We are once again on the move.
We arrived at Green Turtle Cay and tied up at the dock at Donny's Marina. Donny is a friend we met on our first trip to the Bahamas and we have almost been adopted by him. We don't normally stay at a dock but Donny insists. This year was a little different. Donny was going to take a trip to Florida to among other things, meet his new granddaughter. We were tasked with helping run the marina while he was gone. We helped him with a variety of projects including Cori accompanying him on several of his "Turtle Tours" where he takes visitors out for a day to see turtles, rays, snorkeling, etc. We stayed for a little over a month, the longest we have been at a dock since we started cruising.
The stay on Green Turtle was capped off by their Junkanoo Carnival on New Years Eve and then a fishing trip on New Years Day.
On Monday, the 2nd, we untied the lines and caught the afternoon high tide and left to continue our adventures. First step was to move around Whale Cay to access the lower Abaco Cays. Due to a large sandbar and shoaling it is necessary to go out the Whale Cut into the ocean and then back into the protected waters of the Sea of Abaco. This can either be a non-event or impossible depending on the sea state. This time it was a non-event as we were able sail from Green Turtle and with a couple of tacks sail out the cut and back into the protected waters. We continued on to Bakers Bay and set anchor for the night. Bakers Bay is at the northern end of Great Guana Cay and is very private. Just about anyone you can think of that has a lot of money has a home there including several movie stars, sports figures and business owners. It is very private but we can still anchor in the bay. The next morning we moved on, again enjoying a great sail, to Man O' War Cay. We anchored out instead of going into the harbor but spent several days ashore checking out their progress recovering from hurricane Dorian and walking the beach looking for "treasures", i.e. sea-glass, sea beans and shells.
Our next move was to Elbow Cay where we anchored off from the lighthouse. The lighthouse has just undergone a refit with among other things a new paint job. This lighthouse is famous for being the last manned lighthouse using the original kerosene light and hand cranked clockwork to turn the lenses in the world. The next morning we moved further down the island and went ashore to check out the beach for more treasures. It got a little windy so we just spent the next day hanging out on the boat. Saturday we pulled anchor and moved back up to Hope Town and moved into the harbor and picked up a mooring ball. We had delayed entering the harbor for a couple of days waiting for high tide. We are planning to spend a week here before moving on. Sunday we took the walk to the On Da Beach Bar for adult beverages, music and a fundraiser for the schools music program. Several of our cruising friends were there so everyone had a good time visiting before we all move on the other destinations.
After this week we plan on to leave the Abacos and jump down to Eleuthera Island and see some of the central Bahamas.
No comments:
Post a Comment