Mom and Sandys Visit

I wish someone could explain the weather phenomenon that causes the weather to be beautiful the weeks before and after guests visit and not so good when they are here. My Mom and sister, Sandy, came for a visit during a week that the winds seemed to be always clocking and it was quite breezy and cool on most of the days, but we made the best of it.

We all like to play games, so our evenings and between times were spent playing bridge, Scrabble, Quiddler, Dominoes and Farkle. Wayne shared his new tradition of blowing the conch horn at sun down. Each evening everyone had to try to blow a conch horn. Mom and Sandy both did a good job of blowing the horns and took horns home so they could practice.

On Monday the 16th the forecast was for very windy weather so we decided to stay tucked in at Mangoes Marina and explore Marsh Harbor. Mom, Sandy and I checked out the local shops in the morning while Wayne installed the rebuilt linear drive for our autopilot and put a new patch on the dinghy. In the afternoon we walked the other direction down the street to see the shops in that directing and visit the basket lady. Since we were going out to dinner and did not need the table until breakfast time,
we had time to do a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle. On Monday evening Mom treated us to a nice dinner where we two of us had lamb and two of us had grouper at Mangoes. Thanks Mom!

Tuesday the weather was looking a little better, so we decided to head to Hope Town. It was a bumpy motor boat ride. We were lucky to be able to get a mooring ball in the very crowded Hope Town Harbor. After lunch we walked around Hope Town and explored the shops. It was too windy to walk the beach. We had a tasty dinner of fresh steamed lobster on the boat.

Wednesday we explored a few more shops and walked along the beach. There were not many shells on the beach because so many people had been walking the beach. After lunch we climbed to the top of the Elbow Cay Lighthouse to see the panoramic view and take pictures.

Thursday we visited the Wyannie Malone Historical Museum (1785) which has exhibits of early life on Elbow Cay. After lunch Wayne and Mom went kayaking. Mom, who will be 79 on March 4th, had never been kayaking. She did really well.

The Abaco Inn is on White Sound several miles south of Hopetown. They will give you a free ride to the restaurant. They agreed to pick us up a little early so we could explore. We walked the beach and I found some nice pieces of sea glass. Sandy treated us to a very nice dinner at Abaco Inn, Thanks Sandy!

Friday the winds improved enough that we could take a motor boat ride to Treasure Cay. After lunch we walked around the shops at Treasure Cay and went over to the beach. It was high tide so there were not any shells, but the white sandy beach is pretty.

Saturday morning we decided to go to Man of War before heading back to Marsh Harbor. The wind cooperated and we were able to sail for an hour on the way to Man of War. We saw 6 knots under sail, which is a good sail for Born to Cruise. After anchoring we walked around Man of War and visited the local shops. It was then time to raise anchor and head back to Marsh Harbor. Once again we were able to sail, with Sandy trying her hand at the helm.

We again docked at Mangoes Marina in Marsh Harbor. On Saturday night we went into town to watch our first Junkanoo Parade. Everyone in the area came to town for the festivities. There were lots of food stands selling many different kinds of Bahamian favorites. There were five groups participating in the parade. Each group had a float that was pulled by 2 people, colorful costumes, dancers, and drums. One group had a brass band playing with the drummers. Many of the drums were homemade; some
of them were made from 55 gallon cans. It had been a busy day, the event started at 8:00 PM, so after we saw three of the groups we were all tired and headed back to the boat.

Sunday was a lazy day on the boat, playing games and packing until Mom and Sandy left at 3:45. We were pleased with how well they adapted to boat life. They both did great getting in and out of the dinghy and climbing the ladders at the docks. We enjoyed their visit.

Treasures from Treasure Cay, Abaco

2/11/09 I spoke too soon about not finding any shells at Treasure Cay. We walked the beach at low tide and there were LOTS of sand dollars. They ranged in size from about the size of a dime up to 3 inches across. The little ones are really cute. We also found Olive shells and various sizes and colors of Auger shells. The beach is clean and the pure white sand seems to go forever. This picture is of some of our treasures.

We also took a dinghy ride down all of the finger canals in Treasure Cay just to see where they went. There were a few places up the channel that we could anchor if we needed to.

On Thursday the 12th it was time to head back to Marsh Harbor. When we were pulling up the anchor Wayne stopped and said he had snagged a rope. It is not good to snag anything when pulling up the anchor, because it is often hard to get unsnagged. It was a small diameter rope. Wayne pulled and pulled and was able to pull up the rope. At the end of the 10 foot long piece of rope was our best treasure from Treasure Cay, a 4” stainless steel snap shackle attached to a Ronstan double block! They had not been in the water long. Wayne was able to clean them and they work perfectly. For those of you not familiar with the price of these items, you can buy the two of them from your local marine hardware store for about $125 !!! After filling up with fuel we made the 15 mile trip back to Marsh Harbor. Temptation and Whiskers both came by the boat to welcome us back. We attended the cruisers Happy Hour at the Jib Room where we met some new cruisers and met up with old friends.

Friday it was time to start cleaning for our company arriving on Sunday. We also made a short trip to hardware store. We enjoyed a relaxing evening on Temptation. Karen had fixed a nice dinner and then we played Farkle.

Saturday, Happy Valentine’s Day! We should have been cleaning but it was too nice a day. Man of War was having a fair to raise money for their school; we decided to go over for the day. We made the 5 mile trip and arrived at Man of War before 10:00. Temptation also decided to make the day trip, we gave them a dinghy ride to the dock. The fair included a flea market, crab races and other games for the kids, raffles and a large food tent. Walking around the flea market we were surprised to see Brian and Sonya from Flash II, from Northwest Creek Marina, we thought they had gone further south. We saw lots of cruisers there supporting the school. We supported the school by getting lunch, Wayne had conch fritters and I had a wonderful rib dinner with potato salad and coleslaw. There was enough on my plate to share with Wayne. After lunch we headed back to Marsh Harbor. We were back in time to go to two different grocery stores to get fresh produce and a few other provisions.

Sunday as we were getting ready to go to the dock, a local boat came by selling lobster. What perfect timing with company on the way! Jill’s Mom and sister, Sandy were on a plane were scheduled to arrive at 7:15. We moved Born to Cruise over to Mangoes Marina to await Mom and Sandy. We took advantage of the marinas two washers and two driers and did laundry. I was surprised to hear Mom’s voice calling me from the dock in front of the boat at 7:15! They had a good flight. Mom brought our rebuilt linear drive for our autopilot with her. Sandy had never been on the boat before, so we gave her a short tour. We enjoyed catching up while playing bridge before going to bed.

Found a Message in a Bottle !

We were excited to find our first ever message in a bottle. We have friends who have found multiple bottles with messages, but this was our first. Wayne has had a quest this season to find a message in a bottle. He has faithfully checked every bottle we pass on every beach to check for messages. While we were walking the very busy beach in front of Nippers Bar on Great Guana on Sunday, he walked by this bottle and I happened to look down and see the paper in it!

The bottle was released from SV Sea Cloud II, which is a fancy clipper cruise ship. They were at N 18 35 and W 036 44 when it was dropped, which is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. There is a name and address asking that we send a post card to Robert in England, which we will do.

My last update we were in the hurricane hole at Allans-Pensacola and planning to leave the next day. Well the weather was still very windy so decided to stay where we were for another day. We took a short walk on the beach but the wind was so chilly we decided to spend the afternoon on the boat. I did try a new recipe for clam chowder and it turned out great.

Thursday the 5th the weather was OK, so it was time to leave the hurricane hole. We had to wait until almost high tide in order to make it through the shallow channel to get out. High tide was not until around 4 PM, so we had the day to think about it. While in the hurricane hole we had out two anchors, which is unusual for us. We were able to get the second anchor up in the morning so when the tide was rising we were able to leave. Going out the channel we hit the bottom several times and had to back up and try it again. We made it out into very rough and confused seas and headed to Manjack Cay. We arrived at Manjack just after sunset and were happy to get the anchor down.

As we were entering Manjack, Teamwork hailed us. They were in the anchorage at the north end of the island. Teamwork dinghied over on Friday for a visit and gave me a seaglass necklace. They invited us over to see their seaglass collection. We dinghied over to Teamwork that afternoon and they told us more about seaglass and showed us a really neat book. I had no idea that seaglass takes about 100 years to get their smooth edges. Bettie Sue & Bill gave us lots of tips on where to find seaglass. I have been finding small pieces on the beach, but they were showing us large pieces they had found. I am anxious to start looking for the larger pieces now that I have a better idea where to look.

It was still windy on Saturday but we decided to walk over to the ocean beach on Manjack. There are wonderfully maintained paths all over Manjack with signs pointing the way to the beach. Wayne got some nice pictures.

We have anchored at Manjack several times and always enjoy it. There is good holding, nice wind protection from the NW to the SW and free WIFI. The WIFI is compliments of Bill and Leslie, former cruisers who now live there. This was our first opportunity to meet Bill and Leslie. They have a nice home and a beautiful yard full of flowers, birds and a garden. They share their piece of paradise with others passing their way. You can land your dinghy on their beach where you will see a sign to please leash your dog because they have pet chickens. They have British chickens, a rooster and 3 hens that are HUGE and a beautiful shade of rusty orange. While we were talking Bill was hand feeding the Bananaquits on his porch. Bill and Leslie are very nice, we look forward to visiting Manjack again and we appreciate their generosity.

Sunday morning the weather report sounded like it might be a good day to go back into the Sea of Abaco. The trip from Manjack back to the Sea of Abaco requires that you go through the Whale Cay cut. We have had smoother trips through this cut, it was a slightly bumpy ride today, but we arrived safely and anchored in Fishers Bay at Great Guana Cay. After getting the anchor down we walked over to town. Our walk along the beach in front of Nippers is when we found the message in the bottle. We stopped by the Art Cafe and bought a fresh loaf of homemade bread. On our way back to the boat we passed by Grabbers Bar and Grill where we saw Earl and Karen from Temptation. We joined their group and met Celtic Cross and Muskoka Moon. Temptation came over later that evening and we had fun teaching them how to play Mexican Train Dominos and Farkle.

Monday we decided to move to Treasure Cay, a resort area with a protected anchorage. Temptation had moved to Treasure Cay earlier in the day and as we passed by their boat they offered to give us a quick tour of the area after lunch. Treasure Cay advertises one of the top 10 beaches in the world. The beach is long and wide and has beautiful white sand, but no shells. So it may be one of the most beautiful, but it would not be in my top 10 for favorite beaches to walk. The grocery store here is big for an outlying area. We had a wonderful salad for dinner since we once again had lettuce. Game night was on Temptation, tonight and featured Farkle and Quiddler.

We expect to stay in Teasure Cay for a few days before heading back towards Marsh Harbor.

Enjoying the Abacos while allowing for the Weather

Note: I am posting this using the Ham email so I cannot include a picture. When we have internet again I will post some pictures.

Living on a boat at anchor is ruled by the weather. The fronts that cross the United States come over to the Bahamas as winds from various directions. We begin every day by listening to the weather from Chris Parker, our weather guru, via single side band radio. Then we listen to two different cruiser nets on the Ham Radio to report our position and find out where our friends are cruising.

Based on the forecast that Chris gives us, we plan where we are going to anchor based on the best location for the weather that is coming our way. We look for anchorages where there is land between us and where the wind is coming from in an area that has been reported to have good holding. We also take into account the beaches and things to do in the area.

Marsh Harbor is protected on most sides and has good holding but we needed to move. Our friends on Jockslodge told us of an anchorage off of Snake Cay that offered protection for the upcoming front and we could also make water with our watermaker. January 18th we moved from Marsh Harbor to Snake Cay. After anchoring we kayaked and checked out the north end of the island. The wind was already picking up so we could not go around the south end of the island via kayak. On the 19th we took the dinghy
around the south end of the island and over to Deep Sea Cay to walk the beach. It was a windy day. On the 20th the major part of the front came through so we stayed on the boat all day. We took that time to design and make a canvas cover for our GPS Map. Wayne did the design and I did the sewing; we were pleased with our completed project.

The 21st brought the forecast of another wind change which was not a good direction for Snake Cay. We went back to Marsh Harbor to get a few things from the grocery store before heading out to the remote islands. After shopping on the 22nd we went over to Great Guana Cay to anchor for the night before going through the Whale Cay Cut. The 23rd was a beautiful day to be on the water, Whale Cay Cut was a little rolly but a perfect time to go through. We anchored at Powell Cay and headed to the beach.
We walked over to the ocean side but it was chilly so we decided to walk the Abaco side of the island. When we were at Powell in December we had not been able to walk around the south end of the island. The tide was low and we headed to the south end. I was so excited when we found 13 sand dollars just off the beach! We were surprised to see a small nurse shark in the area. He was feeding off the small fish in a deep grassy area not too far from shore. He ignored us and continued to hunt
for his dinner.

The 24th and 25th were predicted to be light winds which was perfect to check out Moraine Cay which is only good as a settled weather anchorage. We made the 3 hour trip to Moraine Cay and after anchoring, went ashore. The island has 3 houses, but no one was home and we had the island to ourselves. We walked the entire island which is known for its many varieties of birds, the only ones we really recognized were the four pelicans that were having fun playing and fishing in the bay. Their appeared
to be a red winged black bird, but somehow I doubt it was the kind I am familiar with. We saw several small rays and a trigger fish that was hunting along the shore. I was able to take some pretty good pictures of the trigger fish. We checked out the reef and decided where we would snorkel the next day. Moraine is known for its nice reef. The next day we got ready to go snorkel, when Wayne started the dinghy the cord for the engine broke, so snorkeling was canceled. We had to move that afternoon
to get ready for the next front. We moved to the main anchorage at Allans-Pensacola. The next morning Wayne was able to fix the rope on the motor so we were off to explore the beaches.

On the 27th we kayaked all around the anchorage at Allans-Pensacola. The south end of the anchorage is dry at low tide but we had enough water that we could explore up in the mangroves. One of Wayne's goals for this cruising season was to make a conch horn. He made the horn in December but was having trouble getting it to make noise. I was able to blow it, so he had designated me the conch blower at sunset. I am happy to say that today Wayne did a great job blowing the conch. So I have happily
turned over the sunset duty to him. The 28th we took the dinghy to the north end of Allans-Pensacola and explored a beach and bay up there. Wayne snorkeled a little trying to see if there were any lobster…he did not find any. Around 4:00 we were excited to see Bill and Bettie Sue on Teamwork (a 33' Grady White fishing boat from Folly Beach, SC) come into the anchorage. We had met them in December just before they flew to SC for Christmas and we really wanted a chance to get to know them better.

The forecast for the 29th had the wind coming from a direction that would not be comfortable for where we were anchored in the main anchorage at Allans-Pensacola. Teamwork said they knew a great anchorage on the other side and we could follow them if we were interested. We are always interested in finding new anchorages so we followed them around to the "back" of Allans-Pensacola.

Bill explained that the Bahamians call the side of an island that faces Abaco Island the "front" of the island and the other side the "back". They showed us to a beautiful anchorage on the Atlantic Ocean side which was perfect for the predicted winds. After we anchored and had lunch we went onboard Teamwork and they showed us the "hurricane hole" anchorage (more on that later).

Bill said he was going fishing and offered to show us where a good fishing reef was. Bill and Wayne went snorkeling and fishing while Bettie Sue and I served as support crew. Bill caught 3 lobster and 2 nice fish. He also took some great underwater pictures. Wayne was having trouble equalizing his ears so he just snorkeled and enjoyed the reef. Bettie Sue cleaned the fish and lobster and then they gave us the lobster. There was enough that we enjoyed them that night as steamed lobster and the
following day in lobster Alfredo.

We also had time to walk the beach near our anchorage where we found shells and a hamburger bean. We had a peaceful night even though it seemed a little funny anchoring with the Atlantic Ocean as our back yard.
The winds were changing again so it was time to move, so on the morning of the 30th during high tide we moved into the "hurricane hole" at Allans-Pensacola. Allans-Pensacola used to house a military satellite tracking station. There are some ruins of the tracking station on the island.

While the military was here they created a "hurricane hole" harbor to protect their boats. It is reached from a narrow entrance at the south end of the island which leads to a small harbor that is very well protected on all sides by the mangroves. It is not very deep, but with our 4' draft, it is ok.

There used to be a boat dock in the harbor (which has fallen down) but the base is still there and you can tie up your dinghy. There is a nice path that goes over to a beautiful beach. Bill and Bettie Sue also anchored in the "hurricane hole" with us. They came over for dinner on the 31st and we enjoyed their company.

The winds have continued to blow so we have remained anchored snuggly in the "hurricane hole", walking the beaches once or twice a day finding shells, sand dollars and sea biscuits. The forecast looks better for tomorrow, February 4th, so we will probably move to another island, Manjack Cay, to explore another beach.