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| Little Harbor |
Wow, I just realized that almost a month has gone by since I did the last update! That must mean we’ve really been enjoying the Bahamas for the past month!We wound up spending 4 nights at West End, walking, biking and enjoying the pool. The last night we had a big dock party which was attended by most of the cruises present. The next day we were in a virtual parade from West End to Great Sale as everyone headed east through Indian Cay pass and out onto the bank. That evening, Ted and Nancy hosted a happy hour on their boat Aloha Friday for a number of the cruisers and we had a good night at anchor there at Great Sale.
The next stop was Allen-Pensacola Cay where we spent 2 days accompanied by Gypsy Time and Lamb Chop. The first day was beautiful, we found the path to the other side, walked the beach and found the tree(s) cruisers hang mementos of their visit on. We intended to return the next day but the wind changed around and we spent a rough day working on the boats after an early morning anchor drill.
The next day we went to Green Turtle Cay which is one of our favorite stops. We wound up spending a week there. We took the dinghies into the settlement at New Plymouth where we played tourist and shopped a little. We walked all over the northern end of the island which has long, beautiful beaches .We also spent considerable time at the Bluff House and Green Turtle Club pools. One day we rented golf carts and explored every road on the island (including some that turned out to be long driveways. We also took them over to the settlement and had a picnic on the beach. The picnic was fun, even in the 25 knot winds. On Wednesday, we danced and partied to the music of the Gully Roosters a (the) local band.
After Green Turtle, we successfully negotiated the Whale Cay pass and went into Marsh Harbor where we spent several days shopping, walking and playing tourist. We spent one evening at Rib night at the Jib Room. On rib night, they serve a large rack of ribs plus salads and desserts and your favorite beverage. The meal is followed by island music and dancing and a limbo contest. One night we also participated in Trivia night at the marina. Trivia night consists of happy hour, a pot luck dinner and then a trivia contest. The Teams consist of 6-8 people and our team actually won.
From Marsh Harbor we headed down to Little Harbor which is at the bottom of the Abaco’s . The wind was still in excess of 20 knots so the trip was a little rough when we had to cross a couple of the passages that lead out to the open Atlantic. The harbor is well protected and interesting to visit. We walked on the beach, explored a cave that the first settlers lived in when they first got to the harbor. We also found the foundry where they cast sculptures in bronze. It was not operating on that day, however. We had dinner that evening and the next morning Pat on Salty Dawg led a dinghy expedition consisting of the crews of Salty Dawg, Sun Cat, Gypsy Time, Lamb Chop and Silver Foxes. The expedition took us into some shallows behind some mangrove covered islands. On the way there we saw several large sea turtles and some large starfish. We also saw some big rays, a shark and a number of smaller fish. Behind the islands we also found a “blue hole”. A blue hole is a place the water suddenly gets deep. This one was about 30 yards in circumference and dropped from 5-6 feet to over 30 feet in less than a yard.
The wind was forecast to increase again so we felt it best to leave there and proceed back across the entrance to the passages rather than have a rough ride back. We stopped at and anchorage on the edge of Tillo Bank where we anchored off a nice beach in 5-6 feet of water over bright sand. It was my first opportunity to see how the bottom of the boat looked and I swam along the sides where I could see the entire bottom. The zincs looked like new and running gear looked good but there has been a considerable amount of growth so I’m going to get it cleaned before we head back to the States . It actually looked really good considering nothing has been done to it since early last January.
The following day we went back into Marsh harbor as the wind was building as predicted and the anchorage was not well protected. We spent a couple of days there and then headed out again to Hopetown on Elbow Cay. At Hopetown we again rented golf carts with Gypsy Time and Lamb Chop and toured the southern half of the island, spending part of two days at Tahiti Beach. We also spent an afternoon at the pool at the Hopetown Lodge and took in the entertainment at Captain Jack’s.
That brings us up to today. Gypsy Time headed to Man o War Cay to begin their trip back to the states and we headed to Tilloo Bank again with Lamb Chop. Unfortunately, the wind direction was not good to stay there so we anchored off of Tavern Cay. I took a swim to check the anchor and discovered that our anchor was well set but was only 10 feet ahead of a power cable. If we dragged anchor we would hook it for sure. So we picked up the anchor and set it again. This time when I swam torward the anchor, a big ray crossed my path. It was a bit disconcerting to find myself swimming with it!
On the Blog version of this I’ve added some pictures. They are Jean with Tim and Jan from Lamb Chop on the beach at Green Turtle, a pretty road scene at Green Turtle, a picture of Little Harbor looking over the top of Pete’s Pub, part of our crew at the entrance to the upscale dining at Pete’s Pub in Little Harbor, the Limbo King performing at the Jib Room ( we didn’t try this!), and Jean enjoying a dance at Snappas in Marsh Harbor.
We don’t have internet access here so this probably won’t get sent until tomorrow. In any event, you can see we are staying busy and still having a great time.
Steve & Jean
Aboard M/V Sun Cat
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