Long Overdue Post - The Circle Has Been Closed

 My apologies for not posting more regular, it would be easy to say that I was too busy but that is only half the story, I was also too lazy.  We have returned to the States and moved up to North Carolina. I will try to point out some of the highlights.

We finally left our favorite spot in the Raggeds and had to start moving back north.  We left Hog Cay and sailed and motored, depending on the winds, through the night up to Blackpoint Settlement. 

Here we stopped and took a day to rest and wait for better conditions. The next leg was to leave on an early tide out the inlet and sail/motor across Exuma Sound to Eleuthera where we continued up to Tarpon Bay to anchor for the night.  In the morning we moved up to Hatchet Bay to sit out a front that was moving in.  During the night the winds kicked up to 20+ knots with a lot of rain.  We sat out the weather for another day and then continued on to Egg Island at the north tip of Eleuthera to spend the night and prepare for the jump to the Abaco's.  

At first light we started out crossing the Northeast Providence Channel and came in at Little Harbor Inlet.  Since there was still daylight we continued up to a new anchorage for us at Iron Cay and dropped anchor.  In the morning we launched the dingy and went exploring the East Abaco Creeks National Park.  We motored up through the small islands watching the rays, fish and turtles and enjoying the solitude.  In the afternoon we pulled anchor and motored up to Marsh Harbor to top off the fuel.  After the fuel stop we continued on to Great Guana Cay to anchor for the night.  The next morning we headed out to go around The Whale.  The inside passage between Whale Cay and great Abaco is too shallow for us so we needed to go out into the ocean and back into the Sea of Abaco to get to Green Turtle Cay, another of our favorite places.

We arrived at Green Turtle just in time to duck into a protected anchorage for a major storm coming off the coast of Florida.  We dinghied to shore several times to join friends and make trips into town. We spent about a week until we were able to move into Black Sound and tie up at Donny's Dock where we would be staying for awhile. Ten years ago we came to Green Turtle Cay for the first time and met Donny, I say that he adopted us and we became family.  While here we help out with the running of the marina and any variety of other activities.  We wanted to be here in April since it would be Donny's mothers 90th birthday and Cori had promised she would be there.  Cori spends a lot of time visiting with her and helping her get around running her many errands.  We did take some time away to visit several of our favorite spots either by dinghy or Hi Flite but always coming back to Donny's.  After the birthday party we were planning to come back to the States but were asked to stay to help run things while Donny made a trip to Florida.  While here Cori helped out a friend with some sewing projects for a charity event and projects for several others.  Yes, she travels with a sewing machine and a lot of supplies. 

Time was running out and we needed to say good by to everyone and continue on.  We left Green Turtle and sailed/motored depending on the wind to Fort Pierce Inlet and motored up to Vero Beach Marina to pick up a mooring and get some rest after a 186 mile trip.  After our one night of rest we dropped the mooring and continued on Cocoa Beach to anchor for the night. From there we moved up to New Smyrna Beach and anchored.  We spent several days in New Smyrna doing some sightseeing, maintenance and waiting.  We had been having some transmission problems and had been babying it to get back.  We know a good mechanic in Daytona and had called and made arrangement for a replacement transmission to be installed.  We were waiting for it to arrive before moving to Daytona.  Just short of a week it arrived and we moved to a marina in Daytona for two days while the transmission was replaced.  We left at high tide on the third day and continued up to St Augustine where we made a short stop for fuel before starting off for North Carolina.  

We left Daytona on Thursday and arrived on Sunday.  The trip was mostly uneventful until a small front came through Saturday night and put the winds on our nose and kicking up the seas causing us to run a zig zag course to make headway until it calmed down the next day.  It wasn't dangerous just uncomfortable.  We had been in worse.  We came in Beaufort Inlet and continued up the ICW, Intracoastal waterway, to Broad Creek and our friends Jerry and Donna's dock.

We have closed the circle, We had left the dock on 11/29/24 after several delays and returned 5/26/25.  We had traveled 2289 nautical miles or 2634 statute miles, about the same as traveling from New York to Los Angeles but at a speed of about six miles an hour.  Basically you could pass us if you were riding a bicycle.

Hi Flite has now been hauled out for the season and we will be heading back to South Dakota and our little off grid cabin.  I hope you enjoyed following along on our travels.  If you find yourself in the Black Hills area give us a call.

Time in the Ragged’s

 It’s been too long since I’ve updated. We have been in the Ragged’s, specifically Hog Cay for a couple of weeks. Here is what’s happening:

We had a weather window that looks good for the trip from Green Turtle down to Long Island, but our part had not arrived. We had explained that we were going to catch this opportunity if it had arrived or not. We have been operating the refrigerator by turning it off and on much like the thermostat would do. We left Green Turtle on the high tide and motored to Whale Cay and proceeded south. The forecast was for light winds on Sunday but a favorable wind Monday. The winds never showed up and we motored for the two day trip, arriving at Long Island around 3:30 am  Tuesday a trip of 251 miles. 

In the morning at high tide we moved to the fuel dock and filled the tank. We are not able to get fuel in the Ragged’s so this stop was essential. Wednesday morning the winds arrived and we pulled anchor to sail off to the Jumentos, the southern uninhabited chain of islands. Having good winds we chose not to stop for the night and continued to Hog Cay anchoring arriving around 1:00 am traveling 101 miles. We made it to our destination. In the morning we moved closer in to the shore and settled in. 

Our plan is to stay here or in the area until the end of February. We have been spending our days either on the boat, hanging out in the tiki hut with other cruisers, hiking the many trails that have been cleared on the island, weaving baskets using the native silver palms, teaching others how to make baskets and walking the beaches looking for sea beans that have washed ashore. 

This is an example of one of the baskets and some of the sea beans, this one is called a “hamburger” and there are not as many of them compared to the “sea heart”. These are seeds that wash down the rivers in South America and float in the currents landing on beaches in the Bahamas and further west. We have lots of hearts from previous years and are concentrating on finding the hamburgers. Of course we still don’t know what we will do with them. 

We have been having excellent weather with a dominant wind from the east with the island blocking it. We had one weather event where a front went through and the winds clocked from south to west to north then settled back from the east. A wind with west in its direction is dangerous since there are few anchorages that will protect us but this time the winds were light and we didn’t have to move. One of our cruising friends has arrived and he has parts onboard that can fix the refrigerator problem using parts he scavenged from refrigerators that were in one of the islands dumps. He has also repaired our Spot satellite locator so we are able to send location messages again. 

Our days consist of checking the weather in the morning, both local and long range for the area, taking care of any maintenance and projects that need attention, going ashore to hang out or hiking to one of the ocean side beaches and sharing sundowners at the hut with other cruisers. 

It’s a touch life but someone has to do it. 

That’s about it from here, in a couple of weeks we will be moving back up to the Abaco’s to spend time with friends there and pick up our part that arrived after we had left. 

In the Bahamas

We are in the Bahamas, more precisely we are at Green Turtle Cay in the Abacos which is the northern group of islands.

After spending a week in Vero Beach preparing and waiting for a weather window we moved down to Fort Pierce.  There are several spots that the cruisers use to make there way to the Bahamas and Fort Pierce is one of the furthest north.  We chose this locations because it was going to be a short window and we would not have time to move further south.  With advice from our weather advisor we pulled anchor at 3:00am on the 19th.  We made our way in the dark out the inlet and set course taking into consideration that the gulf stream would be crabbing us north.  It was another motorboat ride with the winds not cooperating.  The seas had not had a chance to calm after the previous winds and it started out as a rough ride with it calming as we continued on.  By the time we crossed onto the Banks the seas were down to two feet and less.  We continued overnight and arrived at Green Turtle Cay at 7:00 am Friday morning.  We anchored outside the settlement and waited for high tide to move into Black Sound and tie up at Donny's Docks.

Saturday morning we were up and walking into town to enjoy our favorite Bahamian breakfast of stew fish or in this case stewed grouper.  Of course being the weekend the ice cream shop was open and we made the trip there three evenings in a row.  Christmas was close and Cori joined in several morning for the 5:00 am caroling, I only made it on Christmas Eve.  This is a tradition on Green Turtle to welcome the spirit of Christmas.  Christmas Day was quiet and we were invited for dinner with friends.

We have been hanging out with friends, attended several evening social hours, Cori has done some beach combing and we have been acting like tourists.  There have been a couple of days that Donny is out giving tours and once again Cori and I are tasked with running the marina helping boats come and go.

New Years Eve was quiet on the boat and we didn't bother to stay up untill midnight.  New Years Day however is a big day on Green Turtle.  It is the annual Junkanoo, similar to Carnival in the Caribbean.  The event is highlighted with a parade of costumed dancers of all ages, drummers and cow bells.  It is very colorful and very loud.  The town is small so the technique is to find a spot to watch and after the parade passes we move to another location and catch the end of the parade.  There are many vendors selling their wares, food and drinks.  It is a very festive day.

The one problem we have is that the thermostat for the refrigerator has broken.  We are able to bypass it and keep the unit running but getting a replacement is a problem.  I put out a request for a repair person and got the number for the same person that repaired the refrigerator when we were here ten years ago.  Now we are waiting for the part before we continue on.