Back in the USA

We made it.  The wind kicked up during the night before our crossing, causing noise, worry and insomnia.  We got up early and followed a 49' Defever to the small inlet that leads directly to the Atlantic.  Watched him tip about 45 degrees up and down going through the breakers, so we turned around and tied back up at the dock.  The west wind against the outgoing tide had set up a bit of a rage.  "You made the right decision" said an old salt in a 49' Grand Banks, so we sat and felt the wind die down for about 2 hours.  Watched another group go out and decided to go for it.  It was definitely a ride, but after we were out just a couple of miles the ocean started to lay down and it got calmer and calmer.  What a pleasant experience to be able to walk around the boat, make a sandwich, etc, without holding on for dear life.  BUT, about 10 miles from the inlet at Lake Worth, the wind turned hard to the south and began to increase so the rolling motion began.  We can do the up and down, but we hate the side to side.  By five miles from shore, we were in some of the biggest waves we have ever experienced, right on the beam.  Steve had to tack diagnonally about 4 times to get to the mouth of the inlet.  We had a crazy hour, bracing ourselves for each impact, but Steve really appreaciated the way the boat handled.  At last, we scooted sideways into the inlet and breathed a huge sigh of relief. 

Back at the great anchorage in North Lake Worth, we felt at home.  A call to customs, a meal and off  to bed.  The next day was an easy 50 miles up the ICW to Harbortown.  So the old girl made it, and the boat performed well too.  Steve admits there was stress involved in having this old boat so far away, we don't have the confidence in it yet that we had in the Mainship, but we are getting there.  The only thing that broke was the anchor windlass, which is not the greatest anyway.  Designed for rope only, Steve makes it work with our 30 feet of heavy chain (kind of a lift assist), but it bit the dust and he had to lift 45 pounds of chain and 45 pounds of anchor by hand four days in a row.  At GTC, he tore it apart, and cleaned up the ground connections and it worked again. 

Back at our home marina, we were greeted by our good friends here.  Arriving just an hour after we did, Brent and Susan came in on Once Upon a Time having completed their Great Loop.  Last night they introduced us to another delightful Looper couple and we all celebrated together.  The boat needs a scrub, covered with salt.  A grocerty shopping marathon today and then more celebration and gaming tonight.

We plan to stay here a month to recuperate and prepare Shingebiss for her summer storage, so more later ... thanks for reading. 

GTB to OBB

A few pictures of Green Turtle Club, this is the office, gift shop, and restaurant.

The screened in part of the restaurant, where we had the best lunch we've had in the Abacos one day with our new sailor friends.

 

The beach, in front of the rental cottages.

The pool.

 

The resort lounge, decor is old school elegant.

And, finally, the bar, with the "dollar bills on the wall" and "yacht club burgees hanging from the rafters" from visiting sailors theme going  strong. 

We hung out here the evening before we left in these lovely chairs, telling tales and trading stories with the sailors.

 

It's a two day journey to Old Bahama Bay (OBB, aka West End) which is the jumping off point to cross back to Florida.  First day was eight hours of rolly seas. We dropped anchor at Great Sale Cay, a well known, very protected, and strategically placed island.  With almost unlimited room for boats, there were only about 10 others in this quiet, isolated anchorage, with no phone or WiFi. 

 

The following day, we had a smoother and shorter cruise to West End.  This is a very fancy resort and marina and they charge accordingly, but their location, just on the edge of the crossing, means almost everyone stops here on their way in and way out of the Abacos.  The sailors we had met at GTC skipped it and did an overnighter from Great Sale to Florida, but I (the Admiral) have nixed nighttime cruising and Steve (the Captain) wanted the assurance of another weather forecast before we crossed.

 

Well, sure enough, the weather had changed a bit, so rather than crossing today, we spent the day here and will go tomorrow.  A group of sailboats went today, but many of them need about 20 hours to get across at their motoring speed, so they really needed  today and tomorrow.  About 8 power boats came in today, and they all reported an easy crossing.  So we find out tomorrow if we made the right choice (the models all say tomorrow's seas to be less than today's) and/or if we are really just a couple of woosies who aren't cut out for this ocean stuff.  

"Another Beautiful Beach"

On a calm sunny day, we set off in the dinghy's to find the blue hole.  The lagoon behind Snake Island was filled with marine life.  Hard to photo, but here's some coral ... 

 

... and there were plenty of large (at least a foot across) starfish.

We were told to go on a rising tide, but we were still too close to low, and found ourselves paddling through some shallow water.  When it got deep again, we started seeing sea turtles, at least 25 of them, but they swim really fast and are impossible to photo.   Using his small hand held GPS, Buck lead us right to the blue hole.  We put on our snorkel masks and leaned over the edges of the dinghys to see this amazing phenomenon.  It looked like a big underwater bottomless cave, and I was quite impressed.  We  tried to dinghy further into the backwater, but kept running into shallows, so we turned around.  Linda stopped us all to look at the sea urchins, which somehow end up with shells stuck to their spines. 

On the way back, we had lunch at Lubbers Landing, a very charming beach restaurant.  Bahamas lesson #1:  have a dinghy that is easy to launch and can get up on a plane with your crew ... so much to see by dinghy.

A few days later, it was finally time to leave Sea Spray.  Buck and Linda were also ready for a change of scene.  First stop was of course Marsh Harbor to go to Maxwell's for the good groceries. We had a tour of the Jib Room, a popular marina for cruisers located on the "far side" of the harbor and spent the night in the safe protected anchorage.  The next day, we had a short cruise across the Sea of Abaco to Great Guana Cay, where we dropped the hook in Fisher Bay and dinghy'd to the dock at the settlement.  We walked across the hill to the famous "Nippers" on the Atlantic side ... also well known as being one of the most beautiful beaches in the Abacos, so we walked to the rocks at one end.  Wide and flat, a great walking beach.  There's also a large coral reef fairly close to the shore and on a calm day, you can swim to it from the beach.

Alas, this was not a calm day. 

Meanwhile back at Nippers, the party was in full swing, it was "pig roast Sunday". The views from the upper levels of the bar are great. 

As you can see, Nipper's is a popular hangout for the party crowd, here's the view of the pools. 

We dinghy'd around the corner to the other bar, Grabber's ... seemed like a more grown up kinda place to us ... where we had beverages and the best conch salad we'd had in the Abacos.

Later that evening, we had dinner with Linda and Buck on their beautiful Oasis III.  The next morning, we took the big boats just three miles up Great Guana to Baker's Bay for a day stop.  Disney's Big Red Boat used to anchor in this bay and we took a cruise on on it in about 1991.  We recall that they trolley'd us across the island for some great snorkeling, so we wanted to see if we could get there by dinghy.  We went north on some beautiful water. 

In recent decades, the developers have moved in building big houses, a golf course, and private clubs. We wanted to see if we could still get to the reef as we remembered it being right off the beach.  At the end of the island was the clubhouse and a beach with chairs.  We saw some open sand (to the left in the photo) and beached the dinghy's ... no one kicked us out, actually the place was deserted except for the bartender. 

Behind the resort was, yep, you guessed it, another beautiful beach. 

Huge luxury homes were built on top of the sand cliffs you see, one has to wonder if/when they will topple into the ocean.  It was finally time to part company with Buck and Linda, we will miss them, and are so glad we met them.  Our destination for the night was Treasure Cay, back across the Sea, actually on what they call the "mainland", Great Abaco Island.  Treasure was developed as a resort and marina about 20-30 years ago, and it's still quite lovely, if a bit worn. The protected harbor charges you $10 to anchor and you have use of all the facilities.  There are canals where you can build a home and dock your boat and the whole complex is "self contained" with a small shopping strip for groceries, bakery, etc., pools and three restaurants.  The beach is billed as one of the top ten "in the world", so we had to see it.  The sand is not sugar sand, it's powdered sugar sand in a perfect 3 mile cresent, calm (because it's on the Sea of Abaco, not the Atlantic) and a beautiful turquoise color.  It was cloudy, so you'll have to take my word for it. 

 The next day, we crossed The Whale, which you may recall, is a short open ocean jaunt to get around Whale Cay.  It was smooooothhh this time.  Since the calm weather was continuing, we decided to anchor for the night at No Name Cay, right after The Whale.  We dinghy's around the corner to ....

No Name Cay has a band of feral pigs: 2 large and 3 small ones, so we had to take a look and a picture. 

They wade out into the water when they hear a boat approach, but since we didn't have any food for them, they lost interest in us quickly. We spent the afternoon relaxing on Shingebiss, watching at least 6-8 small boats come in to feed, pet, and photo them. 

Next day, we came into Green Turtle Club Marina and Resort on Green Turtle Cay, White Sound, across from where we stayed (Bluff House) on the way down.  Just our opinion, but this really is one of the nicest places we've stayed at plus very friendly folks on the docks.  We've been here through a front that produced alot of wind (30 mph +) and rain over the past two days. 

The internet is a bit iffy right now, so I am going to close for now, and hope to get back to you in a couple of days.