Back at Green Turtle Cay

We are back at Green Turtle Cay at Donny's dock in Black Sound, where we started in December.  We came in to get some supplies, fuel and a good charge on the batteries.

After our stay at Powell Cay we motored, upwind, to Manjack Cay.  This time we anchored close to Crab Cay since Karen had told Cori there was good shelling and sea glass on the beaches there.  We took the dinghy for a ride to check out two wrecks on Crab Cay and then around to the beach area.  We couldn't get close to the second beach since it was low tide and the motor started dragging bottom before we got there.  In the morning Cori took the kayak over to the beach and eventually found the beach Karen had mentioned.  She came back with a lot of shells and glass, not to mention two conch.  If the water is low enough she can just reach over and pick them up without having to get out of the kayak.  While she was gone I got my snorkel stuff together and rode over to the wrecks with the video camera but was disappointed.  There was nothing around the wrecks to dive on or film, instead I just shot some video of them at low tide.  They are against the shore and exposed at low tide.  I spent the rest of the day reading.  For the evenings entertainment we listened to the Nascar race on the XM radio.  We both fell asleep before it was over but fortunately they rebroadcast it on Sunday.  In the morning (Sunday) Cori was up early again to take advantage of the low tide and kayak over to "her" beach again.  She could hear a shell calling out to her.  In the afternoon we took the dinghy over to the beach on Manjack and walked the trail to the bluff looking out at the Sea of Abaco.  While there a dark cloud in the distance moved our way and we had a lot of thunder.  It started to rain lightly on our way back but didn't last.  Too bad, we need some rain to rinse everything off.

Monday morning we spent getting the boat ready to go into Green Turtle Cay.  We needed to put a few things away, like shells, so they wouldn't move around and get broken.  We also wanted to get the dinghy up on it's davits since I don't like pulling it and we were planning to go to a dock and wouldn't be needing it.  We had to wait until afternoon to go since the entrance to Black Sound is shallow and we have to wait for high tide.  Once in Black Sound we stopped at the fuel dock to top off our fuel before going to our dock.  At the dock we were met by John on the trawler Nomad that we had met in December.  On the way Cori tried out here new recipe for bread.  As we docked there was the aroma of fresh baked bread coming from the galley.

Here is an example of the friendliness of the people in the Abacos and why we stay on Donny's dock or mooring.  One of his customers had left his boat for "a few weeks" on a mooring while he went back to the States.  A few weeks turned into three months and he was coming back.  His boat had been moved to the dock in front of us to have it ready for his return.  His flight was five hours late coming into Treasure Cay.  The ferry had made a special run to pick up the passengers and brought him to his boat, dropping him off about 10:00 pm.  Not to a dock close to his boat, but pulled up alongside his boat to let him off.  Donny was there to greet him and to inform him that when they brought it in there were signs of a mouse having been on board.  He told him that he didn't need to deal with that right away but to spend the night in one of his bedrooms and then deal with it in the morning.  I don't know of any marina anywhere that would have made a similar offer.

We are planning to spend a few days here checking weather and to plan for our trip back to the US.