Green Turtle Cay Marina … Saturday 26th – Sunday 27th May

Green Turtle Cay Marina   …   Saturday 26^th – Sunday 27^th May

I would like to start this post by passing on Gloria’s regret and guilt that she isn’t the one writing it! Her excuse … she has a more important job to do downloading library books to her kindle. If she doesn’t do it she’ll be out of reading material and annoying the rest of the crew (her words!).

We’re having a lovely time at Green Turtle Club Marina. On Friday night I got to wander round the docks with my camera and tripod and capture some interesting night-time shots. It could have been a blood bath for the mosquitos but I got away with only a few bites. On Saturday we took a walk up to the north end of the island. The route started on a dirt road that took us to Coco Bay on the west coast and from here a sign stated that it was 1 mile via the beach to the headland. Coco Bay is wide and shallow and is supposed to be a good location for Bone fishing. There are several wooden docks that make interesting photos but are also potential dangers. I was lagging behind when I heard Gloria shout and when I looked up she was sitting on the sand. She had ducked under one of these docks, but with uneven sand and her baseball cap obscuring her view, she smacked her forehead so hard on one of the supporting beams that it knocked her to the ground. Fortunately no serious damage, but as we all know, banging your head can make you really cross! Anyway, we cut inland to another dirt road and made it to the northern tip of the island. It was beautiful and atmospheric, but the light was pretty flat with lots of cloud. In the evening we decided to eat out at the club restaurant and had some excellent food – Grouper with Thai red curry noodles for Gloria; conch chowder followed by mahi-mahi in a Mohito sauce for Rod and lobster corn bisque followed by tuna poke for myself. Awesome! We’re all sleeping well which is good preparation for the coming days.

The weather has turned pretty crappy as Alberto makes it’s way towards landfall somewhere near the Florida panhandle. We have clouds, showers and a stiff south-easterly breeze. We are going to spend today (Sunday) finishing up preparations for our departure. We have already filled our two diesel tanks, which gives us a motoring range of about 800 miles. We need to fill up with fresh water and haul out the dinghy, pack it up and tie it down on the foredeck.  We are continually monitoring updates on the weather and are trying to plan the timing of our passage. Our current thinking is to leave the marina tomorrow morning and head 20 miles north to Crab Cay and anchor for the night. On Tuesday we’ll head on up to Great Sale Cay, a further 30 miles, and then stop for a rest / evening meal. We might then traverse the remaining 60 miles across the Little Bahama Bank on Tuesday night, which would allow us to start the offshore section in daylight on Wednesday morning. We’ll head for the Gulf Stream and ride that northwards hopefully arriving at the Cape Fear river, North Carolina late in the day on Friday. This timing should allow conditions in the Gulf Stream to moderate after Alberto has passed, in particular we’re looking for smaller waves and fewer / no thunderstorms. However, we also have to watch for possible deteriorating conditions towards the weekend up near Cape Fear. We do have options to cut out at numerous points up the Florida, Georgia and South Carolina coasts. By the time we post again we should have completed the passage!

Mike

Green Turtle Club Marina at night

Green Turtle Club Marina at night

Green Turtle Club Marina at night

Green Turtle Club Marina at night

Docks on Coco Bay - partial B&W

Docks on Coco Bay - partial B&W

Docks on Coco Bay - partial B&W

Docks on Coco Bay - partial B&W

Rod joins us … Wed 23rd May – Friday 25th May 2018

Rod joins us   …   Wed 23^rd May – Friday 25^th May 2018

Gloria’s brother Rod flew in to Marsh Harbor on Wednesday afternoon. He is clearly a gluten for punishment. Having spent a couple of weeks on the boat sailing down from Norfolk to Tortola he is now back to help us make the passage back from the Bahamas to the USA. It’s wonderful to have him aboard, not just for the extra help on the passage, but because he’s a great guy!

We spent Wednesday evening eating (pork filet with lemon and capers followed by home made damson plum pies), drinking and catching up on news. On Thursday we pulled up a very muddy anchor and headed out of Marsh Harbor to Fowl Cay about five miles away. We anchored on a sandy patch west of this small island and took the dinghy round to snorkel on the reefs off the eastern shore. This area is part of the Bahamas National Park and we had been here a couple of times in 2013. We were happy to see the reefs were still in good condition (unlike many we have seen on this trip) and very beautiful. We saw all sorts of corals, lots of fish and one small turtle (always lovely to see). As usual it was probably me that got chilly first, despite having “shorty” wet suit. Rod just had a t-shirt but he seemed fine. We headed back to Cotinga, showered off fresh water and had some lunch. In the afternoon we sailed up to Green Turtle Cay, which involved a short section off-shore to negotiate the Whale passage. This section has a fierce reputation, but it couldn’t have been more benign. We had made reservations at the Green Turtle club marina, located within White Sound, as a secure place to hang out whilst the tropical low forming in the Gulf of Mexico threatened. The entrance to White sound is only 6ft deep but we went in at high tide so didn’t see anything less than 9ft, but still nerve wracking. We ended up backing Cotinga into the slip but (for once) that went really well and actually drew unsolicited praise from neighboring boaters! For dinner we ate chili basil chicken with rice noodles and we forced a couple of “painkillers” down Rod’s neck (rum, orange juice, pineapple juice, coconut cream and grated nutmeg).

The marina seems lovely and I think we’ll enjoy our time here. On Friday we hiked over the island to the main “town” of New Plymouth. It was a hot and humid day and it turned out to be about 3 miles each way. I thought it was great to stretch our legs but Gloria and Rod both ended up with blistered / sore feet. The town itself is quaint and colorful and we stopped for lunch in a local café. It was actually the only place in town that was open but the jerk grouper wraps were excellent. In the evening we ate pasta alla amatriciano and salad, with a glass of cab sauvignon! I hope you are getting the picture … we’re not exactly roughing it on this boat!

Mike

26 46.9 N 77 20.2 W

Sunset Green Turtle Club Marina - Cotinga tied up in the slip

Abstract - corner of a cafe New Plymouth, green Turtle Cay

Pink windows - New Plymouth, Green Turtle Cay

Visiting Hope Town ... 22nd May 2018

Visiting Hope Town

22^nd May 2018

Right after breakfast, Mike took the propane tank to the local place to be refilled.  Our memory was that you could pick it up the following day.  To our surprise, he was told we would have to collect the tank by four thirty pm.  That put a different wrinkle on our proposed trip to Hope Town. We elected to go anyway.  By dinghy we went to the dock between Snappas and Mangoes.  A swift walk got us to the ferry dock with time to spare. Unlike the couple that bought tickets ahead of us, we elected not to spend that half hour drinking beer. (The ferry departed at 10:30 am!) Once clear of the dock, the ferry moved off at a staggering pace.  We were soon disembarking in Hope Town. 

First up was “elevenses” at the local coffee shop (a place we remembered). I had the second iced coffee of the trip!  A small blueberry muffin completed the treat.  Then we took a walk toward the north tip of the island.  We remembered chatting to a chap on his porch and watching the birds visit his feeders. The feeders were still there and seemed to be attracting plenty of birds; the kindly gentleman was not to be seen.  We walked past many colorfully painted houses and noticed a fair amount of new construction.  Lunch at Cap’t Jacks and a short stroll put us back at the dock in time for the three pm ferry.  A hasty scurry back to the dinghy and a scoot through the harbor to the Union Jack dock, got Mike back in time to retrieve the propane tank.  We were both feeling over-full from the late lunch, so dinner was on the back burner.  Suddenly, Mike decided to go to the bar to post a blog.  I stayed on board and rested....

We are still watching the developing weather system and trying to get ready for Rod’s arrival and the crossing.

Morning clouds - Marsh Harbor

Morning clouds detail - Marsh Harbor

Flowers - Hope Town

Flowers - Hope Town

Orchid - partial Black and White - Hope Town

Hibiscus - black and white - Hope Town

New construction and dredging - Hope Town

Gloria was so excited by the ferry over that when she boarded for the return trip she decided to put her Masters License to good use and drive the ferry back! 

Life in a Bubble? … Sun 20th - Mon 21st May 2018

Life in a Bubble?   …   Sun 20^th - Mon 21st May 2018

(I't's now Tuesday evening and I'm sitting in Snappas bar. This blog wouldn't have been posted tonight except I read the comments on our previous blog (on my cell phone) and it motivated me so much I decided to jump in the Dumb Dog and use the WiFi at the pub. The excellent draft amber ale had nothing to do with my decision ... ! Today we took a ferry ride over to Hope tOwn and had a great day. We should get that blog up tomorrow with some photos.)

Now we are in Marsh Harbor our return to the USA seems imminent. We’ve had several people comment that cruising in a boat must be great because you get to leave behind all the bullshit that’s going on in the world. Have we been living life in a bubble? There’s no doubt that our lives have become focused on day-to-day life aboard and dealing with the challenges that constantly arise. I guess that I do like that aspect of cruising. We have tried to stay in touch with family as far as possible, but it’s not the same as seeing them in person. It’s our ties with friends that are perhaps most stretched – we’re not great at emailing / calling friends and we do feel out of touch. It has been great that some friends were able to visit us and it will be a great pleasure to see and catch up with both friends and family when we get back. The one area that is almost impossible to block out is the madness in the world. With pretty much universal 3G cellphone coverage and frequent internet access it’s hard to avoid being bombarded with mostly ghastly news stories and, in that sense, we have not been in a bubble. Our physical return to the USA just makes the constant anguish that we feel about the state of our country that much more real.

At this point I have changed the blog. I removed the two-page diatribe about Donald Trump. I still can’t get over how almost 50% of the people who voted thought he would be an acceptable president … anyway moving on to more positive things …!

So we are making preparations for the passage back to the USA. We’ve been doing lots of boat cleaning, inside and out, and it’s certainly looking better! We’ve also done lots of food and drink shopping and this afternoon we started to prepare some meals that we hope to freeze down and have ready-made for the long days and nights of sailing. We made braised pepper steak in red wine and meatballs in goulash sauce, both from the winter collection of British chef Delia Smith. (My dad used to call her Saint Delia because he was so enamored with her recipes). We also plan to make a pork and apple in cider dish and maybe a Thai green curry.

This afternoon we had a very pleasant surprise. Gloria, who was polishing stainless steel up on deck, called down to ask if I recognized the boat that had just anchored behind us. It was “Banyan”, a boat belonging to a Canadian couple, Dave and Alex, who we met back in 2012. At that time we were all sheltering in River Dunes marina in North Carolina as hurricane Sandy went by. We got to know several boaters during that week, including Dave and Alex, and we met up with them again later that year down in Florida. We managed to contact them on the VHF radio and they dropped by for a drink this afternoon. They have been living aboard for the past five years, the first three down in the Caribbean and the last two in the Bahamas, with hurricane season layovers in Florida. They spent the past two summers, whilst “Banyan” was on land, touring the USA in their RV. What I found really interesting is that they prefer the boating life to “land cruising” primarily because of the sense of community with fellow live-aboard boaters, which they found hard to find when most campers are short term on vacation. It was great to catch up with Dave and Alex. We may see more of them over the next couple of days, but they will probably take the opportunity to head back to Florida starting tomorrow before bad weather closes in at the weekend. No doubt more on the weather later!

Mike

Foredeck clutter ... If we partially deflate the dinghy we can tie it to teh foredeck and still deploy the inner forestay and stay sail, A better solution is to fully deflate the dinghy and pack it up ... much less clutter.

Aft deck cutter ... note the orange and blue fishing hand-lines and the gaff (lightly used) hanging near the outboard motor. When on passage you don't go ashore and garbage accumulates. We have one white plastic storage bin on the back of the boat, but that soon fills up. We were happy to get rid of these smelly bags!

A scary looking self portrait cooking up Meatballs in goulash sauce whilst listening to music on my iPod