ahhh....back in the USA!

We made a successful, uneventful 48 hour trip from the Abacos in the Bahamas to Fernandina, FL.  It now looks like crappy weather for sailboat travel until Saturday, at the earliest.  So, we'll be staying here in Fernandina until then.   At least we DID make it back to the States!
Not enough sleep or time - will post tomorrow with some pictures.
Glad to be back!

Starting back home

Not sure if we will have internet for a few days, so just an update.  The weather looks like we have an opportunity to sail out of the Bahamas on Friday morning, arriving in the USA on Sunday morning.  Our plan is to take advantage of the Gulf Stream, sail further north than we usually do, and go into a port in northern Florida.
If we have internet before Friday morning, I'll post.  If not, hopefully the next post will be from the States!

New Plymouth

Still on a mooring ball in "Black Sound" outside of the settlement of New Plymouth. New Plymouth is the only settlement on the island of Green Turtle Cay.  It was settled by the Loyalists in 1786.

There is an amazing bronze memorial in this tiny settlement, commerating both the Loyalists and the native Bahamians of the same era.

It's actually much larger than this picture and the red striped paths form the bars of the Union Jack.

Walking into town from the goverment landing dock, you can see the settlement, most of it set nicely within walls.

The streets of town are neat and clean.  We picked up a few groceries at both of the small markets and a killer brownie (locally made, of course).

It seems like an industrius little settlement, but not everyone has the money to maintain their homes, something we find in all of the islands.

However, everyone IS proud of their little community.

Making Waves to Black Sound

Another day in Hope Town, this time with a few chores.  They never end.  This time Luke is hanging upside down in the bilge, fixing the bilge pump (important part in the boat - could keep the boat from filling with water and sinking!)

One final picture of the Hope Town lighthouse and its reflection in the water, probably our best picture.  Luke shot this one early Friday morning before we left Hope Town.

 

We took advantage of quiet weather on Friday to go to Green Turtle Cay, into Black Sound, at the settlement of New Plymouth.  To get here, we had to navigate through a cut from the Sea of Abaco into the Atlantic and back again into the Sea of Abaco, known locally as "the Whale" since it goes outside around Whale Cay.  On a calm day, it is not difficult.  In bad weather, the cut is impassible.  Just ask the captain of this Bahamian barge, left to rust on the reefs that it wrecked on.  Even on our quiet day you can see the breaking waves across coral reefs.

 

 

 

And how quiet was it?  Quiet enough for sweet Smoke to find a new cruising place.  She is snugged into the shade of the outboard motor that hangs on the stern railing of Latitudes and beside one of our extra gasoline jugs.

 

 

 

We passed New Plymouth from the water, saiiling in light winds to kill time waiting for high tide to get into Black Sound. This entrance shows 4.7 ft depth at "mean low water" so we had to wait for a couple of feet of tide to get in with our 5.5 ft draft. Pictures later from town.

 

 

Based on the weather forecast this morning for northerly winds for most of next week, we'll be here until Thursday.  Maybe a crossing back to the States on Saturday/Sunday.

 

Hope Town, Abacos

Finally!  Good internet (the kind you buy by the day....)

We are at a cozy, 6 boat, marina in Hope Town.  Hope Town is a little, quaint tourist town; a fun place to visit.  It is also home of the highly recognized Hope Town Lighthouse.

From high on the lighthouse catwalk, you can spot Latitudes, boat nearest the open water, on the right.

A couple of more shots from the lighthouse show the rest of the small harbor.  Here is the mooring field, with the shops and the town on the thin stretch on the far side of the harbor.

Here is the "rest of the story" --- the new mega marina (well, "mega" from a Bahamian standpoint).  Multiple slips, new condos, and a first class outdoor restaurant/bar. 

We had dinner at the restaurant.  This is the first "American grade" restaurant we've seen since we've been in the Bahamas.

Luke caught this night shot of the Fresnel lens atop the lighthouse. It has 5 bulls eyes and a non focused region which provides 5 flashes as the lens rotates at night.

It was Martha's birthday, so 4 boats went out to dinner, then to Latitudes for cake and coffee afterwards.  That is the birthday girl in front of the cake.

Off to town yesterday for ice cream and stretching of the legs.  It's a cute town with narrow walks, bright houses that are well kept, many of them rental cottages, and small shops.  Multiple dive operations also work out of here.

Luke caught this great shot of a butterfly, wings still aflutter while she drinks nectar from the beautiful orange flowers.

Water on both sides of the narrow peninsula - here is the Sea of Abaco side.  We navigated through these shallow waters to get into the Hope Town harbor.

And, of course, the waters of the Atlantic and the Hope Town Harbor beach.

One more day in Hope Town before we start our dedicated cruise through the rest of the Abacos to our staging point for the US crossing.

Internet in the Abacos!

Finally, good internet!

We made the short sail from our anchorage just inside the Abacos to Great Guana Cay, home of the famous Nippers Bar.  Nippers has a Sunday pig roast; something not to be missed by Luke!  With a live band, it was crowded as usual. We did miss the famous "Barefoot Man" concert by one day - sigh - Luke.

The crowd overflowed to Nippers Beach, too.

Our little crowd of 8 had a wonderful time (impossible to get a good picture of 7 people!).

Lots of good food, just enough drink, good music, and plenty of people watching - then we headed back to Latitudes to wait for sundown.  10 of us in the cockpit was full but great.  We made the short walk to the beach at Grabbers Bar.

3 of the guys took their conch horns to herald sundown - Luke was best!

We made the short 7 mile trip to Marsh Harbor Monday morning.  Marsh Harbor has everything - inexpensive marina, internet, laundry (done!), water, diesel, and groceries.  Speaking of such, I have to run.  We need to take our free showers now so we can run off and buy groceries.  This afternoon, we will move to another town, the quaint Hope Town, and do some sight-seeing.

blog delays...

Sorry about the long delay in blogging....internet has been awful.  Since my last post, we moved to a "staging area", Royal Harbor.  At least 20 boats sat there for almost a week, awaiting a weather window to leave Eluthera and sail to the Abacos.  No internet there.
We all finally got our chance to do the 10 hour run today.  It looked like the Spanish Armada, all heading northward, hell-bent to get to the Abacos.  Fortunately, everyone made it!
Now we are at anchor just inside the shelter of the Albaco cays.  But only a bit of internet, borrowed, and not enough to do pictures and such.
We plan to be back into civilization by Monday and should be able to buy internet for a few days after that.  Will blog then!

Spanish Wells

Let's see, what shall be first....

Luke bought a T-shirt in Harbor Island, a cheap $5 one.  This was the tag in it...

When I first read it, I read "made by small child labour"... LOL!

Spanish Wells is the most prosperous of the islands in the Eluthera group.  Founded by Europeans seeking religious freedom in the 1600's, the island is still a "dry" island and everything is closed on Sunday. The locals who are a bit adventurous make runs across the short, shallow bank to mainland Eluthera, home of the little yellow building.  You guess it!  Beer, wine, and liquors!

Fishing is, of course, the main industry here.

A successful year of fishing for lobsters can bring a good fisherman a million dollars a year!  The lobstering industry here actually builds "lobster hotels".  These are, for example, 4'X8'pieces of corrugated tin roofing, supported by two 2X12's, located at secret points in the area, available only by GPS to the fisherman.  The fishermen go down with hookah gear, pull the"hotel" away, and pick up the lobsters and declaw one claw of any accompanying stone crabs. The lobsters apparently love the set up and are quite easy to find there.  The town shows the prosperity with cute, well maintained homes.

Others like it here, too.  My picture doesn't do justice to this 60 foot "cigarette boat" style beauty, moored at the yacht haven in town.

Seems that Lenny Kravitz owns the boat plus 2 houses on Eluthera (click here).  One has a complete, first class recording studio.  The dock master tells us that when Lenny needs to run to Nassau for a meeting, he simply zips out in this boat, makes the 50 mile trip in 45 minutes, and uses $1000 of diesel.   mmm...money~

While walking around town, we noticed a palm tree that had been cut down.  See anything unusual?

No rings!  Here is your answer! (click on "answer")

Spanish Wells has great hardware stores, a USA style grocery store, more Androsa fabric, and a lot more.  But they don't have decent water.  The town water is brackish. A nearby cruiser said he tested the water with a saline tester (used to test his water-maker output).  The results?  1700 parts per million.  Typical reverse osmosis water is 200 parts per million.  But a very nice lady has an R/O water system and sells water.  In 5 gallon jugs. We needed at least 80 gallons.  So...16 jugs and whadda ya get?  80 gallons of water!

She brought the jugs to the marina in her over sized golf cart and her helper used a hand truck to take them to the boat dock for us.  Now is when the generousity of the cruiser community comes into play.  With the help of 4 more cruisers, one of which we didn't know, all 16 jugs were poured into our 2 tanks in less than an hour!

Look carefully at the bottom left and you'll see Luke carefully sucking on the siphon, getting the water started into the aft tank.

Still sailing with Conny and Alvin, we also reconnected with Martha and Bill.  Dinner at our place with Connie's minestrone soup, Martha's yummy green salad, and my homemade bread.  Followed by dominoes.

Today - Friday - we left the marina and are anchored just outside of the entrance to Spanish Wells.  We can still easily dinghy into town.  The next few days have the wind from the wrong direction to sail northward, but we will be comfortable here.  And I have good internet for some reason!

a blog soon!

Sorry for the no-blog.  We have been without internet for the most part - I thought we'd have it here in Spanish Wells, but it has been sporadic.  I plan to do one tonight and hope to find internet to post tomorrow. Having fun and all is well!

Cruising Eluthera Cay

We decided to rent a car with Conny and Alvin to see Eluthera.  Couldn't rent from our first choice (had his 4 cars already rented out), so we went with the local gas station guy.  Sure, he had a car, but his "24 hour" rental period actually ended at 7:30 at night; couldn't keep the car overnight.  A bit put off, we decided to live with it and went ahead and reserved it.  Well.  As soon as we arrived at 7:30 a.m., the troubles began.  No, no credit cards.  By the way, he has no insurance on the car and we are totally responsible for any damage.  Without using a credit card, we have no way to put insurance on the car. The piece of junk old Toyota was "valued at $15,000".  Break down?  Our problem.  Hit by another driver?  Our problem. He also pointed out that parts and repairs are very expensive. After consideration, we reluctantly decided to go ahead and take the car. And, by the way, it was due in at 7:00 PM, not 7:30. With all of his dire warnings of any damage being our problem, we went out to give the car a good once-over with him so we could have a record of all previous damage.  Luke pointed out a dent in the top and by the time the "conversation" ended, the old buzzard decided that "I don't think you need my car". We didn't want it by then, anyway.  We tore up the forms, took our cash back, and stomped outside.  A very nice gentleman offered us a ride to the airport to get a rental car from there.  It took 3 tries, but he found someone who had a car for us.  A "Jeep" and boy are we glad it didn't rain! "Gas money" for our friendly driver, an easy, gentleman's agreement transaction with the car supplier (he didn't even take our names), about 7 gallons of gas for $50, air in the spare tire, and a quart of oil in the engine, and  and we were ready to explore the island!

It is a beautiful island, full of different settlements.  First on our trip northward was Savannah Sound.  Goats.  Lottsa goats.  I don't know but something about these guys with their black markings makes them look a little demonic to me.  The yellow ones are ok.

This church was built about the turn of the 20th century, using the old loyalist's church as a partial foundation.  Very interesting.

From Savannah Sound to Governor's Harbor, the first capital of the Bahamas.  Governor's Harbor was founded in 1649 when the original Eleutheran Adventurers came seeking freedom. This is a much more ornate church, full of bells, statues, and nice walkways.

It also has a large, old cemetery, with disturbing info on the tombstones.  Seems like a lot of folks here just "fell asleep"... makes me want to stay up all night...

The cemetery with the islands first library in the background (plus Luke, of course). This library was built - as a library - over 100 years ago.  It's the largest one in the Bahamas other than one in Nassau.  Restoration was done in 2006.  It's a beautiful building.  The cloudy day made it impossible to capture the true, beautiful colors of the building.

In the anchorage, some adventurous soul, living on their "Antiki". Note the design is that same as the famous Kon-tiki constructed by Thor Heyerdahl and sailed across the Pacific in 1947. For info on that expedition,  click here for link  I'll take Latitudes, thank you!

En route northward, we were amazed at this huge apparent royal palm tree, standing proudly above all of the rest.  On closer look???  A Batelco cell tower!  Someone here has a great sense of humor!

The land changes as we go north; green and higher, it supports crop growth.  We stopped at a wonderful vegetable stand on the road and bought freshly grown tomatoes, oranges, a yuka type plant called cassava (used to make tapiocoa), and imported pears.  Now, not being sure how to spell "cassava", I googled it and learned that it is in the top 10 of the most dangerous foods in the world!  Seems that if prepared incorrectly, it makes cyanide! Deadly if consumed!  That veggie is getting tossed overboard.

The former use of the land is apparent, by the many old silos. While construction materials and methods vary, these two seem to be of the same techniques as the loyalist ruins of the late 1700's. They include blocks of rock in a cement type material, and are constructed in a spiral fashion.  The clearly visible foot high layer spirals around the structure is one continuous band.

Gregory Town has always been of interest as we view it from the water.  Sitting high on a hill, it reminds us of an Italian town.  Well, it is colorful, with a few houses surrounding the small inlet.

The harbor is narrow and not very deep into land.  A conch and fish cleaning station stands on the inner corner.







The other side of the harbor has the town school, part of the roof blown off in a recent hurricane.  Also, a loyalist ruin, carved completely on 3 sides into the rock of the teraine.

The other side of the harbor has caves, used by pirates to hide their booty in the old days.  Apparently the caves are filled with bats now.  We did not visit.

The "glass window" was originally a natural bridge connecting the northern Eluthera to the rest of the Eluthera cay. The sharp edged cliff in the picture is one end of the former natural bridge. Blown away by years of hurricanes, a man-made bridge was built.  Blown away by years of hurricanes, a second man-made bridge was built.  We couldn't get a picture from the narrow road, but were delighted to discover a blow hole just off the road before we crossed the bridge. Air, compressed by distant ocean waves, rushes out of this small hole in a column maybe 50 ft high.

Into northern Eluthera and the ferry system to the somewhat elite Harbor Town.  At $5 per person, each way, the ferries run continuously, taking tourists and workers across on a regular basis.

Harbor town has many quaint shops, nice restaurants, and narrow streets, all filled with folks on golf carts.

Also famous for her pink sand beaches, we had to see them.  And pink they are!

Local fish in a small local diner for a late lunch and back across on a ferry before dark.  It was almost 9 by the time we arrived back at our boats, but a really great day!

Today, Saturday, it's rainy and blowing.  We will stay on the boat, probably playing cards or dominoes with Conny and Alvin this afternoon.  I won't have internet for a couple of days, I expect, after it runs out at 9 pm tonight.