We're movin' on - - to Green Turtle Cay

With Pegg and Jay on their way, we said good-by to the friendly folks at Harbor View Marina and headed toward Great Guana Cay where Andiamo and Pekabu III had anchored last night. They fell into place behind us as we motored on through Whale Cay Cut on our way to Green Turtle. There was hardly a breath of air, but it was amazing how much of a roll we felt as we passed outside Whale Cay (the only route we could take).

It was something to watch the waves break on Whale Cay as we motored past on the windward side in calm winds.

We gingerly crept into Black Sound at the south end of Green Turtle Cay to take slips at the Leeward Yacht Club. We had discovered it two years ago and wanted to see how much progress had been made since we were last here. The facilities are complete and the pool and tiki bar looked great. We didn't take the time to stop because we wanted to tour the island. We rented two golf carts and headed out. The tour of New Plymouth (founded in 1786) was enjoyed by all, it is definitely not a touristy place (unlike Hope Town) and has a charm all its own. We also loved Gillam Bay on the SE coast of Green Turtle Cay. We stopped for photo ops.

I know these are almost same shot, but I liked the one of Dan and I thought the colors in the lower one just couldn't be ignored!

As we drove past the end of Black Sound we stopped to get a picture of the three of us tied up at Leeward Yacht before we headed on toward White Sound and Bluff House, a very fancy resort and marina that was sorely in need of our patronage (We were the only people there!,) so we stopped and were well taken care of for an early dinner. (The carts were due back by 7:30 and none of us really wanted to drive around in the dark anyway.) We aren't sure if its the end of the season or what. We got back safely to the boats even tho Pete had two "Tranquil Turtles" which had 7 different rums and a secret combo of fruit juices! He and Betty (who also had two) declared they were the best drinks they've had the whole trip. We're moving on tomorrow - - - looking for the best crossing window back to Florida. ~~~_/)~~~M&D

Tranquil Turtles were the drink of the day at Bluff House. (Kathy's camera, set on the porch rail, captured us toasting another great day.)

We three tucked in cozily at Leeward YC.

Heading back to Marsh Harbor

A happy shopper in Hope Town

The shoppers felt a need to hit the shop, Ebb Tide that we'd visited yesterday, so we dinghied across the harbor and hit the Hope Town Coffee Shop first and then headed to the Ebb Tide. The owner's daughter is very talented and had several thing on display including some beautiful jewelry made from sterling and beach glass. We both found something we couldn't pass up!

We slipped our lines around 10:30 and headed out the harbor. We tread lightly as we enter and leave this harbor as the charts show several 5 and 6 foot spots. We managed without touching and raised main and jib as soon as we were in deeper water. We only had 6 miles to go to get back to Harbor View Marina in Marsh Harbor so we sailed over toward Man-O-War Cay and around some smaller cays before heading town Marsh Harbor. We had heard about a good snorkeling reef on the outside of the harbor and headed there, dropped the hook and had lunch. We were the only boat in the area at that point, but by the time we headed over to the Mermaid Reef in the dinghy there were 5 other boats! We understood why once we got in the water. We saw more fish and more varieties than we have previously! I took 82 pictures and had a hard time whittling down!

Pegg found this good Bahamian Beer that

looks like and even tastes a bit like Heineken.

A few "new" fish showed up on Mermaid's Reef - top row: Queen Parrotfish, Queen Triggerfish, Hogfish. I'd never seen a Ballyho before and there were lots zooming around. The ever present grunts love to hover together at the edge of a coral head, and the Squirrelfish is often too shy to capture.

Next we have a uncooperative Midnight Parrotfish(he was really big), a feeding frenzy (one of the other snorkeling groups brought a whole loaf of bread), a Blue Tang, two different looking Grunts and a Stoplight Parrotfish.

We got into our slip at the marina by 3:30 - in time for just one more shopping trip! Pegg had spied some baskets made on Andros with Androsia fabric woven in and hadn't found anything better on our travels. We found just what we always needed! We had a fair amount of food that needed to be eaten so Dan and Jay scouted out the gas grill up next to the swimming pool and declared it worthy of our lamb chops. We enjoyed a little bit of chopped fresh mint sprinkled on top of them. Tomorrow the taxi will be here at 8:45 to whisk Jay and Pegg back to Florida. Sad to see them go. We are amazed that we managed to work four sets of visitors into our schedule without too much trouble. ~~~_/)~~~M&D, J&P

Pegg insisted we get a picture with our hats, you can see that mine has had a rougher life than hers!

More of Elbow Cay

Pegg was in need of a run, so right after breakfast on Wednesday morning, she and Jay took the dinghy across the harbor and they jogged/walked through Hope Town and out down the main road that heads to the southern end of Elbow Cay. I got out my sewing machine to do a few repairs and to hem the Androsia batik material Betty had bought in Man-O-War Cay into a tablecloth.

Jay and Pegg found a wonderful coffee

shop while in town this morning.

After lunch aboard we rented a golf cart so we could explore the whole island and headed south. Rentals are not allowed to drive in town as the streets are VERY narrow and there isn't room for golf carts to pass each other. We wanted to see White Sound where Sea Spray Marina is located and also to see the places where our Spring Grove friends had stayed. We found the Abaco Inn in the narrowest part of the island - maybe 400 feet wide and also the private home rental called "Cheers" all the way down by Tahiti Beach. Both looked like great places to stay. Each couple had chartered a boat for their week here and got to see several of the cays.

The windward side of Elbow Cay was pretty rough today and we were glad to be seeing it from the land side. Tahiti Beach (bottom) was an amazing expanse of white sand on both sides of the peninsula at the end of the island.

At the tip of Tahiti Beach there is this large root ball from a downed Casaurina tree with a sign offering to deliver drinks! We didn't have our radio or the time, so we don't know if it really works.

We found another interesting sign in front of the Police Station/Post Office. My google translator couldn't make hide nor hair out of the second part of the sign!

We returned to town around 3 and Pegg and I found a wonderful shop with lots of handcrafted items. She also found Androsia fabric by the yard and bought enough for a tablecloth - luckily the sewing machine was still out. I hemmed it up and then we made a big salad to bring to Andiamo for our seafood fest (feast). Pete & Kathy still had some shrimp in their freezer from our stop at B&B Seafood on the way down the ICW and John and Betty had found a wholesale seafood place that had great deals on lobsters and other seafood. As usual the evening was a great success and everyone ate too much! None of us are coming home any thinner. ~~~~_/)~~~M&D, J&P

Hope Town Marina

As Dan was having his coffee on deck, a dinghy came alongside asking if we were really from Spring Grove, PA. He graduated from SGAHS in 1974, Mark Kopp! They played "did you know" for a while and Dan learned from him that the Hope Town Marina that is currently under construction, has good docks and reasonable rates, and the power was just turned on so we decided to take a berth for the night. With the weather that was predicted (strong thunderstorms) we thought it would be a safe spot to be. Our chart plotter showed that we had moved 61 feet when we made the big move. I think it was more like 300 feet! The rest of the group stayed on moorings and waited for us to get settled so we could all head into the settlement of Hope Town. It is a very picturesque little town with colorful, named cottages, narrow lanes and loads of beautiful flowers!

Each cottage is cuter than the next and all are well maintained and well landscaped.

Everywhere we walked we saw lush plants and they claim that it has been too dry lately! I haven't seen many century plants (upper left) and the key limes (bottom) were a first for me. Sweetings lane (a major thoroughfare) was shaded by a dense canopy.

This looked like a lovely spot to relax and watch the tranquil waters of Abaco.

We wandered back to the harbor just in time to have a big lunch on the deck at Captain Jack's before heading back to the boats to await the coming storms. We had been hearing about the strong system that was hitting the Florida coast and it was heading our way. We scoped out the area around the marina when we got back to the boat and found the laundry and showers and I also found a guy, Andy Brown, off a boat from Bay Head, NJ who remembered sailing team races in Woodpussies on the Shrewsbury River and we did a bit of "do you know" too! The storms hit with a vengence right about 5 o'clock and were just as wild as predicted. Luckily the power outage they caused and their fury were short lived. All is quiet at the moment, but we may get another round of storms before the night is over. ~~~_/)~~~M&D, J&P

Everything always looks so crystal clear after a storm.

A gusty sail up to Hope Town, Elbow Cay

The wind picked up during the night but we didn't experience much of a surge, so the sleeping was comfortable and cool. We pulled the anchor at 9:00 and retraced our steps through the shallows of the Sea of Abaco back almost to Marsh Harbor before heading east to the entrance at Hope Town. We sailed the whole way under jib alone and made 6 knots most of the way. The approach to Hope Town Harbor isn't all that deep so we asked Pekabu III to lead us in - calling out the depths over our handy walkie-talkies. Digression - - these walkie-talkies have proved to be invaluable. We can chat back and forth without any interruption or interference and have them set to a unique "CCYC" channel so calls go out to the whole group. We made it into the harbor without any trouble but were told by Hope Town Marina that they didn't have 3 moorings left. Luckily we each found a mooring as there are several marinas that handle moorings in this tight little harbor.

Hope Town Harbor is picturesque and crowded at the same time. Boats are packed in like sardines.

As soon as we were securely moored we began preparations for our Fish Feast. Pegg seasoned Dan's catch from yesterday and Dan and Jay grilled it while I made German potato salad and we still had taboule from yesterday. It was truly the best fish I ever tasted! I meant to get a picture of the feast, but we ate it too fast.

After lunch all of us headed into the Lighthouse Marina for a trip up the famous Hope Town Lighthouse. It was quite windy but mostly clear, so the view was spectacular. Unfortunately it also gave us a good view of the fires that continue to burn on the island of Great Abaco. These winds aren't helping at all.

Here's the lighthouse by day and by evening. We learned how they cranked a weight to the top -not unlike a cuckoo clock - to keep the light rotating all night.

As we started our ascent I looked back down and decided this could be an add for Tilley hats! Dan started up the stairs just as I snapped the picture or there would have been 4 showing.

Starting lower left, we entered the harbor passing in front of the small island with a house on it, came past the Flamingo Villas with all the brilliant colors. Center top and bottom both look out to the west showing Marsh Harbor and also the amazing kaleidoscope of colorful water in the Sea of Abaco. Upper and lower right show the left and right sides of the harbor and center is Brunelle, cozied in among all the other boats.

We were back aboard by 4 and relaxed until 6 when Andiamo joined us for heavy hors d'oeuvres. Pete and Kathy declined as Kathy wasn't feeling well, so we had way too much food, but managed to eat most of it anyway! We waited to go below until we were sure the lighthouse was working properly and are glad to report it is! ~~~_/)~~~M&D, J&P

Visit to Pete's Pub in Little Harbor

Sunday morning greeted us with so much smoke we couldn't even see the boats in the harbor! By 8, when we departed, we could see about 1/4 mile and slowly followed our "peanut trail" from our trip into Marsh Harbor until we cleared the harbor and also most of the smoke. There wasn't a breath of air, so all the smoke just hung there. We powered around the peninsula that creates Marsh Harbor to the south side where Andiamo and Pekabu III joined us on our trip back down to Lynyard Cay. We planned to anchor there and dinghy across the Little Harbor Cut and into Little Harbor to visit Pete's Pub and Foundry.

Looking back into Marsh Harbor through the smoky haze.

Dan decided to try his luck trolling as we passed by the cut at the north end of Lynyard . He tried the new lure he purchased in Nassau before Patrick and Rose arrived. He immediately caught a large string of seaweed and had to reel it in to clear it. He had no sooner re-set the line when it started to sing! We slowed to idle and he fought with it for a good 15 minutes before he could reel it in. By the time it neared the boat it was tuckered out and Jay was able to net it (although he was too big for the net!) and between Dan and Jay they got it aboard. It was a 24" Mutton Snapper and our book said it was a good fish food so we applied the alcohol spray to its gills to "put it to sleep" and put it in a bucket until we anchored.

Dan can finally say he caught a big one! Note the spray bottle of alcohol in Dan's hand (lower right). He didn't drink that, but he did pop a beer as soon as da fish was landed! (11-zs)

We dropped the hook in the southernmost anchorage along Lynyard Cay just before noon and Dan and Jay worked on filleting the fish while Pegg and I put together a little lunch. We were done with a little time to spare before heading to Pete's Pub, so Pegg and I went ashore to see what the windward shore looked like and check out the beach- - - very rocky windward shore and not much of interest on the beach.

Not much of interest ashore but we did see a large pile of line/nets on the rocks on the windward side.

The trip to Little Harbor took about half and hour and we arrived with time to look at the Gallery displaying Pete's bronze work and walk to two of the beaches but the foundry wasn't open to see so we took a "booth" at the beach bar and waited for the beach bar-b-q. They started serving around 4 o'clock and offered organic lamb and "boar's legs" (which was really just pork) Both were excellent and came with all sorts of sides. Jay and Pegg and Dan and I decided that each couple should share a meal and we had plenty. While on the beach Pegg and I collected lots of bleached coral. We brought it back and bleached it some more, so we hope we have some nice specimens. The trip back was a little wet as the wind had picked up and crossing the cut was a little choppy.

Pete's Pub is right down on the beach and our table was perfect - shaded by all sorts of signed T-shirts nailed to the inside of a tiki roof. One of Pete's sculptures is located on the path over to the windward beach. As we left the harbor we saw an island sloop that had just come into the harbor through the cut. Jay thought it had similar lines to his boat "Grace" - just a lot beamier!

A 4 o'clock dinner left us a little confused about meals, but we enjoyed cocktail hour with a few snacks and I made another attempt at helping the sun go down with a blast from my new little conch horn. (I did practice a few times during the day.) ~~~_/)~~~M&D, J&P