Day 287, Saturday April 5th –Still Green Turtle Cay

Day 287, Saturday April 5^th –Still Green Turtle Cay

Today is a work day.  We have to start gathering up our tax information, pay some bills and do some laundry.  We head over to Cathy’s as she has offered us her laundry facilities.  We only lug one load as our laundry situation is not too dismal yet.

We spend 3 or 4 hours at Cathy’s as she has great internet and we have lots of administration to do.

Cooling off in the pool 

After Cathy’s we head back to the boat, cutting through Green Turtle Club so we pop in at the pool to see our buddies from Mandalay, Miss Ellie, and Silver Maple.  They are all there playing bananagram.  When we arrive the bocce ball game comes out and next thing you know it is tournament time for the guys.  The women stay with the word games and lounge in the pool.  Boy life is good.

More cooling off

On our return to the boat, we keep an eye out for Windward, as Lynn and Ian are expected in Green Turtle today.  Within a few minutes we see them coming into the harbour.  Once anchored we dinghy over to say hello and invite them to join us for our evening shore appetizer dinner, and euchre tournament.  We are expected on shore for 6 so cut the visit short.  We are meeting the afternoon pool chums back pool side for appetizer dinner.  We pop into the clubhouse to buy our drinks so we are paying customers as we are using their property to socialize on.  Our fellow boaters are actually staying in the marina so have full privileges.  We had stayed at the marina last fall, but have opted to anchor out in the bay this visit.

After dinner we head to Mandalay which is a 50 foot Beneteau so lots of room for a euchre tournament.  John and Debbie (Americans) are just learning the game.  The rest of us (all Canadians) have been playing the game since highschool as most of us spent our highschool lunch time playing euchre every day.   Two new boaters join the evening part way through.   Rick and Poppy have just arrived in the Bahamas but met the hosts Debbie and John in previous years.

Cheers 

Julie and Dawson

Day 286, Friday April 4th -Green Turtle Cay still

Day 286, Friday April 4^th -Green Turtle Cay still 

Dawson wakes up under the weather due to his being hit by a rum squall the night before, too much rum.  Luckily Julie feels fine.  The morning is spent napping, cleaning, and doing French lessons.  (You can figure out who was doing the napping and who was doing the cleaning).

After lunch we head over for an afternoon visit to Sharpes dream, who is Diane and Pat from Elliot Lake.  Diane gives Julie a seabean which is a seed pod washed up from Africa that is collectible.  Julie will make it into a necklace upon our return home.  Blake had found one of these seabeans that look like a mini hamburger back in December but we did not know what they were then. 

We had hoped our boat decal for cruising the USA had arrived, but sadly it has not.  We ordered it a month ago and it was shipped immediately to Leeward Yacht club where Pat and Diane stay for the season.  Oh well we have a few more days until we leave the Bahamas.  If it does not come, we have been advised to show our receipt that we purchased/ordered it.

We leave Black Sound where Pat and Diane are and dinghy about 2 miles over to Noname Cay.  We get a bit wet as we are exposed to the ocean swells once we round the point at downtown Plymouth (the little village on the island of Green Turtle).  The water is about 75 degrees Farenheit (21 celcius) so it is just salty and surprising but not horrible.  We land on a sandy beach and as we go around the point there is a bunch of pigs.  Similar to our visit to Big Major with son Kevin and his girlfriend Casey, the island hosts wild pigs that are very friendly and used to being fed by visitors.

Two of a number of piglets

Julie and Sow looking for a hand out

There are lots of piglets that are about 4 or 5 weeks old by our guess.  They are very cute.  Julie tosses her shoes to the ground to free up her hands to take some pictures and the momma pigs pounce on the shoes thinking they are food.  Julie quickly snatches them away, but the pigs follow.  They are quite harmless but it is still a bit unsettling.

 After visiting the pigs, we wander the beach looking for neat stuff.  We see lots of sea biscuits, some pelicans fishing and a few sea slugs, but otherwise nothing too amazing.

Sow and her litter of piglets

Sea Slug on the move

Julie shooting pool at Sundowners

The ride back to the mothership is much nicer as the swells are behind us instead of head on, so a much dryer return passage.  We quickly clean up and have a quick salad for dinner as we have evening plans with Cathy and Leeanne.  Cathy is picking us up at 6:45 to head to Plymouth town about 5 miles away.  There is a wine tasting at the local liquor store which basically consists of them closing the doors to the public and you go in and buy a bottle of wine and drink it.  From the outside of the shop it looks closed but inside there is a bustle of about 25 people in the little shop socializing.  We meet locals and other boaters and share some stories and as always gather information about anchorages and ports we will be using in the future.  After David’s liquor store, we are off to “Sundowners”, where they have music, dancing and a pool table.  We have fun kicking up our heals and enjoy a game of pool.  The table is actually level and the pool cues are straight.

At about 11:00 we head back to the Green Turtle club as there is a wedding going on there and everyone is invited (plus we are anchored just in the bay off the club so it is handy for our return home).  Sadly the music is so loud that the sound system is the pits so we only last about 5 minutes and head for bed.  A fun night!

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 285, Thursday, April 3^rd

Today dawns a beautiful day, Dawson heads out for a run, and Julie hangs out with the computer.  We are spending lots of time researching the Intercoastal waterway and access from the Atlantic to the Intercoastal waterway.  We want to have a plan A, plan B, plan C etc. as we are not sure how many hours the 2 of us will be able to tolerate without a break.  Depending on tides, weather and time of day, many ports may or may not be an alternative for landing.

In addition to researching our return passage, we are researching resale prices of Caliber 40’s as we are toying with selling the boat as it looks like we will not plan on sailing for about 3-4 years and it is not fair for such a fabulous boat to be drydocked for extensive periods.  This is a bluewater boat and more than what we would need for on the great lakes, although it also works fine in any waters, so we are thinking we may sell.

After a day of administration we head over to Bluff House for happy hour.  Their pina coladas are good, but not as good as Debbie’s at Green Turtle Club.  Sadly their beer on tap is flat!  Back to the boat for dinner and a quiet night.  We are just moving into the coffee portion of the evening when we hear some giggles and a motor approach the stern and there is Cathy, her sister who just arrived today from Toronto, Leanne, and Kevin who lives on the island and we had met back in November.

They come aboard and we spend the next couple hours regaling stories and giggles before heading off to bed with a few too many drinks in our bellies.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 284, Wednesday April 2nd - Reunion at Green Turtle Cay

Day 284, Wednesday April 2^nd

Through the whale passage, but no whale sightings, although a boat that passed through a couple hours ago reported seeing a very large whale right beside them.  Turns out it was Mandalay a boat we have socialized with and we got to see the pictures later on.  We all figured it was about a 60 foot male sperm whale, pretty cool for Debbie and John.

It is about a 4 hour sail from Marsh Harbour to our destination at Green Turtle Cay.  We catch the tide half decent as it is slack water as we approach the whale passage. The whale passage is one of the more challenging cuts as swells are normally quite large.  We have little problem getting through as our boat slices through the water nicely.  We should have fished and are a bit disgusted at ourselves for having put the rod away just prior to a good fishing opportunity.  The sails are up but again not quite enough wind to make a decent speed so the motor helps us along.

Sea Cucumber on the move (we have a video as well)

We get to the entrance to Green Turtle about mid tide so we should be fine as the entrance has been dredged.  We are a bit more cautious now though as we don’t think we have as much room as we had thought previously.  The depth alarms do ring throughout our entry and we read a low of 5 foot 4 inches so not much room to spare.  Because it is a falling tide, we do not want to get stuck in the mud.  We would be trapped for about 7 hours until the tide rises again.  We get into harbour and recognize a bunch of friends boats and make anchor very easily.

Our reunion photo 

We are out and about socializing by early afternoon and head over to Lo Key cottage looking for Catherine, but she is not there.  It is now extremely low tide as the spring tides are at their highest and lowest of the season so we decide to walk along Co Co beach.  The bay is practically dry or with about a foot of water so we slog through the bay.   We see starfish, crabs, and sea cucumbers.  Nothing too exciting, but a fun explore.  As we turn around to return we see 2 kayaks in the bay and wonder if one of them is Catherine.  As they get closer we hear a yell, “is that you Dawson and Julie”, and sure enough it is Catherine.  We are all excited to meet again as Catherine was one of the first friends we made once we reached the Bahamas and we had a lovely time dashing around in her tracker learning all about the secrets of Green Turtle Cay.  She has been here now for 5 months so we are sure there will be many more secrets to share.  We stop in at Catherine’s cottage for a beer, then head back to the boat to clean up for dinner.  We have arranged for a group dinner at Green Turtle tonight.  It is Wednesday and there is even music tonight, the Gully Roosters.

Julie and Catherine dancing at the Green Turtle Club

Julie is happy to return to see Green Turtle Club bartender Debbie as Debbie makes the best Pina Coladas in the Bahamas.  We all enjoy dinner and listen to an hour of music then head off to bed as cruisers midnight has long gone.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 283, Tuesday April 1st - one last time to Marsh Harbour

Day 283, Tuesday April 1^st

Julie enjoying the sail at the helm

Good-bye to March, hello to April.  The reality of the end of our trip is fast approaching as another month is ticked off the calendar.  We wake up in Lynyard Cay with the intention of moving north to Marsh Harbour to stock up on some fresh groceries.  The winds are somewhat favourable as they are from the East and we are heading north.  The route has a number of twist and turns so we do lots of sail adjustments as we follow the channel north..

We get to Marsh Harbour with sufficient time to head to the grocers.  Our depth alarms are ringing as we anchor however we are confident at low tide we will have a couple inches below the keel as we have anchored here before and the alarms ring when we have 18 inches under the keel.  Also the charts say it is 6 foot 2 inches depth and we only need around 5 foot 1 inch (or a few more if the tanks are full).  Off we go to shop and when we return the boat is not moving at all and we realize we are sitting in the mud.  The tides are extreme right now, but we are still surprised.  It does not matter much as it is just a bit of guck and the winds and waves are almost non-existent.  We will only be sitting in the mud for about an hour as the tide is coming back in. 

What it does make us realize is our “offset lie” is not as big as we thought.  We had set up the depth indicator to report 1 foot less than we really had, or so we thought.  What this makes us realize is the depth sounder is set accurately so we have actually had 12 inches less than we thought.  We have been braver than we intended historically. 

Julie at Snappas

After groceries we head to Snappas Restaurant in the hopes of some internet to load some grib files, post some blog, and read the news.  Snappas internet was not very good so we moved on to Mangoes.  Snappas did have a good internet password "buyadrink" which made for an interesting conversation for Julie.  A couple came in and order a drink but forgot to ask the waitress for the password.  They see us typing away on the laptop and IPad so the fellow learns over and ask Julie for the password.  Julie's reply was "buyadrink", the fellow was somewhat put off and got up to ask the waitress mumbling that they had just order drinks.  Julie quickly explained the situation at which we all had a good laugh.  Mangoes internet was not good so we went back to the boat for dinner.  Our patronage is often tied to internet access. 

Dusk at Marsh Harbour

Back on the boat we have a quiet evening doing some charting and planning for the great launch back to the United States.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 282, Monday March 31st - a neat purchase and a cool tour

Day 282, Monday March 31^st

Well we stayed 8 days in Hopetown.  Time to move on.  We are heading south today to visit the art gallery at Little Harbour where we spent Christmas with Ross.  The winds are out of the north so we should have a nice sail.  Winds have settled down 15-20 knots which is still pretty strong, but with a following wind it will be a great ride.  We are up at 6:30 so we can catch the weather, drop our garbage off for 8:30, have a coffee at the Hope Town Coffee shop while posting some blogs and then catch high tide for our exit from Hope Town.

Julie at the helm enjoying the sail

We get all our errands done by 9:30 and we are heading out on the tide.  As soon as we exit the harbour we hoist our sails and settle in to what proves to be an excellent sail the 16 miles down to Little Harbour.  We won’t be able to enter Little Harbour as it is to shallow for us without 2/3 high tide.  We arrive at the south end of the Sea of Abaco around 1 pm and anchor off of Bridges Cay.  As soon as we are confident we are hooked we drop the dinghy and head into Little Harbour.

Dawson has been thinking of purchasing a bronze sculpture from here since we made the decision to return to the Abacos.  We have not yet bought any souvenirs from our voyage so we decide this would be a good momento of the trip.   It is one of the lowest tides of the year with us even touching bottom in the channel with our dinghy, albeit we were right on the western edge of the channel.  We land the dinghy just in front of Pete’s Pub and head over to the gallery.  We tour around, settle on a few sculptures to consider and head over to the Pub to make our decision.  While we were in the gallery we had asked when closing time and were assured they would wait for us. 

Desmond and Julie 

When we get back to the gallery we find the doors locked but figure the employee is over at the foundry as he had told us he works there normally but is just covering for someone at the gallery.  So we head over to the foundry and find Desmond there.  This actually works out well as we wanted a tour of the foundry.  The foundry remains basically the same from when it was first set up by Russel Johnston in the ’50 after he escaped the Rat Race.  Dawson is very interested as one of his courses at university included a lab where they did sand castings of a frying pan.   Desmond has been at the foundry for 3 years and is responsible for the detailing on the sculptures once they are removed from the casting.  He originally came to Little Harbour as a carpenter, and he was involved in putting a new roof on the foundry and just stayed on.

We have a great tour of the foundry and see all stages of the sculpting process.  The process is the similar one first used when bronze was invented.  There are seven steps.  The first step is the sculpting of the object in clay.  This clay model is then used to create a silicone mold of the object.  This mold is then used to make a wax casting of the object.  This wax casting is then grafted on to wax tree, which acts as a funnel for the bronze during the pouring.  The wax casting and tree are then encased in a silica sand/resin bath a number of times and allowed to dry.  Once the silica sand/resin is hard the object is placed in an oven to melt the wax and leaves the mold into which the bronze will be poured.  The mold is checked for any cracks and if required repaired with fibreglass.  Bronze is then melted in the foundry and poured into the mold.  Once the bonze has cooled the mold is broken open and the bronze sculpture removed and detailed to remove any excess bronze from the casting process.  The piece is then mounted and displayed for sale.

Step 2 silicon mold from clay model

Step 3 - the wax castings and wax trees

Step 5 heating of molds to remove wax casting

Step 6 the foundry - the furnace is bottom right 

Step 7 detailing

Dawson with our purchase

Once we are done the tour we head back to the gallery and select a Hawksbill Turtle mounted on drift wood.  We have seen a number of Hawksbill’s during our voyage and decide it will also bring back good memories.  We head back to the boat, getting a little wet as we are now motoring into the waves.  Once on board we decide to move as the boat is rocking in the

ocean swell.  We hoist the dinghy to move over to Lynard Cay for the night.  Wind is to change to the North East over night and Lynard will provide protection out of the swell from the ocean cut.  After a brief discussion on where exactly to set the hook we are set for the night.

We have an excellent dinner, a game of Kings Cribbage, coffee, an attempt to talk to our son Kevin via Skype (very weak signal) and we are off to bed.  We are quite happy to be out at anchor after 8 days of being on a mooring in Hope Town.

Cheers

Dawson and Julie

Day 281, Sunday March 30th - last day in Hopetown, Abacos

Day 281, Sunday March 30^th

The day starts with a run and a power walk.  Even Julie does 2 short runs during her power walk as the eating and snacking has been out of control on this section of the adventure.  It is a lovely sunny day with high winds.  At the end of the exertion we have a cool down by walking the beach.  We are looking for sea beans.  Blake had found a sea bean when he was visiting in December but we did not know what it was.  We now know they are seeds from Africa which are rare, but wash up on the beach and quite collectable.  We don’t see any sea beans, but we do pass by people to say hello to and we see a portuguese man of war washed up on the beach dead.  We also meet up with Beth and Craig who confirms that she is offering a free yoga class up by the lighthouse at noon.

Dawson searching for electrical wires

We head back to the boat and Dawson undertakes his job of the day which is to relocate the stern light.  We have not used this stern light since doing the big passage, but it needs to be moved as the light is blocked by the dinghy hanging off the davits at the back of the boat.  We may do some overnight passages on our way back so time to deal with the light relocation.  Today is only a planning day to find all the parts and supplies that will be needed for the job. 

Dawson discovers a case of beer

Dawson finds all the supplies he needs and starts to climb around the bowels of the boat looking for the electrical wires etc. to ensure he has a full understanding of what will be required.  Meanwhile Julie is in the cockpit doing her French lesson.  Suddenly Dawson does a bit of an alarming yell and Julie’s first thought is he got an electric shock so immediately goes to investigate.  Fortunately the shout was a gleeful shout as Dawson has found a case of beer in the storage area off the aft berth.  We knew we had brought about 3 or 4 cases for the trip as beer in the USA was about $17 for a case and it is $50 here in the Bahamas, however we thought we had drank it all back in November and December, so have not been drinking beer except for the odd beer at a pub.  Anyways, a much nicer surprise than an electrical shock.  We put a few beers on ice and they are still good.

It is now noon hour so we head up to the lighthouse grounds for couples yoga led by Beth.  We are the only couple besides the instructor so we get great supervision and Beth customizes the class for us.   The high light of the class was doing a head stand something we have not done since we were kids.  The class is about an hour long so we rush back to the boat to tidy up and get an appetizer made for our 2:00 hosting of Toby and Joanne for bridge.  We play bridge somewhat successfully.  We make most of our contracts and definitely learn lots.  The final hand determines the winner and we come up short, but are pleased with our play and have a good visit. 

After bridge we head off to the marina to say hello to our other friends and we manage a tour of Louise and Guy from Sarnia’s boat which is a 40 foot Valiant.  They have done an amazing job of maintaining and improving their boat and the woodwork is a work of art.  A beautiful boat.  Guy is also a painter and we get to view his series of Bahamas dinghies he has been working on.  They are very beautiful.  Louise also shows us her art which is jewelry making with sea beans and beach glass.  Her labour of sanding the sea beans is lots of work, but creates some beautiful pieces.  Both of them are very talented.  From the valiant we head over to the patio and connect with the other boaters and socialize for a couple of hours.  We bid ado as we are leaving tomorrow however will reconnect with many of them next week on the next leg of everyone’s journey.  Most of us are making our way north.

Back on the boat for a late dinner and a quiet evening of King’s cribbage. 

Cheers

Julie and Dawson