March 10, 2014

We have started planning our trip back to the U.S., watching the weather and stocking the boat in preparation for a good weather window.  

On Tuesday night the Royal Marsh Harbour Yacht Club had organized a meatloaf dinner at Jamie’s place.  From past experience, these events are not to be missed.  This was no exception, the restaurant ‘Jamie’s Place’ serves Bahamian style food and is a favourite with locals.  It was an excellent meal.

The following morning we left Marsh Harbour to either go to Treasure Cay or go around the Whale Cay Passage.  The Sea of Abaco between Whale Cay and Treasure Cay is very shallow due to sand being shifted by many hurricanes.  The Whale Cay Channel is  a narrow passage that bypasses this area by going out into the Atlantic Ocean and back in.  Being a narrow passage, in certain wind conditions, the Atlantic Ocean makes it impossible to safely navigate through it.  The weather forecast for the next few days was not looking that great, so when we started out with no wind or waves on the Sea of Abaco, we decided to try the Whale Cay Passage.  It was a good decision.

We went to the Bluff House Marina on Green Turtle Cay as the weather forecast was still not good.  We met up with Pat and Tutti on ‘Keltic Kat’, friends from Indiantown.  They gave us some good suggestions on places to visit on our way north.  

It was rainy and windy for the next few days, but not as bad as they had predicted.  When the weather broke, we left Green Turtle Cay and headed to an anchorage on Manjack Cay.  Manjack Cay is a privately owned Cay, whose owner enjoys having the boaters around.  He has cut a path through his property so you can walk across the Cay to the beach on the Atlantic side.  The walk along the trail to the beach was a long one, but the miles of beautiful white sand beach with only a couple other boaters on it, at the end was worth it.  

Dave recognized a catamaran in a far corner of the bay as a James Wharram design, so we dinghied over to talk to the people.  It turned out this was the Wharram 38 that we thought we would build if we liked sailing our 17 foot catamaran.  We met Ron and Gail, the owners, and they invited us aboard for a tour.  They had been sailing the boat on the Chesapeake for a few years and Ron had planned on working on the interior during their trip south.  This idea wasn’t working too well as they had made it all the way to the Bahamas and it was still looking rough.  It was interesting to see the boat and some of the things that had looked good on the plans, just didn’t work in full size.  

We wanted to break up the trip from Manjack Cay to Great Sale Cay, and friends had mentioned Crab Cay, so we decided to check it out.  It was a large horseshoe shaped bay with what looked like a beautiful palm tree covered beach at the end.  The weather forecasters are again calling for another storm front coming in, in a few days, so we decided to stay here, then move to a marina before the storm hit.  We spent 3 days exploring the shore, beach combing, swimming, reading and relaxing.  We had hoped to be able to swim off the boat, but there was a 3 foot Barracuda whose territory we had apparently anchored in.   We were more intimated by him, than he was of us, so we dinghied to shore when we wanted to go for a swim.  

We left Crab Cay and travelled 4 miles east to Spanish Cay Marina with the hope of a safe place to tie up during the predicted gale force winds.  This turned out to be a mistake.  We noticed as we arrived that the break wall was not very far above water level, but we really didn’t think anything of it at the time.  The dock master helped us tie up to the slip he had assigned and we went exploring the Cay.  This Cay is privately owned by a person from Texas and it had it’s own private 5,000 foot air strip which we found was now only 3,000 feet long after Hurricane Sandy.  It turns out that the low break wall that we noticed earlier, had also been damaged by Hurricane Sandy, thus providing us no protection from the storm that had now arrived.  We spent the next two nights with our stern to the wind with the boat hobby-horsing up and down with the back end slapping the water, we got very little sleep.  The third morning the wind let up a bit and shifted direction so we untied and left and started heading north west towards Great Sale Cay.  

Great Sale Cay is a deserted cay with a large horseshoe shaped bay that provides good protection in everything but a south wind.  It is a very popular spot for people to anchor on their trip to or from the Abacos and when we arrived we found today was no exception, with 11 or 12 boats anchored there.  Our plan was to leave early the following morning so we set the alarm for 5:30 am., this would have got us to          the Indian Cay Channel on a rising tide.  We had not remembered the time change and ended up getting up at 6:30 am., the new time which was going to make us late for reaching Indian Cay Channel.  As we left, the wind picked up a bit and we were able to use the jib to add a few knots to our speed.  This got us to the channel just a half hour after high tide, and gave us enough water to go through this narrow channel and on to Old Bahama Bay Marina.  

The weather forecast had been, 4 good days of weather before it turned nasty.  Day 2 had got us to Old Bahama Bay Marina and we decided to use day 3 to go across the Gulf Stream to Lake Worth Inlet.  We set the alarm to the correct time and left just before sunrise and sunny skies with a light breeze.  On our way we saw what looked like a lot of sandwich bags floating on the water, these turned out to be Portuguese Man of War.  We also saw a lot of flying fish.  They looked pretty shining in the sunlight, and it was surprising to see how far they could actually fly!  As we got into the east end of the Gulf Stream the weather changed to light rain and the swells increased to three to four feet.  It was a bit of a bumpy ride till we got nearer to the west side of  the Stream and things settled a bit.  You can see the Florida skyline a long ways out and we were able to see the outline of high rise buildings not long after we were out of the Gulf Stream.  The weather also changed as it got sunny and the winds picked up allowing us to put the sails back up and give us a few extra knots of speed.  This was a real boost as it had been a very long day since leaving the Bahamas.  As we neared the entrance to Lake Worth Inlet, we spotted two water spouts in the distance and we think they were whales, but we never saw anymore after that.  We dropped the anchor around 6 pm. in Lake Worth Inlet, Florida - tired and glad to have the day behind us.           

The path to the beach on Manjack Cay

30 minutes later the beach on Manjack Cay

Crab Cay wild life

Crab Cay 

Our 3' neighbour at Crab Cay (Barracuda)

Sunrise leaving Old Bahama Bay Marina, Grand Bahama Island 

February 23, 2014

We once again have returned to Marsh Harbour to restock.  One of the things that Dave wanted was varnish for the boat and none of the stores in the downtown area had it in stock.  It was suggested that we try the boat yard on the far side of harbour, just a five minute walk.   After fifteen minutes of walking and not getting anywhere close to the boatyard, we stopped and asked at Wonderland Garden Nursery for directions and met Andree Albury, the owner, who gave us a ride in his truck to the boat yard, only to find they didn’t have any either.  When we returned to the Nursery, we asked if we could have a tour of his Nursery.  From the front of the building it didn’t look like much but when you walked through to the back, he had created a yard that held all the plants and trees that would grow in the Bahamas.  It was amazing and we left with a bunch of different samples that  he gave us from the unique plants he had growing in his backyard. 

Barometer Bob (the website for weather in the Abaco’s) is calling for a big storm in the next couple days with gale force winds so we are staying put in Marsh harbour for a few days waiting it out.  So we were spending time walking through stores for something to do and went into Dive Abaco, the local dive shop.  The owner asked where we were from, we said Ontario, he asked where in Ontario and we told him Port Elgin.  He told us that he really enjoyed staying at the Port Elgin Motor Inn when he used to come up the Bruce.  Keith the owner, used to work for Ontario Hydro before he quit to buy his dive business  in Marsh Harbour and he knew a few people that Dave did at Hydro.  Small world... 

We had been looking for someplace to get my hair cut and found Najah’s Salon and Spa.  Novia did a lot better job then Dave had at the Barber shop!

Every evening at sunset all the people who have a Conch shell, blow them.  A new boat has come into the harbour this afternoon from Ottawa and he played the bagpipes at sunset.  I don’t know from the shouts if it was appreciated by the conch blowers but it did sound like harbours back home.

The storm hit us the next afternoon right when Barometer Bob said it would with 40 knots of wind and just a solid wall of water.  Thankfully it didn’t last long and none of the boats near us, including us, had their anchors drag.  During the storm it would have been impossible to have reset a dragging anchor if they had dragged.

We left the next morning to go to Treasure Cay and about half way there, the Dock master came on the VHF radio and announced that for Valentines Day they were offering a free night’s dockage.  We took it plus another night.  Laundry was on our to-do list so we went to a small laundry mat at the resort.  The lady-owner had a hand written sign posted saying that they had fish for sale.  Dave asked her about it and we ended up with a meal of Grouper and 5 lobster tails for $16.  

While we were at Treasure, we took the dinghy up a shallow long bay and then got out and hung off a rope on each side of the dinghy, with our masks and snorkels, drifting with the tide towards the outlet of the bay.  Our friend suggested this and we saw a bunch of fish and also got a sea urchin.  Shortly after we got back in the dinghy, we saw a Nurse Shark and a turtle.  Was a fun afternoon.  

The following morning we left Treasure Cay and sailed south to Tilloo Cay and anchored for the night.  We had heard there was a nature preserve on the Atlantic side for nesting sea birds on this Cay.  The person from the Bahamas National Trust, that we had spoken to, told us that there was a dock, in a small bay called Tilloo Pond that would allow us access to the preserve.  The following morning we dinghied over and found the dock, but could find no path from the dock to the  Atlantic side.   If there was a path, it was overgrown.  We followed the shoreline with the dinghy looking for another possible access point and didn’t find one.  We did find 5 or 6 sea turtles in this area.  

We returned to ‘Time 2 Go’ and loaded the dinghy on the back and started south again.  Lynyard Cay is the last Cay in the Abaco chain of keys that people go to wait for the weather to go the the Exumas. It is uninhabited and we were told that it was a really quiet anchorage with nice beaches. So that’s where we were headed for some quiet walks on the beach. We had no trouble finding the anchorage as there had to over 20 boats already there. The beaches on the Atlantic side were all on top of rock ledges good beach combing but not good for swimming.  The thing that made our time specially here was we were invited to watch the sun go down at a bonfire on the beach and to enjoy munches and sundowners with a bunch of the other boaters.

We started north the next morning not sure where we going to stop for the day, Tahiti Beach or Hope Town.  When we got near to Tahiti Beach, we saw that the anchorage was really crowded so we decided to go on a few miles to Hope Town.  There was a few things that we didn’t do on our first visit that we hoped to do before we had to head home.  One was to climb to the top of the lighthouse and check out the view.  It was spectacular and we got a lot of good pictures.  The following afternoon a couple we met from Owen Sound, Ben and Jane Eckensweiler, dinghied over and invited us to a Songwriters Festival that evening.  These songwriters were the folks who wrote songs for the big name Country and Western  stars and they performed and talked about the songs that they had written.  Dave met a young lady at the bar who was from Tiverton, Ontario and her parents lived in Kincardine.  Small world... 

The next two nights the annual Junkanoo was scheduled to take place in Marsh Harbour, so that’s where we headed.  The first evening was the junior Junkanoo, this included 16 groups from schools around the Abacos.  The Bahamians treat Junkanoo competitions similar to what we in Canada treat kids’ hockey.  They get very involved.  Each group had a theme and the costumes of all the members of the group were made to represent that theme.  The kids were from kindergarten age to high school.  They were  being judged on many different things.  The little ones were really cute to watch as they tried to perform the dance routines that the older kids did.  

We had planned on going to the senior Junkanoo the following night but found out it wasn’t scheduled to start until 9 pm. and thought it would be too late a night, by the time we would get back to the boat.    The next day we heard it didn’t get started until 10 pm. and with only 2 groups, it was after 1 am. before it was done.  

Just outside of Marsh Harbour there is a small reef called Mermaid Reef, that we had been hearing about.  So we loaded our masks and snorkels into the dinghy and went to check it out.  The Reef was loaded with all different colours of fish that would swim right up to you, because people had been feeding them.  It was fun swimming with the fish and we got some really great pictures.  It was awesome!     

Atlantic ocean beach on Lynyard Cay

Sundowner party on beach at Lynyard Cay

Hope Town Lighthouse

View from the top of Hope Town Lighthouse

Abaco Junior Junkanoo

Abaco Junior Junkanoo 

Abaco Junior Junkanoo

Abaco Junior Junkanoo

Abaco Junior Junkanoo

Abaco Junior Junkanoo

Abaco Junior Junkanoo

Fish at Mermaid Reef, Marsh Harbour

Anne and friends at Mermaid Reef

February 9, 2014

This is January 27th and the first time that it has been warm enough for us to go swimming in the ocean, since leaving home!  We had a great day snorkeling and collecting sea glass.  Tuesday morning while we were listening to the Cruisers Net on the VHF radio, we heard our friends on ‘Silver Maple’ had arrived in the Abacos, so we called them and found out their plans.  We wanted to go to Hope Town after we left Tahiti Beach.  It is located about 2 miles north but has very shallow water between us and the harbour, so we had planned to leave in the middle of the afternoon and catch the rising tide.  Not long before we left, a couple from ‘Diva’ dinghied over to our boat.  They had seen our Royal Marsh Harbour Yacht Club burgee and Ben is the membership director for the club, so he and Margaret came over to introduce themselves.  We had a nice visit and they asked what news we had from our friends, Vic and Wendy.  

We made the short trip down to Hope Town in 7 to 8 feet of water on a rising tide.  The instructions for entering Hope Town Harbour are very interesting.  You must locate the range markers by finding the double Adirondack chairs and they are to the left of it.  You then go straight in on these markers until you come to the first red marker (post with a red mark on it) and turn a sharp 90 to the right and follow the channel markers in to the harbour.  Once you are in the harbour you have to find a mooring ball but the first red one that you see when you enter, is not a mooring ball, but the edge of a shoal.  We finally found a mooring ball and  tied up.

The next morning we set out to explore the village of Hope Town and it’s shops.  One of the first things we noticed was all the multicolored buildings in the village were well taken care of and the streets were very narrow (barely golf cart width).  We visited some of the gift shops and other stores and restaurants.  One of the more interesting shops was Vernon’s Grocery.  Vernon is also the baker, the minister, the Justice of the Peace, and a member of the town council, besides for the grocery store owner.  

Another one of the attractions at Hope Town is the red and white striped lighthouse.  It is one of the last kerosene powered lights in the world and in the evening, after dark, you can watch as the lighthouse keeper lights the light.  We didn’t have time, this trip, to climb the lighthouse.  We’ll have to try on our next visit.  

We decided to return to Marsh Harbour the following morning and go to a marina to get caught up on things (laundry, internet, showers and get water).  We also hoped to get a visit with our friends on ‘Silver Maple’ who were staying at the Marsh Harbour Marina.  We had a nice visit with them on their boat in the afternoon.  We spent the next day finishing up our jobs, one of which was Dave getting a haircut, the shortest since he stopped going to Walter’s Barber Shop in Thorold South with his Dad.  

One of the nice things about sailing and exploring the Abacos is the closeness of all our destinations.  So the following morning we were able to walk to a flea market, get some groceries, go to the hardware store and still have a nice sail to Guana Cay before supper.  

The next morning we dinghied to shore to explore Guana Cay.  There were 2 things that we really wanted to see.  The first was a bar called ‘Nippers’, which is located on a beautiful beach on the Atlantic Ocean side of the island.  One of the things they’re famous for is the ‘Barefoot Man’ concert that is held in the middle of March.  He sings many songs about Nippers in his concerts.  One of his other songs is called ‘Log Cabins by the Sea’.  This was the other reason we had come to Guana.  These log cabins are located directly beside Nippers and the special thing about them is, that they were built by our neighbour, on the 12th of Bruce, Andrew Hill.  They share the same beautiful Atlantic Beach and have very easy access to Nippers next door.  As we were leaving, a local stopped and gave us a ride on his golf cart, back to the other restaurant ‘Grabbers’, on the Sea of Abaco side of the island.  We decided to have lunch here, a far quieter location with a really good Wahoo and Tropical Salad.  I asked if I could use the washroom and the waitress said she’d have to check with her manager.  We thought this was a little strange.  Some other people overheard this exchange and said they thought she was thinking, I wanted to do my laundry, which was the case.  I guess the lesson learned, is that it is referred to as the ‘bathroom’ in the Bahamas.  

We decided to spend another day here visiting the beach and looking around the harbour area before returning to Marsh Harbour for a pasta dinner being put on by the Royal Marsh Harbour Yacht Club the next night.  This group really likes to have social events, the afternoon started with a short annual general meeting, followed by wine and cheese, which was followed by a beautiful dinner and $2.00 cocktails.  One of the members who lives on the island gave us a ride back to our dinghy, thankfully.  

We left Marsh Harbour the next morning and sailed to Man-O-War Cay.  Each community we have explored so far has a totally different feel from the others, while only being a couple of hours away from each other by sailboat.  The settlement on Man-O-War Cay is no exception.  It is a dry island (no alcohol for sale) with the main employment being the building of boats, they are known for their runabouts in the 20 to 30 foot range.  They really seem suited for the waters here whether Atlantic ocean fishing or just going fast across the Sea of Abaco.  There wasn’t a lot for us to see on this Cay and we decided to leave the next morning.  

We had planned on returning to Marsh Harbour to restock, but neither of us was ready for another crowded anchorage.  Instead we headed south past Elbow Cay and Tahiti Beach to Tilloo Cay.  The charts show 3 anchorages along the western shore of this Cay.  The northern most one is in front of a bunch of homes, the southern most one has a beautiful beach, but no wind protection.  We chose the middle one, it had no beach, but also no homes, but was protected.  We had most of 2 days to ourselves to swim, snorkel and explore the shoreline with the dinghy.  It was fun and relaxing.  

Next day we came back to Marsh Harbour for supplies and a plan where we’re going next.  

Hope Town Lighthouse

Narrow roads in Hope Town

Navigation aids 2 Adirondack chairs showing location of range markers

Colourful Homes Hope Town

Colourful Homes Hope Town

Colourful Homes Hope Town

Guana Cay Atlantic Beach

Nippers Bar on the beach on Guana Cay

Log Cabins by the Sea 

Anchorage at Fishers Bay, Guana Cay from Grabbers Bed, Bar and Grill

Home in the Settlement at Man-of-War Cay

Home in the Settlement at Man-of-War Cay

Tilloo Cay Anchorage

Fish at Tilloo Cay

Fish at Tilloo Cay

January 26, 2014

Our first few days in Marsh Harbour have been used to restock the boat and explore the town.  We are finding pricing of some items different, such as paper towel $4.00 and up a single roll, bakery bread is cheaper than grocery store bread, dairy products are the same or cheaper than back home and $15.00 will buy you the 1.5 liter size of Bahamas Rum.  

When we were planning our trip south to the Bahamas, it was highly recommended that we become members of the Royal Marsh Harbour Yacht Club.  The discounts that are available to members of this club are significant throughout the Bahamas.  Our first actual club function was Souper Bowl 11, which was a competition among ladies in the club who had made their favourite soup recipe.  After the judging, everybody got to sample the different soups, along with the salad and dessert, making it a fun and delicious meal.  Last year’s competition, Souper Bowl 1, was among the guys in the club.  Souper Bowl 111, next year will pit the winning ladies against the winners of Souper Bowl 1.  

After six days of being anchored in Marsh Harbour, we were getting anxious to explore other parts of the Abacos.  The weather forecast for the following week was for strong westerly winds, which is unusual and a lot of the anchorages don’t provide you good protection from this direction.  One anchorage that would provide us protection from these winds, was Treasure Cay.  We lifted the anchor Friday morning and began a 9 mile journey north to Treasure Cay.  On our way we caught up to our friends on ‘Quality Time’ and took the opportunity to get pictures of each others’ boats.  Treasure Cay is a very upscale resort community, but you wouldn’t know it by the channel markers into the harbour.  The water is extremely clear and shallow and curves around a sand bar.  This is marked by a series of wooden poles buried into the channel bed, to indicate the difference between port and starboard, they have hung ‘slow moving vehicle signs’ on the port sides.  When we had dropped the anchor and looked around, we found quite a few boats that we knew.

The beach at Treasure Cay is rated as one of the top ten beaches in the world and we would agree.  The sand is a fine white colour with the texture of flour and the water is a beautiful turquoise colour.  The water is shallow way out into the Sea of Abaco and from the beach we can see Whale Cay where we had to go out into the Atlantic to reach the southern part of the Sea.  

We had been hearing about the Bahamian music called Rake and Scrape.  Sunday afternoon Brown Tip, a local favourite, was playing at the Coco Beach Bar and Restaurant.  We went to listen.  This performance of Rake and Scrape consisted of two guys singing to taped music, while playing the moroccos and rubbing the saw blade with a screwdriver.  It was a bit over-rated but the guys had nice voices so it sounded okay.  

Another boater had told us about the Bahamian version of a lunch truck which showed up around noon near the resort property.  Monday we decided to splurge and try it for lunch.  We walked down the road, through a round-about, to a gravel parking lot near a small public school.  We arrived just before 12:00 and were the only people standing in the middle of nowhere, waiting for the lunch truck.  At 12:15 a pick up truck pulling an open trailer, with propane cookers on the back, pulled in.  Within minutes cars and trucks started arriving as if they knew that 12:00 meant 12:15 Bahamian time.  For $5.00 you got pork chop, chicken or fish if they had not run out of them served on a bed of peas and rice ( Bahamian answer to french fries) and another side such as plantain or pasta salad.  There was no place to sit as everyone else had driven to the spot, we ended up sitting on an electrical box in front of the school.  It was very good and neither of us were able to finish.

The weather is starting to get better and the winds are starting to die down (below 20 knots) and we are getting anxious to leave Treasure Cay.  Thursday the winds drop to less than 6 knots and we start heading south back to Marsh Harbour.  We have to motor all the way but that is ok as the water is flat calm and we are able to see the bottom as we go.  We arrived back in the early afternoon in time to get ready for a steak dinner at a local Marina called the Jib Room.  This was sponsored by the Royal Marsh Harbour Yacht Club - more great food and an opportunity to meet new boaters.  We like this club.  

We decided to join 2 other boats that were going to a place called Tahiti Beach.  This is a beautiful anchorage  on a beach that just looks really tropical and South Pacific like.  We left the anchorage in Marsh Harbour just before lunch, the winds were light, the Sea of Abaco was flat and calm so we started motoring south.  The visibility in the water was just incredible, we saw a shark, a turtle, all kinds of fish and many starfish laying on the bottom of the sea.  We joined the other 2 boats for a nice pasta dinner and planning session for the next day.  It was decided that the girls were going to explore the beaches for shells and beach glass, and the guys were going to go looking for fish, conch and lobster.  

Time 2 Go heading to Treasure Cay

Slow moving vehicles signs used for the red channel
 markers and a sandbar to go around

Sunset - Treasure Cay anchorage 

Treasure Cay Beach - one of the top 10 beaches in the world

Rake and Scrape superstars Brown Tip performing

Starfish

Tahiti Beach on south end of Elbow Cay

January 12, 2014

Our first full day at Bluff House Marina in Green Turtle Cay started out sunny and warm.  We met some of the people that helped us get tied up, in the dark the night before.  One couple looked very familiar and when we talked to them we realized that we had met in Fernandina Beach during Hurricane Sandy in October of 2012.  In the afternoon we hiked to the ocean beach, which looked beautiful (picture postcard)  but the waves were big and we were worried about undertow, so we didn’t go in.  Later in the evening the front that was forecasted, arrived, the winds picked up, the temperature went down and the rain started.  This kept us tied to the dock and limited as to what we were able to see and do for three days.

Thursday, the winds started to ease and change direction and we were finally able to dinghy into the village of New Plymouth.  We explored the shops and tried to buy some provisions.  The prices are very high for some items such as paper towels, up to $6.00 for a single roll, but other items such as  fresh baked bread is cheaper than the grocery store brands.  The supply ship comes in only once a week and we were trying to shop the day before it arrived, so we weren’t very successful.  The trip to town was fun, exploring the small pastel coloured shops, talking to the people, and dealing with the laid back attitudes.  

By Friday morning everyone was talking about moving farther south.  There is one obstacle between us and the southern Cays of the Abacos and it is the Whale Channel.  The water between Great Abaco Island and the Cays have silted in, so that deep draft vessels have to go out in the Atlantic through the Whale Cut and then come in south of the sandbar.  If the winds are from the wrong direction, this channel is susceptible to a rage sea condition (breaking waves all the way across).  We decided to anchor off New Plymouth Friday night and go have a look at the Whale Cay Channel early Saturday morning.  We had a report from another boater before we left that it was being well behaved, with only 3 to 5 foot swells, and no breaking waves, so we decided to go.  The winds were only about 5 knots when we left and the trip through the Cut was uneventful. But by the time we reached the southern edge of the sandbar, the winds were picking up and we saw up to 29 knots before we finally arrived in Marsh Harbour.  As we arrived at the anchorage in Marsh Harbour we were met by our friends from Quality Time in their Dinghy and they showed us where to anchor. What was really nice was being invited for supper that night on their boat as we were both really tired after the trip.

The following morning we had our first opportunity to listen to the Abacos Cruisers’ Net.  They read the local weather report for the area, and people out on the water will provide detailed conditions they are observing at the time.  They also let you know events happening throughout the Abacos and a lot of the local businesses get on the radio and promote themselves.  Marsh Harbour has a grocery store very similar to what we are used to in Canada, called Maxwell’s, and we were able to replace our fresh fruits, vegetables, and other items.  It seems strange, by Canadian standards, that going to a grocery store can be the highlight of your day, but it’s a real treat to find most of the items, that you want, all in one location.        

The main road crossing Green Turtle Cay

Coco Bay on Green Turtle Cay

High winds and waves on Atlantic Ocean beach
Green Turtle Cay

Shops in New Plymouth, Green Turtle Cay 

 Dinghy dock New Plymouth, Green Turtle Cay

Anchorage at Marsh Harbour, Great Abaco Island, Bahamas

January 5, 2014

The morning of December 30th, with less than 10 knots of wind and calm seas, we headed east out the Inlet.  The Gulf Stream was very well behaved and was what some sailboaters would call a “trawler day” (flat seas and light breezes).  These conditions suited us perfectly for our first crossing of the Gulf Stream.  On the west side of the Gulf Stream the wind picked up and we had a nice sail, the rest of the way to Old Bahama Bay Resort Marina, West End, Grand Bahama Island.  Ten and a half hours later, we were tied to a dock, completing our goal of building the boat and sailing to the Bahamas.  

The Old Bahama Resort Marina in May 1976 was the location of the Grand Bahama Hotel, where we came for our honeymoon.  We wanted to see what it looked like now and the village of West End.  The Grand Bahama Hotel was bulldozed years ago and is approximately where the marina is located now.  We biked into West End, as we did years ago, to see what changes had taken place since 1976.  Back then it was a cute little village with brightly coloured buildings, with a few small shops.  It hasn’t faired well.  In about 2005 two hurricanes, within weeks of each other, struck West End and the community has still not recovered from that event.  In spite of this, the people are as happy, friendly, and helpful, as we remembered.  The future is looking better for West End as a failed resort development is being resurrected, this will bring a lot of new jobs in the construction and running of this resort.   

The day after we arrived, another cold front came through, preventing us from leaving.  This was not a bad thing, since it was New Years Eve.  We were invited for champagne and chocolates on a boat we knew from Indiantown, along with another couple.  After visiting for awhile, we all decided to check out the band outside the restaurant.  It was really bad and we started to head back to our boats.   On the way back, Dave stopped to talk to a young guy who was part of a Junkanoo demonstration.  He showed us his costume and explained about the significance of Junkanoo.  It goes back to the slave days when the slaves would receive a box of new clothes the day after Christmas and parade around showing off their new clothes.  The costumes they individually make, can take up to 3 months to create from cardboard and paper mache and can cost as much as a thousand dollars.  These costumes are worn for about 3 hours and then dismantled and the process starts again for the next year’s Junkanoo.  We decided to come back and watch the parade at 11pm.  We were glad we did...the costumes were spectacular!  Some day we’ll have to go Freeport and see the main parade where there’s thousands of people dressed in their own colourful creations.  

The following morning, New Year’s Day, we had a local guy come to our dock, selling fresh lobster.  We bought two to try to cook for supper that night and they turned out pretty good.  The people in the boat next to us had gone out to a reef, spear fishing and came back with several lobsters and reef fish and proceeded to clean them on the dock.  Their boat was equipped with blue lights on the bottom  these lights attracted a lot of small fish and in combination with the blood and guts, they’d thrown in the water, it attracted two 7 to 8 foot Bull Sharks.  It was quite the show, the Bull Sharks got agitated and hit the swim ladder on their boat and bumped the bow of our dinghy out of the water a couple times .

The weather was not supposed to get any better during the next couple of days, so we used this time to get ready for the next weather window... fueling the boat, laundry, and trying to re-stock some of our supplies.  This involved riding bikes into West End to visit three grocery stores.  Another cruiser had described them as a poorly stocked Seven Eleven stores.  We weren’t able to get much but we did meet Moses, the best fisherman in West End and his friend, Charles on the step of the liquor store (they hadn’t quite finished celebrating their New Year’s holiday).  

There was a small weather window starting Saturday morning.  They were calling for winds of 10 to 15 knots from the east, not great but would allow us to get out before the next window a week away.  We untied our lines and headed to the Indian Cay Channel.  The Indian Cay Channel used to have poles down the centre of the channel marking the deeper water, these have been missing since 2006.  To go through here we had to wait for high tide and use the way points on our GPS/chart plotter and depth sounder.  We had about 7-10 feet at high tide and it took about an hour to travel the length of it.  On the east side of this reef we were on the Bahamas Banks and we had 10 to 14 feet of water  all the way to Great Sale Cay.  We arrived at Great Sale Cay and dropped the anchor just as it was getting dark, that left enough of the day for a quick supper and to bed.  

It would have been nice to explore Great Sale Cay, but the next cold front was supposed to come Monday, so we were up at first light and left and turned south to Green Turtle Cay.  As we travelled down the Sea of Abaco we could see a lot of the Cays that we had read about in the guide books in the distance.  There are endless areas where you could spend time exploring here.  We arrived at White Sound in Green Turtle Cay at sunset and low tide.  The trip in the channel was a bit unnerving as the water is crystal clear and very shallow (saw 5’8” on depth sounder, we need 5’6”).  The docking at Bluff House Marina was far from our best, we were not prepared for the style of dock ( 4 posts) and tying up after dark.  We were so tired at the end of the day we had quick showers, a really nice dinner at their restaurant and drinks (Tranquil Turtles).  This finished our day.

Leaving Lake Worth Inlet for the Bahamas

Junkanoo costumes New Years Eve

Junkanoo Wanttabe

Lobster delivered to the dock Old Bahama Bay Marina

Police Station in West End, Grand Bahama Island