Once again anchored at Lynyard Cay

Dan and Dory were back aboard just as the sun rose this morning, so we were ready to roll by 7:15.

All weather reports remained favorable as we readied to cross the DEEP on our way north, back to the Abacos.  We were the first to leave Royal Harbor, but were followed quickly by several other sailboats.  We followed our track which was still visible on the chart plotter and made it through the Egg Island cut without any trouble.  Shortly after we passed the sand bank we had visited on our trip Tuesday, the depth sounder blanked out as we headed immediately into depths in the thousands!

With the dinghy up in the davits, Dan was able to get a picture of his ingenious repair with the jury rigged part and some pieces of wire.  I also forgot to report that all was not lost while he and Michael we diving beneath the boat, because Dan replaced the propeller zinc while he was down there.  Last week when I was editing the pictures he had taken of our bottom, I zoomed in on the prop and noticed screws sticking out.  That indicated we were zinc-less!  They are a sacrificial piece of zinc that needs to be replaced regularly (but obviously more often in these salty warm waters.)

A coupling nut that was the wrong thread size was cut to the right length and then held together by SS wires twisted together.

We were surprised just how much traffic we encountered as we crossed the North East Providence Channel.  Our chart plotter has an overlay of AIS (automatic identification system) and it now differentiates the type of boat you see on your screen.  The two sailboat shapes are sailboats close on our tail(we're the black shape) and the big boxy ones are tankers and cargo ships.  We noticed that a few had to change course slightly to avoid collisions with each other!  You can also see some of the depths we encountered.

 The trip went well and in spite of both Dan and myself sitting with cameras ready we still can't show you a flying fish.  I deleted close to fifty shots with possible white blobs and I was reminded of Dan's many attempts years ago to get an eagle shot.  The kids were used to hearing, "See that small white dot?  Really, it's an eagle."  Oh well.....

We came through the Little Harbor Cut and entered the South Sea of Abaco around 3:30,  There were large rollers surging in with us and it made it a wild surfing ride.  We were glad to get in the lee of the islands and drop the hook.

Anchored at Lynyard Cay.

This doesn't really do justice to the surge coming in through the cut.

~~~_/)~~~M&D

All quiet in Spanish Wells and we head to Royal Harbor to "stage" for heading back to Abacos

We were sad to see everyone go.  Such a lot of energy!  One of the days the girls created a scavenger hunt for the grown-ups.  They had rhyming clues stuck with a single shell that led us all around inside and outside the cottage.  The grand prize was figuring out what the shells spelled.  Not all that hard...

What does it spell???

It was too cold to swim on Tuesday after we returned from the fishing trip, so Alice and Clare started to dig all the way to China.  They finally enlisted Grace to help them.  They worked until dark!!

Alice & Daria take a last look before heading in. Their masterpiece was still there Thursday evening! 

In one of the trips driving around the island we went by the bridge that leads to Russell Island and the girls kept hounding us to let them jump off the bridge, so the two grandmothers took the three girls and Daria, the au pair to the bridge yesterday afternoon.  They all jumped, even Daria, but Alice took the prize, climbing back up the rope dangling from the bridge several times to jump again.

I'm the master at getting the after jump splash!  But finally I did get Alice and Clare in mid jump,
 sorry Grace! (she's the center splash...)

Their rental house was very cool with plenty of room and a well equipped kitchen, and a great new washer and dryer.  Most everything in the house was made from driftwood or other findings from the island and the setting was spectacular.

The main house sleeps 10 and you could also rent the little guest cottage if you had more than 10!  Sitting on the
porch was ....just wonderful.

We went over this morning at 6:45 to help drive them to the 7:00 ferry back to North Eleuthera Airport for a 25 minute flight to Nassau.  They are visiting Atlantis for two days.  Quite a change from this idyllic setting.  We wish them well.

We topped of our water tanks this morning as the marina had just finished up installing their RO (reverse osmosis) water system and hadn't raised the rates yet!   We were on our way by 9:30 and had a lazy sail the 5 miles over to Royal Island to drop the hook and mostly relax. 

Dan did have some OB motor work because he and Michael and Michael's dad, Tony had been working on getting the raw water cooling system "spitting" better and lost a crucial SMALL part overboard.  Both Dan and Michael spent time using our "hookah" breathing system to dive down and look for it...no luck. This morning as we were turning our golf cart back to Johnny Underwood (he also takes care of the rental house for the owners) Dan mentioned we needed to make one more trip to try to find a new part from Ronald who had an outboard motor shop and Johnny said "Oh, he's my first cousin, I'll give him a call and make sure he's around this morning (not much is open in Spanish Wells on Good Friday!)  We found Ronald and he had a part that was close enough fit that we headed back to the boat with it in Dan's pocket (no charge).  The Dremel cut it down to size and we have a working OB again!!

It seems lots of people are on the move, there are more than 10 boats anchored here in Royal Island Harbour and as we "lurked" on the radio as others were chatting about their plans, we heard several heading home, some heading to Eleuthera and others, like us heading up to the Abacos.~~~_/)~~~M&D

Spanish Wells Mania!!

We came into the harbor at Spanish Wells Saturday noonish and took our slipo at Spanish Wells Yacht Haven.  The Yacht Haven has been here for years, but has been purchased recently and is undergoing a complete overhaul.  The docks are new and the grounds are rapidly becoming a fancy resort.  There will be several cottages for rent along with a new swimming pool and newly renovated facilities including a new restaurant.  We are amazing how much progress has been made daily since we came in.

 Sunday we took possession of our golf cart and were told we could "load in" to the rental house whenever as the last family had already left, so we made several trips and got the food and sundries settled and waited for the arrival of THE FAMILY... just before 3 pm they made it.

We drove to the end of the island and awaited the arrival of the ferry from North Eleuthera.  Pineapple
Air had brought them from Nassau to N. Eleuthera, taxi to the dock, ferry across to Spanish Wells
and golf carts and pick-up truck to the house!  Daria(aupair from Poland) and Alice, Clare and
Grace were happy to finally be HERE.

We weren't at the house more than half an hour before the girls were in suits and out in front of

the house in the crystal clear shallow water!\

...and it wasn't long after that that they were stunting for the camera!!

 Unfortunately Monday was cold, cloudy and WINDY, so no swimming, stunting etc.  We adventured

around on golf carts and relaxed at the house.  

Tuesday had been chosen to be a day out on a charter fishing boat... the morning didn't look any better than Monday, but the charter captain convinced us he could take us the a sand bar north of  Royal Island that was famous for sand dollars and he had a spot where the snorkeling was good and we could either fish or visit the ruins on Royal Island.  We truly enjoyed the shelling on the expansive sandbar and collected several sand dollars and saw all sorts of other sealife.  The snorkeling was so-so, but the girls got a kick out of it and the fishing was not even so-so (in my mind).  We anchored for about half an hour in rough waters while Dan, Michael, Michael's dad Tony, and the captain, Ryan bottom fished.  Dan and Ryan each caught 9-10" porgies and the girls groaned and froze!!  The ride back was fast and furious!  

Today was a little warmer and only slightly less windy, but we decided to venture out on Brunelle. So the crew of 10 boarded her around 11 am and sailed to the lee(western) side of Meeks Patch (we had only been to the eastern side before.)  We found a nice cove with sandy beach and anchored for lunch and then ventured ashore so sun and swim. Alice and I donned masks and swam half way out toward the boat and dicscovered a starfish that was actually moving across the bottom, granted only at a snail's pace, but I'd never seen one on the move before.

You have to imagine that the starfish moved from the right to the center and to the left ...

We also spied a GIGANTIC ray buried in the sand.  I couldn't get a picture of him from tip to tail and much of him was buried ihe sand, but he was impressive and he had Alice ready to head ashore quickly!

You can see his eyes and the beginning of his tail, also the disturbed sand in front of his eyes was (we think) a warning that he
knew we were bothering him.

Once we were back aboard Alice  wanted to jump of our hard top bimini.  She did several jumps, but I missed getting a shot of the actual jump.

Alice

Clare tried it too, but I was no more successful

Just imagine ...one, two, three, four.. come on Clare GO!!

We powered back home dead to windward, but at least on this trip those that were cold could go below...  Once back at the cottage just about everyone decided they hadn't had enough swimming and headed out on the flats and played Marco Polo!  We went out to supper at the Shipyard Restaurant on the Eastern tip of the island (as if we hadn't had enough wind for the day, we sat in the eastern most outdoor table at the joint!  We had dressed warmly and enjoyed it thoroughly.  The full moon topped off a beautiful day. 

I even  captured the green flasher just above the horizon, purely by chance.

Tomorrow is their last day, we're hoping for a good one.  ~~~_/)~~~M&D