Manjack Cay

12/15/2014 Monday
Spent the morning sightseeing around the community of New Plymouth.  There are a number of chickens running loose and the roosters are crowing constantly.  This morning I woke up around 4:00 am and stuck my head out to look around.  With the bright moon it was easy to see everything was fine.  Off in the distance I heard one very confused rooster crowing at the moon.  Among the things we bought was a fresh loaf of coconut bread, still warm from the oven.  The baker adds grated fresh coconuts into the mix.  We will be back for more.  We wanted to head out and see the area and decided to go to Manjack, aka Munjack aka Nunjack Cay.  It is a five mile trip but we wanted to sail.  We made four long tacks, about two and a half miles each and spent the afternoon slowly cruising along.  It felt good to be out on the water without the motor running.  We did turn the five mile trip into a four hour 11 mile trip but it didn't cost us anything.  When we got to the anchorage two of the NC boats we traveled with were already there.  We settled in for a quiet evening after watching another outstanding sunset.

12/16/2014 Tuesday
Our days start early having to be up by 6:30 to catch the weather report.  Cori wanted to take her kayak up the creek that runs up the middle of the island.  We mounted the little video camera on the kayak and off she went.  See the new video on our YouTube channel.  Very cool.  After she got back we took the dinghy to the south end of the Cay to check out the shoreline and beach.  On the way we saw several conchs, starfish and turtles.  The turtles are fast.  This part of the island has rock outcroppings with sections of sand between them.  We saw some stingrays while we were there.

12/17/2014 Wednesday
Cori wanted to go back up the creek on her kayak with the camera on an extension to try to get underwater video.  When she got back we took the dingy to shore and followed  a trail to a beach in the middle of the island.  It was your classic tropical beach,  White sand so fine you sank several inches into when you got away from the waterline and small waves lapping at the shore.  Off in the distance we could see the waves breaking on the reef.  Cori went shelling and I found a log to sit on and just relax and take it all in.  We called it an early night because we needed to get up extra early in the morning.

12/18/2014 Thursday
We were up at 6:00 am just as it was getting light to head back the Green Turtle Cay.  We had reserved a slip in a marina so we could plug the boat in and give the batteries a proper charging and make a trip to the phone company.  The problem was that high tide was at 4:30 am and we need high water to clear the sandbar in the entrance to Black Sound.  We pulled out of the anchorage and watched the sunrise as we motored the five miles back.  We stopped to top off our fuel on the way in.  We used about a half tank coming from Vero Beach and there is a new tax starting the first of the year.  I don't know if it includes diesel fuel but why take the chance.  We tied up at the marina, got plugged in and headed to the phone office.  The office is only open on Thursdays from 9:30 to 3:00 so there was a line.  We got our phone system worked out and we should have more options to communicate and get online now.  The rest of the day was walk around town and then back to the boat for a few projects.  Brownies were in the oven during the projects.

New photos and videos have been uploaded.