We spent Christmas Day with a group of other cruisers for the annual cruisers pot luck. The location had to be moved but we had a great view of the water while meeting new friends and getting reacquainted with old. We had also been invited up to Donny's for dinner with his family and friends. All in all it was an enjoyable Christmas. We weren't able to spend it with our families but were with our new extended families. We had plans to leave the dock and go out to one of the Cays to anchor on Saturday but held off and spent another day at the dock.
On Sunday at high tide we slipped the lines and had a great sail up to Munjack Cay. This is the first anchorage we went to last year and we had enjoyed a great deal. After the anchor was set we joined a couple of other boats that had been at the dock and dinghied around to the north end of the island to a beach we had not been to yet. Cori did not find many shells and I had no luck finding any conch large enough to keep. Maybe get them next year. Monday we went to the southern point of the island and while Cori walked the beach I snorkeled out by the rocks looking for lobster. No luck. This is one of the beaches we videoed and uploaded to our YouTube channel, check it out. Later Cori took her kayak to the ocean side of Crab Cay where she knew of a location to find seaglass, making a pretty good haul. Seaglass is pieces of glass from broken bottles that get abraded by the sand and rocks to take the shine off of it and it makes nice jewelry which is what Cori is doing with it.
Tuesday we joined the others and went back to the south point again and once more I snorkeled for lobster and they walked the beach. I went out further to a different group of rocks but again no lobsters. There was a good variety of coral and small fish. I tried to shoot some video but didn't get anything good. After that we made a run to another beach on the Sea Of Abaco side. There is a dock there and trails that will take us to a nice beach on the Atlantic side (see another video from last year). To our surprise as soon as we got out of the dinghy we were greeted by a ray, possibly a stingray but all rays look alike to me. It turned out to be friendly and had gotten used to people coming to feed it. I didn't have anything for it to eat but I held the video camera under the water to shoot some video of it. It even bumped the camera with its nose to see if it was something to eat. I have posted the video on YouTube. There is a link to them in the upper right hand side of this blog. Check it out.
After walking that beach we headed across to the beach on the Atlantic side. While walking and looking for shells and seabeans Cori spotted a wine bottle that looked like there was something in it. Sure enough we had found a message in a bottle. We brought it back to the boat to open it.
The cork was almost gone and came out easily. The message was rolled up in a ziplock bag but had gotten wet. When we opened it up and read it we were in for a surprise. It turned out to be a message thrown overboard by a group on a boat run by Sea Education Association on a trip from the Virgin Islands to Nova Scotia in May of 2005.
Sea Education Associations web site tells of their mission to offer college semesters at sea and this was part of one of their "drift bottle experiments". This bottle had been thrown overboard at a spot about 350 miles East of Nantucket Island in the Gulf Stream. Where it had traveled during the past ten and a half years is anyone's guess. It is possible that it made a complete circle of the Atlantic ocean following the currents until it washed up on a beach in the Bahamas. We have notified SEA that it has been found and will be following up with more information for them. That evening we decided that this was "the best day ever" with visiting several beaches, finding seabeans, snorkeling, finding a message in a bottle and spending it with friends that we popped a bottle of champagne to toast the sundown.
Wednesday morning we pulled anchor and moved to No Name Cay just on the other side of Green Turtle Cay. The attraction here is the good shelling for Cori and the wild pigs that live on the island, not to mention the seclusion. There are a lot of boats that come over to see the pigs but very few stay for the night so we almost always have the anchorage to ourselves.
Cori took her kayak to shore to walk the beach and I stayed on the boat to read and relax. Later I took the dinghy ashore to join her and stopped to check out the pigs before dinghing around for a while. I dropped her off at her kayak and I headed back to the boat where she joined me later.
We had a quiet night at anchor and in the morning (New Years Eve) we motored back to Black Sound to tie up for Donny's dock again. We made a quick run into town for a couple of last minute purchases and then hung out on the dock. In the evening we joined the other couples we had spent time at Munjack Cay for snacks and stories until everyone called it a night. Back on the boat we managed to stay up until midnight to wish each other a Happy New Year then off to bed to be ready for the next day.
It is New Years day and Cori was up early to go fishing with Donny and a couple of others and when they get back it will be time to head into town for their annual Junkanoo. I posted a lot of pictures from last years Junkanoo and we enjoyed it so much that we made plans to be here for it this year. Watch for upcoming photos and video of the event.
Here is a photo of some of the jewelry Cori has been making:
Our plans are to leave soon and move further down the Abaco, possibly with a stop in Hopetown and then continue moving south into the Exumas, the central part of the Bahamas.
Once again, we wish everyone a Happy New Year!
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