Day 288, Sunday April 6th- still at Green Turtle Cay

Day 288, Sunday April 6th- still at Green Turtle Cay

Work in the morning, Dawson is adding a second the stern light as the current position is blocked by the dinghy when it is up on the davits.  We are planning an overnight sail when we leave the Bahamas so it is important to have it fully exposed.  Julie meanwhile spends the morning cooking and cleaning and them moves out to the hull of the boat cleaning and waxing and as always treating the stainless.  Julie has been vigilant at removing any signs of rust created by the salty conditions.

At 1:30 Windward is ready for our afternoon snorkel trip, we are almost ready....we will finish our jobs tomorrow.  Julie packs a sandwich as we have not eaten since our morning cereal, so we will snack enroute to the snorkel site.  We are not sure where we are going, but Lynn and Ian have been snorkelling here before so lead the way.  It is about a 2 mile dinghy ride and we end up out on the ocean where the reef just lie about a quarter of a mile off shore.  We also see 2 other dinghies and realize it is our euchre buddies, Randy, John, Guy and new sailors we have met, Rick and Poppy.  They had talked of scuba diving today so guess we are exploring the same areas.

Ian is spear fishing, but we have forgotten to pack the tip of our spear so we will just be viewing.  Soon after we get in the water, Ian spears a hog fish that is wounded, but badly enough that Ian is able to get him with a second hit.  Unfortunately this situation can attract sharks.  We swim to the north away from Ian, but after about 10 minutes Dawson is heading back to the dinghy so Julie follows, to find out Dawson heard Lynn shout shark.  We keep our eyes out for sharks all the time, but they are attracted when a fish is speared and it is not taken out of the water immediately, so that may have been an issue.  Lots of sharks are not an issue, but we don’t want to find out whether this one is or not.  They really are no more of an issue than bears are back home, but with both it is important to take precautions.  Lynn says this is the closest she has been to a shark and figures it was about 50 feet away.  We dinghy about 1000 feet to the south and find another reef, this one has lots of pretty fish and coral.  It is high tide, but dropping and part of the reef is close to surface and the waves are starting to break close to where we are.  Julie only lasts about 10 minutes, but is nervous about sharks so hops back into the dinghy.  Lynn has spotted some turtles on the reef, but we don’t see them.  All of us are a bit spooked so we head to a deserted beach and chat, as we beachcomb looking for seabeans.  The day as usual is beautiful with blue skies so a lovely afternoon.

We say our good-byes as we are heading over to the Tranquil Turtle for a sundowner and meetup with Cathy and Leeanne from Toronto.  The Tranquil Turtle is on the west shore of Green Turtle and is part of the Bluff House beach.  We have not been here before and it is a nice beach bar.  We stay only an hour as we are hosting dinner for our Windward friends so time to get moving for the last social part of the day. 

Glass removed from Julie's foot

A quick desalting, and Windward arrives.  Dinner is simple as all the sides were prepared in the morning and we are having hickory smoked pork in the pressure cooker.  Pork is a great dinner choice as overcooked pork becomes “pulled pork”.  Just before we are about to eat Julie steps on a piece of glass on the boat.  Not sure where it came from, but it is the second piece of glass we have foind in the last 2 days.  It is lodged deeply and bleeding nasty, but Julie sticks a band aid on it and carries on with the dinner party.  It will be better to get it out after a few glasses of wine anyways.  We enjoy the evening as we have lots of discussion over our upcoming crossing over to the USA.  It is always a big deal crossing the gulf stream and doing night sails.  We also teach Lynn and Ian how to play King’s cribbage.  Ian wins the game, (fortunately we weren’t playing for boats)! 

After Lynn and Ian leave, Dawson tackles the piece of glass in Julie’s foot.  He thinks he needs a knife to help “cut it out”.  This does not sound good.  Julie soaks her foot in an effort to avoid “cutting” it out.  With a few tools in hand, and a bit of discomfort, Dawson manages to get the shard out of Julie’s foot.  Yeah, and it didn’t really hurt at all, now just to keep it clean.  Off to bed we go.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson