Treasure Cay instead of Hopetown

Before heading off from the Jib Room Monday, we dinghied over to the Royal Marsh Harbour Dinghy Dock across the harbor and headed to the BaTelCo office in hopes of finding out how our Bahamian phone went through over 1.3 gigs in one day when the first 2 gigs lasted 29 days!!  After an hour with customer service at the BTC office (whose internet was down!!!) I was told to get on WiFi somewhere else and update my iOS and that should solve my problem.  We made a quick stop at Maxwell's for groceries and headed back to the boat.  I went up to the bar at the Jib Room and got the new iOS downloaded and we headed off...but not for Hopetown.  We had heard on the Cruiser's Net that there were no mooring balls in Hopetown so we headed for Treasure Cay.

We followed Resolve the 13 miles to Treasure Cay and took a slip the first night....no moorings available.  A
very pretty setting but a bit rundown at the Marina, AND they had just raised their rates!!

We had studied the Treasure Cay listing on Active Captain and found all the complaints to be 

accurate.  Very old wooden docks,  so so facilities and LOUD music from the bar until 1 am.  Resolve had taken the last mooring ball, so we came in to take a slip.  We had been told we would get a great discount with our Royal Marsh Harbour Yacht Club membership, but that expired at the end of March!  That news plus the new higher dockage rates made it important to make it out into the mooring field (that price went up too, but $30/night is better than $2.15/foot!)  Luckily we were not obligated to use the electricity (it had been $24/day, we didn't even ask how much that went up.)  

First thing Tuesday morning Mike called to say he was in the dinghy hanging on to a mooring ball that has just been vacated.  We hightailed it out there and Mike was there to hand us the line!  It was an absolutely beautiful day so we headed over to the beach on the Sea of Abaco side and had lunch at Coco's Beach Bar.  Touted to be the third most beautiful beach in the world, we were sure it was the

loveliest one we've seen!  Lunch was good. 

I decided not to collage the beach pix...  These two catamarans were heading from Green Turtle, just about to pass No Name
Cay (home of the northern pigs) on their way out through Whale Cay Cut.

Wanted to include a little of the pristine white sand along the 3 1/2 mile beach.

Kite surfer near the southern end of the beach.

The wind piped up quite a lot last night and we were surprised how close we came to the charter catamaran on the mooring behind us, but close only counts in horseshoes...  The sky was brilliant and only the masthead anchor lights interfered with seeing the stars.

Debbie declared she has too much food aboard and asked us over for a brunch casserole and freshly baked coffee cake.  Quite a feast, and with Dan's famous Bloody Mary's we were set for the day.  We are moored right near Spartina from Clairborne, MD (they have a mooring in Tilghman Creek)  We had first met them 8 years ago down near Warderick Wells, and then once back on the Bay, so we caught up with them a bit.  They now keep the boat in Fort Pierce every other year so they don't have to do the northern trek every year.  Sounds tempting...

It's almost low tide, so we are going to head back to the beach to see how big a sand bar develops. The cruiser's net has been talking about this being a perigee time so tides are more extreme. ~~~_/)~~~M&D

FYI

I keep forgetting to mention that, although most of you get an email whenever we post...and read it right there, IF you go to the actual website  sailbrunelle.blogspot.com you will see the map Sam has set up at the top of the site that shows our SPOT locations.  M

Ready to move on from Marsh Harbor

I should have known when bubbles came out of my underwater camera when I turned it on underwater out at Mermaid Reef that things weren't good!  It's dead.  My last underwater bit the dust at just the same age (just under 4 years old).  I did get the pictures off the SD card and shared them on the last blog.  Many hours and a tupperware full of rice didn't do anything to revive the camera tho...

Not all that much to report about Marsh Harbor.  We enjoyed the Wednesday night Rib night here at the Jib room, adventured around town with Debbie and Mike and waited for Ed and Connie Dooley to return from West Palm where they went to deal with Connie's broken wrist follow-up.  They got back on Friday and we celebrated with Resolve and Southern Pilot (Ed and Connie's boat) aboard Brunelle.  I made "Aunt Nancy's Tilapia"(familiar to many) with local grouper and it was a well received.

Saturday at the Jib Room is steak and limbo night and we enjoyed both.  It was great fun watching all the kids whiz by under the limbo bar when it was high and a few made it through successfully as it got lower, but there is no competition for Desmond.  He has worked here for over 20 years and has wowed audiences every Saturday night.

The young lady in the coral dress took it seriously, but finally resorted to crawling before Desmond replaced
the bar...

 with a FLAMING one.

Desmond does a little stretching with a one handed push up and then puts a cigarette in his mouth and begins
his amazing trip beneath the bar, stopping to light his cigarette before passing on through and jumping up!!!

We had a relaxing Sunday with a little rain and Dan's famous Bloody Marys and are now ready to move on.  We hope to find a mooring in Hopetown this afternoon so we can get reacquainted with Elbow Cay.  ~~~_/)~~~M&D (I'll have to rely on iPhone and Dan's big SLR for pix from now on.)

One night at Tahiti Beach, off Elbow Cay and then back to Marsh Harbor

Monday morning, the wind was still pretty strong from the southeast so Resolve  and their trusty hunting guide decided against a visit to Snake Cay and suggested we join them at Tahiti Beach on the south end of Elbow Cay.  We headed up through the shallow draft entrance as it was almost high tide and made it through comfortably and were anchored in time for a Bloody Mary before venturing ashore.  Easter Monday is a big holiday around here and the place was packed. The beach was crowded and so was the anchorage. Mike and Debbie and a couple they had befriended came over for cocktails and snacks which were "heavy" enough that we didn't need dinner.  Debbie brought lobster pizza and I had made pull-apart cheesy bread with bruchetta sauce...not exactly a balanced meal, but yummy.  Once again, the sunset didn't disappoint.

We also had fun joking about the burning boat....   A group had a big bonfire on the beach, and from our vantage point it looked like the boat anchored off the beach was in flames.

The fire burned for more than an hour and really looked like it was on the boat!

 The weather reports this morning said light and variable winds in the morning followed by thunder storms in the afternoon, so we headed toward Marsh Harbor.  While on the way we stopped at one of my favorite reefs called Mermaid Reef.  It is just outside the harbor and I have seen a great variety of fish each time we stop.  Today was no exception.

I really got a kick out of the expression on this Midnight Parrotfish (top).  A Queen Angelfish and French Angelfish
are in the middle and a spotted ray, grunt and a doctorfish (vertical stripes) round out the group.

Top left is a Queen Triggerfish partially hidden by two Blue Tangs.  Ballyhoos on the right.
Middle is a mish mash of all kinds! and a Blue Parrotfish posed nicely.

I also got a picture of Resolve (left) and Brunelle  from the water ...AND if you look closely at the last shot you'll see the new propeller zinc in place.

Before we hauled up the anchor to head into the harbor it started to rain, not much just a light shower. It followed us into the harbor but stopped long enough for us to pick up fuel at the dock before taking a slip at the Marsh Harbour Marina, across the harbor from Harbor View where we stayed before. The rain picked up again as we were tying up but when we decided to dinghy across the harbor to have dinner at Snappas (we are out of just about everything...kids cleaned us out!!) it wasn't raining. 

 We picked up Mike and Debbie on the way across the harbor (they had anchored out) and had a great diner accented by thunder and occasional lightning, but no rain.  Just a we were finishing up the rain arrived, so it was a VERY wet ride back across the harbor, BUT nothing compared with the squall that hit around 9 pm.  We were rocking and rolling in the slip and turned on the VHF radio to see what chatter we could hear.  Those out in the anchorage were all asking just how much wind did we have, and did anyone drag?  Someone reported 47-48 knots of wind and Mike texted that he heard someone thought it was 140 knots!!  A window blew out of their bimini.  The word is more is on the way,,,  We are glad to be well tied up! ~~~_/)~~~ M&D

Lunch at Pete's Pub in Little Harbor and then back to LynyardO

OK here they are...but in bronze.  These flying fish are at the base of one of Pete Johnson's wonderful sculptures. 

We planned to head back toward the Little Harbor Inlet to have lunch at Pete's Pub, but weren't sure we wanted to take such a long dinghy ride, so after a leisurely breakfast and a trip ashore for Dory we pulled the anchor and headed down to Pete's. 

Dory's morning routine.

One of our new friends from Spanish Wells said he was heading into the harbor and would give us a report of what depths he encountered.  We knew we needed high tide to get in and were worried about getting stuck in there, so we were glad to hear (after we had dropped the hook outside the harbor) that he had run  across 6'2" on the way in....to close a call for us.  The dinghy ride in was pretty wild and we were thankful we weren't going any further than around the corner!  

We met up with the crew of both boats we had crossed from Spanish Wells and had lively tale swapping and a delicious Easter lunch, no ham, just mahi mahi!  After lunch we visited the museum quality gift shop displaying lots of bronze sculptures and walked to the windward beach where we saw an amazing amount of plastic JUNK!! 

We really like the works Pete Johnson and his son create.  You can see the flying fish at the bottom of the tall one.

The wind didn't seem to be that much stronger than yesterday, but the windward (ocean) side of both Lynyard  Cay and at Pete's (bottom right) was plenty roiled.

 

The anchorage outside Little Harbor was pretty rolly so we headed back to Lynyard Cay to anchor for the night.  We were just settling in when one of the couples from yesterday's trip and today's lunch came by and invited us for cocktails.  We took them up on it and headed over to their new "home". They had bought a 49' Leopard Catamaran from the Moorings in Tortola three months ago and sailed it to Miami and then straight back south to Key West to be part of the race committee for Key West Race Week and then headed over here to the Bahamas.  They are headed to Marion, Mass to spend the summer racing J-24's.  The other couple we crossed with came for cocktails also.  They are on a Caliber 40.  They carry 220 gallons of fuel, and 200 of water!!  Don't know where they put it.  

On our trip ashore with Dory this afternoon we were back at the beach where I had found so many sea biscuits and I found tons more.  While I was looking I disturbed a little crab who kindly didn't bite me, just scuttled away, but not before leading me to one of the sea biscuits!

We got a text this evening from Debbie and Mike inviting us to join them for some hunting at Snake Cay.  We were intrigued.  It took a while to find Snake Cay on the chart.  It's right next to Great Abaco Island and they say they plan to hunt for conch and bugs (which I assume refers to Bahamian lobsters.)  Time will tell, and so will I.   ~~~_/)~~~M&D

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