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.