Day 246, Sunday, February 23

Day 246, Sunday, February 23

Mangroves

The morning starts with exercise.  A run for Dawson and a walk along the beach for Julie.  We have decided to head up to the Mangrove swamp by towing the kayaks behind the dinghy.  We want to get there for high tide as the entranceway is shallow.  We are about 2 hours early but there is sufficient water.  We get into the salt water estuary without touching bottom or getting caught in a breaker.  Just the trip to get here was interesting as it was about 2.5 miles and we had to go slow due to towing the dinghies.  Once we rounded the point we were also in the swells of the Atlantic which were about 3-4 feet on the nose, so we got wet also.  The wet part did not matter as we were in swimsuits and it was warm, but we did not want to swamp the kayaks.  As a safety measure we of course had the handheld radio and had told Serena where we were going.  (did not think to take the spot connect with us)

Turtle in the water

After a quick picnic lunch, we head to the right with the wind on the nose for paddling but the current was pushing us so it was not too bad.  We saw lots of turtles and 2 small sharks, and a healthy conch population.  The turtles swam fast, and were from dinner size plate size to about 2.5 feet across.  When we went to the left of the entranceway there was what looked like a shallow blue hole which was very pretty with its varying water colour.  As we were on this branch of the estuary we see Barry and Wilma from Serena.  We ask them if they told anyone where they were going and they said no.  We laughed as they were our safety if we got lost, so now we are together and no one knows where we have gone.  (it is not dangerous or anything so not a worry at all, just thought it was funny).

Sundowner gathering on the beach

Calling card of previous owners of Jazzebelle

We dinghy back to the mother ship and see Slow Waltz and another 23 new boats have anchored in the bay. 30 boats in total, and we were alone yesterday for an hour.  There is an organized happy hour on the beach that we attend and say hello to our fellow yachties.  Some of them we have met before, but not many.  When we get back to the boat there is a large fish hanging around under our boat.  It is about 3 feet long and just sitting there.  We cannot fish here as it is a protected area.

Slow waltz hosts us for dinner which is fabulous of course.  During our visit Gwen tells us they spotted a "Jazzebelle" calling card at the laundromat.  Although this is our first trip to the Bahamas our boat has been here before.  Glenn and Solange are the wonderful people we have bought the boat from and they would have posted this card on the wall about 13 years ago, so we had quite a hoot over Gwen and Guiomme finding it.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson