF net every morning. The Blaster (house drink) was potent and our lunch selections were good. Many of the picnic tables in the dining area were taken, but there was room for a lot more in season! After lunch we walked towards visible caves, labeled as private property, and visited the gallery where metal sculptures were displayed. Our price point, however, was for t-shirts! Back on our dink, we went closer to the caves; the water in the harbour was clear and was filled with sea-turtles and rays. We needed better protection for the night, so we moved across the harbour entrance to Tom Curry’s Point and anchored at around 2:30. A very large ray swam by, welcoming us. If it proved to be too rolly we could still move since it was early. But we were the only boat there, some nice homes were close by on shore, and the water was calm enough. We went for brief snorkels on the anchor and then Fred decided to stay in the water to work on the hull some more. Iris looked up to see a 52′ Lagoon catamaran, that we’d been anchored next to during our Little Harbour excursion, drifting towards us. There was no one at the helm, and they were following a small pod of dolphins; some of the10 or so French passengers were also in the water trying to swim with the dolphins. A lot of fun on board but we were at anchor and they were NOT! When they were about 2 boat lengths away I yelled to the captain – you’re getting close. The ‘captain’? moved to the wheel but made no move to take control of the boat. I got Fred’s attention in the water, and he swam to the stern and yelled to the captain – why are you coming so close to my boat? By then they were about 40′ away. The man replied “What are you worried about?” and then exclaimed “I CAN DO WHAT I WANT!”. But he started his engine and pulled away, once again drifting around the Bight of Old Robinson, following the dolphins. We were to see the vessel several more times in our stay in the Abacos and made sure to avoid them. The tranquility of our anchorage had been disturbed, but we calmed down. Wildlife sightings: rays, turtles, birds, dolphins Communications: LTE/ 3 bars cell

It may not have been rolly when we anchored, but as tides changed and the winds shifted we had a rolly evening until around 11. Where to go? Lynyard Cay wasn’t going to be good with the morning’s wind, so we started heading back towards Buckaroon at around 8:45. But wait – we’d always looked at the Spencer’s Bight as this big body of water on the chart. Dodge doesn’t show this as having an anchorage, but the Explorer charts do. Let’s give it a try – this is another location that could be untenable with ocean swells from North Bar channel. But looked good for exploration given the lack of wind and wind direction. Spencer’s Bight is the site of ruins of Wilson City – once a major logging operation and community around 1905-1910. We anchored off Spencer’s Point at 9:55 in a good sand bottom. We’d never seen any other boats there, and there were none today. Time to dinghy explore. We tried getting close to the Wilson City ruins as marked on our charts – but the shore was very rocky and we couldn’t get close. We headed deeper into the Bight and landed on a shore that had a very developed ‘fish camp’ with a small mooring ball, organized dining area, propane grill, etc. This area is on Great Abaco Island so accessible by car and there was a road ending at the camp. We took the road heading out towards the ruins, we hoped – it was a pleasant hike. It looked well-traveled with tire marks. When the road turned away from our desired direction, Iris stopped and Fred continued to follow it up a large hill. He didn’t find the ruins, but a shooting area with hundreds of empty shot gun shells. It was reminiscent of the Snake Cay anchorage – deserted, accessible by car, shot gun shells – not Iris’ kind of place…. We headed back to our dinghy to further explore the bight. The next beach had a tent or canopy on it and did not seem abandoned although we saw no one there. Given the shot gun shells, perhaps we should skip that beach. The next beach was getting us pretty far from our boat – time to return to Windwalker. Back aboard later in the day Fred noticed a small vessel with two aboard who appeared to be conching near the rocky area near Wilson City, since one of the crew jumped in the water. Another vessel seemed to be fishing. We snorkeled around the boat, Fred worked some more on the hull and we did our ‘joy’ bath routine. The anchor was buried! Wildlife sightings: Large ocean going barracuda, large ray, birds on shore. Communications: Weak/slow 4G and 3 bars cell.

Strong SW winds were forecast for the next few days and there aren’t a lot of anchorages that are great for that. But Buckaroon is – so back to Buckaroon we went, raising anchor at around 9 and anchoring around 10:38. Enroute we motored slowly to we could avoid a generator run for refrigeration. We passed White Rose headed south – but he didn’t answer on his VHF. We were the only boat when we arrived. After lunch we headed to a new area around a small island and hiked on shore. We thought it was a small island – but it actually curved around and there was much to see. As is typical, we found where boaters had assembled a small fire circle and seat(s) from debris. Later we went to the main beach and walked about. By the first evening there were 5 other boats. We had a quiet, bug free night. The next morning we decided to stay put – given the forecast. We had a lazy morning. Some boats left, 3 new sailboats arrived. The crew of Deja Vous came by to visit. They’d tracked our progress on AIS and we’d crossed from Lake Worth the same time but they stopped in Mangrove. We talked cruising history, and they had done the Caribbean 1500 in the mid 90s. We did in 99 – so we had some boating acquaintances in common. They’d never anchored in Buckaroon before because they thought it was too shallow – but our AIS seems to be a boat magnet! Earlier in the day, Fred had searched online for House on Buckaroon Bay and found an ad from 1990s for a beachhouse that totally matched the ruins we’d seen the last few times here. OK – it was clear that it was now abandoned and it was time to check it out. So we dinghied to a beach closer to the ruin and Fred headed over to explore and take some pictures. It was amazing how much remained. Then we went to a second beach were there was a broken dock and waded over to yet another cabin ruin. Sad – it’s difficult to build homes on these islands and sad to see them abandoned. Deja Vous had mentioned each of the boats ‘sporting’ a barracuda under the hull. When we returned, we too had our barracuda. Fred scared it off. By nightfall we had 7 boats in the anchorage, with a pleasant bug-free night. Saturday morning we once again decided not to move. Today was going to be the most wind and not a great dinghy exploring day. During the day, even more boats came into the anchorage and there were even a couple of sailboats at Spencer’s Bight in the distance. All hiding from the wind. Fred decided to do some more in-water work and startled our resident barracuda. The wind was a steady 18+ from the south and some of the boats decided to move closer to shore and maneuvered around to re-anchor. Wildlife sightings: Large barracuda, rays, conch, starfish, fish. Communications: Strong 4G/2-3 bars cell.

Sometime in the last few days we agreed that we wouldn’t be heading back through the Berry Islands like we did in 2015, so we needed to get fuel for the return trip. We raised anchor around 9 and motor-sailed to Marsh Harbour. The tide was perfect (high) when we approached Conch Inn Marina fuel dock. As was the case last time, the dockmaster was no where to be seen; we tied up as best we could and Iris called the Inn/Marina office to get a response. We noticed that the fuel dock was not manned from 1-2 for a lunch break, so we were ‘squeaking in’ at 12:30…. After fuel (diesel and gas for the outboard), Fred had to go to the marina office onshore to pay and to buy ice. We’d just about used up what we’d brought with us. That done, we anchored near the main dinghy dock and soon after we had a brief thunderstorm with plenty of lightening. We wanted to pick up a few items at Maxwells which closes at 4 on Sundays, so we put the outboard on the dinghy and went ashore around 2:30 – getting soaked from the waves in the harbor. A boat boy wanted to help us at the dinghy dock, but we rejected his ‘services’ and tied up. Once again, instead of returning to the boat with purchases, we opted to move our dinghy to the Conch Inn dinghy dock and do another late lunch/early dinner at Curly Tails’ upstairs. It was Mother’s Day and the formal dining room was filled with beautifully dressed families. Upstairs – not so much! We were back at Windwalker around 5 and planned the rest of our trip. We didn’t totally have Monday planned out – it was Iris’ birthday and she wasn’t being decisive about where to go, but we did know that it was a good Whale Cay Cut crossing day on Tuesday and that tides lined up for entering White Sound in Green Turtle Cay. Amazingly, this was another place we’d never visited – put off by the 5′ spots on the entry. Iris made reservations for Tues and Wed at the Bluff House Marina.

Iris finally decided where she wanted to go. While she’d loved Treasure Sands (in 2013), we didn’t want to repeat the Treasure Cay/Treasure Sands experience. Next highest rated restaurant on Tripadivisor was at Firefly Resort, just north of White Sound on Elbow Cay. As we were raising anchor at 9 and heading out of Marsh Harbour, Fred suggested that we anchor off Mermaid Reef – another spot we’d never ‘tried’. So at around 10, we anchored just ‘around the corner’ from Marsh Harbour. Now – do we swim to the reef? Or dinghy there. Iris had shoulder issues that was going to make getting back into the dinghy from the water difficult – but we took a dinghy step she’d purchased several years earlier and we’d figure out how to get her back in the boat later! We tied up to one of the 4 small boat moorings and jumped in. Where is the reef? We snorkeled to a sign identying the reef – nothing to see here…then we changed direction and passed over what looked like airplane tires with tiny fish. We know this is a beginner’s reef, but surely this can’t be it. Iris saw what looked like a small hill underwater and said let’s go that way. That’s it! Lots of brain coral like features but an amazing number of fish. Large, dark parrot fish, schools of sargeant majors, and other larger schools. Ouch!!!! What’s this? We’re being nipped at by the sargeant majors. They were behaving like pyranhas! We guessed that they were all used to being fed by dive guides and wanted their payment. We fled the area chased by several schools of fish. Meanwhile, two other dinghies had arrived and there was fresh meat in the water. So they stopped following us and we continued our tour of the reef unmolested. Fred rigged the dinghy-step and Iris was able to climb into the dinghy without too much trouble. We continued on to Firefly. There was a nice sandy spot but another sailboat grabbed it minutes before we reached it. The bottom looked grassy, but we set well. There was a lot of boat traffic going to/fro Hopetown and Tahiti Beach so there were wakes. Tahiti Beach, in the distance, was a parking lot for catamarans today. While we were swimming around the boat, a couple of other sailboats arrived – all with the intention of dining at Firefly. Iris’ choice – lunch or dinner? She actually preferred the lunch menu which is served until 6. We went ashore, tying up to their dinghy dock, and seated ourselves at one of their patio tables. While dining, we noticed two waterspouts off in the distance. Thunderstorms were in the area – mainly over Great Abaco. The resort itself is pretty, nicely landscaped and quite small. The servers were attentive and we enjoyed our delicious lunches – but there was no comparison with the type of experience (or associated price) of our Treasure Sands dinner. We bought some t-shirts and an ornament to memorialize our visit and were back at the boat at around 4:40. We raised the outboard and put the dink on deck for our trip to Green Turtle tomorrow. Iris called to confirm the reservations at the marina for tomorrow. Wildlife sightings: Lots of reef fish at Mermaid. Communications: LTE/ 5 bars cell.

The weather forecast had changed since we originally made reservations at Green Turtle. We planned to go there in any case, but now there was more reason as fairly strong winds were forecast for the next several days. We’ll see – have to get there first! We raised anchor at 6:40am and motor sailed, and then sailed through Whale Cay Cut and all the way to the entrance to White Sound on Green Turtle Cay. Winds were strong but in our favor. We were coming just around high tide. We were told to hail the marina on VHF when at the outer entrance mark and did so. We were told we’d be tying up port side-to but had no idea what to expect. Fred slowly entered the channel and never saw any depths less that around 9 except when he strayed out of the channel slightly. Side-to was not really and Iris had only rigged two bow/two stern and had lines ready for springs but not attached. What we actually had was about a 2′ or less ‘finger’ on our bow and given our conditions, needed to catch the 2 stern pilings on our way in with the spring as well as stern lines. Wind was on our stern pushing us onto the dock. Not pretty. Andrew, our dockmaster, was a pro! He fended us off the dock, and when Fred had difficulty lassooing one of the pilings, he deftly jumped aboard, ran to the stern and almost cowboy style captured the piling. We were stable, sort of…..But the finger part was about 3 ft away from the boat and Iris, even when she put a rope close to the bow, was unable to get off onto the finger. The one time she tried, she fell as she headed to the office to check us in. Not a ‘happy camper’. When Iris checked in she extended our stay for a 3rd night – so we’d be here through Friday and the worst of the high winds. The staff, Andrea and Molly, both of whom Iris had spoken with on the phone, were delightful! So were the bartenders and wait staff – both at the main restaurant – The Ballyhoo Bar & Grill, and the Sea of Abaco bar – the Tranquil Turtle. Early in our shoreside order of business was showers, and then a walk to check out the grounds and a short hike to the Tranquil Turtle at Bluff House Beach. The Bluff House itself, something we’d heard about for over 20 years, was severely damaged in a storm several years earlier, and was no longer in use. We learned later that entire marina/resort had apparently been sold recently and was going to have major changes. We enjoyed our first dinner, Surf & Turf night, that evening and were to dine there all 3 nights! In the evening, Fred made some adjustments to the lines when Iris tried to get back aboard and that made how we sat in the ‘slip’ unsafe for our expected conditions. It took quite awhile our first evening to get things the way he wanted them. We were both tense and waiting for the worsening conditions.

Wednesday we found that Iris can get off/on the boat fairly easily from the bow – stepping onto or off the anchors. We’ve had to use that technique on occasion, and it worked well for Fred as well as our bow was the closest point to ‘land’ at all stages of tide. We weren’t going to pay for water, but did use extra watermaker water to once again clean up some anchor dirt and salt. Today was a chore day – Fred repaired the raw water pump, Iris repaired the Bahamas courtesy flag – which had somewhat shredded in the high winds. We’d already taken down our US flag yesterday when the winds started to increase. One thing that IS fun about marinas, is that we get to chat with fellow cruisers. We met our slip neighbors, John and Marcia on S/V Acadia on their first trip to the Abacos from CT. At the bar late afternoon, we met Sally and John on a Hatteras, from Treasure Isle FL – who vacation in Green Turtle every season. Fred also chatted with several people while working on deck. After lunch it was time to explore this end of Green Turtle Cay, and we took a hike to Green Turtle Club Marina. Iris hadn’t made reservations there because the charts showed they didn’t have a lot of depth. No longer true. We spoke with their dockmaster who said all had been dredged in the last year and that they had plenty of depth. Next trip perhaps. They had longer docks and seemed to be in a calmer area of the harbor for our current conditions. After our walk it was time for a swim in the inviting Bluff House pool and showers. Another enjoyable dinner out and back to the boat. Winds in the evening were reading steady 28 knots on our instruments. A lot of chop in the small harbour.

It was still windy on Thursday morning. Fred did internet work while Iris tried to revive her smartphone that had bit the dust a couple of days earlier. We’d been using Fred’s phone as primary because he had hotspot function and Iris’ didn’t. But hers was in a permanent reboot/blue screen loop and every technique to fix it she found online didn’t work. We told our family that if Fred’s phone failed we might not be able to make contact on our return trip and failure to communicate didn’t mean anything had happened to us. We hoped to go for another hike after lunch but had to wait out a downpour. We went for a shorter walk to memorialize our stay with pictures, then Fred worked on our dinghy, which was attempting to shed its rub-rail while Iris tried to figure out how to file an SVRS (Small Vessel Reporting System) float plan with the coast guard. SVRS allows local boaters to clear back into the US by phone (like it used to be pre-9/11). But the system doesn’t recognize last anchorage as last port of call and requests either a marina, residence or launch ramp as alternatives. So Green Turtle was going to be our last port of call prior to heading home. It was a little unforgiving in format too and Iris had to try a couple of times before it ‘took’. She later discussed SVRS with our Acadia neighbors, as they were going to be doing the same thing for the first time as well. Back for a drink and swim at the pool, we met a couple on Horizons, a very salty boat anchored in bouncy harbor. They were circumnavigators, and he’d owned the boat for 40 years! Good conversation! Tonight was Pizza night in the dining room and we shared a lobster pizza – yum! Both of us were getting anxious – how were we going to get off the dock if conditions didn’t abate some? But Fred had a plan! We enjoyed watching Netflix using the marina’s wifi.
Wildlife sightings: Rays off the beach, birds as we hiked, fish around the docks Communications: LTE/5 bars cell; excellent marina wi-fi.

Bad night (for Iris). She went to the head at 1am and stepped into an inch of water. Damn – she knew that somewhere during the trip she’d forget to turn the valve on our toilet water kit that adds ‘deoderant/lubricant’ to our toilet fixture. We use the ‘kit’ sporadically because the setup we have no longer allows it to remain on all along without bringing sea water into the boat. She was afraid she’d awaken Fred when she turned on the shower sump pump, but he slept through the racket and then it took her 45 minutes more to dry the bathroom and the cabinet area under the sink. Her fault and her problem to fix! We told the marina that we’d be heading out around 11. Fred started adding looped lines and removing those tied to the pilings to ease our exit. At around 10 we shut off shorepower and had Andrew take meter readings and Iris went ashore to close out our marina account. At 11 we got Andrew (and his assistants) attention as Fred started removing lines. The engine was warm and running and with full power Fred go us out of the slip at 11:27, backing into the still strong easterly winds. We weren’t even at mid-tide yet but it was a rising tide and we had more than sufficient depth to get out of the channel. Green Turtle Cay – White Sound – we will return! We headed to Powell Cay and anchored with about 7 other vessels already there at 2pm. Conditions weren’t ideal and the anchorage was a little bit bouncy – perhaps we were a little too far out. But we were only here for one night and had a good set. We put the dinghy in the water, walked on the various beaches – but didn’t go for our usual strenuous cross-island hike. We had time to snorkel on the anchor and our joy baths before bringing the dinghy back on deck. Tomorrow we plan to get to Great Sale Cay as we start heading home. While the gulf-stream crossing isn’t good yet, it looks like we have a crossing window on Monday or Tuesday, with the window closing with west winds on Tuesday night to Wednesday, after which there will be west winds for several days. The northern Abacos have limited anchorages good for westerlies so we were somewhat committed. Winds stayed at 19 knots with higher gusts and by evening there were 10 boats in the rolly anchorage. Wildlife sightings: Turtles and a shark swimming along the beach, birds ashore. Communications: LTE/5 bars cell from Cooperstown across the Sea of Abaco.

We sent float plan emails out in the morning and let our family know that once again we’d probably be out of communications at Great Sale. Anchor up at 7:45, motor-sailing all day. We could see that our Green Turtle neighbor was leaving Bluff House Marina, on AIS. They only drew 4′ so they could leave independent of tide. They too were headed to Great Sale. We anchored at 3:45 – underway for 8 hours. Fred swam on the anchor – far too murky to see. By nightfall there were at least 18 boats in the anchorage – all probably taking advantage of the same window Most would probably head to Mangrove Cay tomorrow, or Indian Rocks Channel or Memory Rock Passage. Iris sought a cell phone signal and was able to get out an ‘all well’ text message, but that was it. We discussed our alternatives. We could do an overnight using Memory Rock (been there done that), or stop in Mangrove (been there done that) or do Indian Rock channel west to east (new for us) and either go into Old Bahama Bay or anchor out at one of 2 iffy anchorages. We’ll decide tomorrow…. Acadia came in late and anchored closer to the entrance. A single-hander anchored very near to us. His only crew was a large dog. Wildlife sightings: None Communications: 4g for 5 seconds, 0 bars cell.

We had decided on Indian Rock Channel and had to time the tide, so we departed Great Sale at 7:15 and motor sailed towards the pass, entering the channel at 3pm. Enroute we hailed Old Bahama Bay and said we’d need a slip for the night. While Iris had hoped for anchoring out, it was a good decision because both the anchorages looked very rolly. We docked at 4:15. Acadia and the single-hander also came in shortly after we did. Oh no! Seconds after we’d docked we were inundated with no-seeums (altho’ they were kind of seeums). Never had we encountered such an onslaught since mosquitos at Cape Sable several years earlier. Also – the marina had completed its Hurricane Matthew repairs and was now charging $2.99/foot. We didn’t have a splitter for 50amp service and didn’t want to rent one, so no electicity (eg for a/c). What seemed like a good deal coming was not so much on our return. While Fred hosed off the boat, Iris changed the SVRS float plan to reflect our changed departure port. We went for a short swim at the resort’s beach and then showered. Iris had yet again an unpleasant ladies room experience with almost no shower pressure.The single-hander next to us asked if we’d mind him running his generator since he was having battery issues aboard. We said – no problem as we’d be doing the same to him later. Fred went aboard his boat to see if he couldn’t help debug the charging problem, but was unable to fix it. So the captain turned on his generator. What he hadn’t mentioned was that while he was running this on-deck gas generator, he commanded his dog to stay in the cockpit and left the boat! The dog howled while he was gone and when we later went for a walk, we spied the captain sitting at the bar. Oh well. For future reference – the restrooms and showers near the Dockmaster’s Office look lovely, clean and spacious. Use those! We used mosquito coils out in the cockpit, and even below later as we ran our a/c and tried to rid our below-decks of no-seeums. We spoke with several west-bound boaters and prepared for our next day’s passage, contacted family and updated float plans. We dined aboard. Wildlife sightings: Do no-seeums count? Communications: Excellent wi-fi, LTE, 5 bars cellphone.

We left Old Bahama Bay at 6:15am. Acadia had departed a few minutes earlier. We had an excellent crossing and AIS once again made things easy, except for one encounter with a freighter. We were on a too close approach and had the right of way. Fred hailed the vessel and they changed course briefly, but then a few minutes later, returned to their original course making our CPA (closest point of approach) a collision. Fred turned us around unti they passed, but we lost a lot of ground to the Gulf Stream in those few minutes of manuevering and we now had lost a lot of the southing we’d made. The only vessel with us the entire way was Acadia and we entered Lake Worth inlet about a 1/2 hour before they did. It was a flood tide and a wild ride through the inlet – we were doing 8.6 knots! We usually don’t pay much attention when we go in/out for the day – but it was exciting. It was still early enough – do we go to our slip or anchor out. Usually we opt for the latter, clean up after the passage and go into our slip the next day. But we decided if we made our first bridge in time we’d go to Windwalker’s home. Fred promised that we’d spend the night aboard and NOT rush to get to our residence that night. Deal. We made the bridges and were tied up by 5:45. Fred called the SVRS number to clear us into the US and it was easy. The person answering found our float plan, Fred confirmed the crew, and the guy said ‘Isn’t SVRS great? Isn’t it easy?” Yes – it was! And so we ended a great trip – one of our best. We thanked Windwalker for being kind to us!