Upper Respiratory Infections and Black Sound in Green Turtle Cay

Luke has the crappiest of upper respiratory infections - has actually been to the local clinic here twice.  The very nice doctor happened to be here on the day of the week that he visited the clinic and then the nurse saw him again after regular hours.  An excellent experience!

but- on the other hand - he feels really bad and we haven't don't much exploring. We've been here before, so I'm taking the liberty (after all, I AM the author) of republishing my blog post of Black Sound from a couple of years ago.  Her you are ---
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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, celebrating 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 government 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).  NOTE - never noticed it before, but here is the sign to the clinic!

It seems like an industrious 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.

 

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We are indeed still on a mooring, riding out boisterous winds last night. But tomorrow promises to be better and Monday/Tuesday looks still like a good opportunity to cross the Gulf Stream back to the good 'ol USA. 

 

More Hope Town and Treasure Cay

Hope Town is a neat, clean town, with narrow streets and white fences.

 Also some lovely, flower filled alleys that lead to the ocean.

 

Compare these streets to one of the poorer out islands.

 

We had lunch at our usual lunch favorite – Munchies.  It’s an outdoor place but has really good conch snack (fried bits of conch in a tempura type batter)  Flies are, of course, a problem in all outdoor restaurants, but the Bahamas has the answer – light a can of sterno.  Yulp, it works.  They disappear immediately. But don't' try to pick up the lit can to move it!!!

 

A hundred feet down from Munchies is a monument, dedicated to those from the island who have been lost as sea.

 

Back to the lighthouse one more time.

Later, Luke climbed the 100 steps to the top of the lighthouse.  HELLO, LUKE!

 

 Luke also took this great panorama of the Hope Town harbor, marinas on the bottom of the picture and the "town" of Hope Town on the top.  That is the Atlantic Ocean at the very top.

 

 

Bonnie and Pete invited us to a family reunion lunch.  Their 2 daughters and families were in to visit and all 12 of us walked to a wonderful beach restaurant.  It was great to meet everyone and be in that family atmosphere for a bit.  No pictures, I'm afraid. Too busy visiting!

On Sunday, we left Hope Town on the high tide and began our trip westward in the Abacos.  This is really the start of our return to the States.  We are staging ourselves each night to make progress to the vantage point for our crossing back.  Yesterday we sailed the entire trip to Treasure Cay.  Treasure Cay is actually a resort - lots of pretty bright condos, a couple of restaurants and shops and bars.  You can do laundry there, along with groceries, all in the same complex. Very convenient for cruisers.

There is also a 3 1/2 mile beach of the whitest, softest sand ever.  It is rated the 4th best beach in the world!

Yesterday and today we saw the local parrots, the Abaco Parrots.  No, I didn't take this picture - I "borrowed" it off the internet.

Today we crossed The Whale - actually, 2 cuts around a small island called The Whale.  Cruisers are especially careful here, as you are going OUT into the ocean for about 10 minutes, 10 minutes in the Atlantic, and then sail back IN from the ocean.  Outgoing currents and incoming currents affect boats very differently and boats need calm, quiet water to make this double passage.  It's a huge subject of conversation when you get near, with boaters all checking the weather, timing of the currents, and seeking local knowledge from folks who can actually see the Whale.  Here is what our navigation chart looks like - that is the Whale island on the upper center-ish.

Treasure Cay is at the lower, about 15 miles south of the Whale.  Looks simple - just sail between them.  But no, there is a large sandy shallow between them, about 1 foot depth.  All boats have to cross the Whale to get to the western side of the Abaco islands.  So, we did!  And as of noon, we are at a nice mooring ball in Black Sound.  We've been here before and like it - tomorrow we'll walk to town, do a few groceries, see the old jail, visit the memorial garden to the Loyalists who settled here along with their slaves, and just enjoy being here.  Should be here until about Sunday as of the weather right now.  This is either the last or almost the last stop before the States.  At our current plan, we can leave here, sail straight through, and arrive in FL in about 30 hours.
 

Naked at Petes Pub...

Forgot to mention....if anyone is interested, the first weekend in April is the date of the annual Adults Only Naked Dinghy race at Pete's Pub....no, we aren't.

to the Abacos

The weather finally looked right for a crossing of the 10,000 ft deep Northeast Providence Channel  from Spanish Wells to the Abacos.  We decided to prepare for the trip by leaving Spanish Wells and moving Latitudes to a vantage point that would give us a nice run.  There were a couple of options - a little "island" so small that it is called Meeks Patch. We anchored there and decided to walk the island.  Luke did a nice panorama of the shoreline.

Here is Latitudes and our dinghy, waiting patiently while we explored the shore.

Cruisers visit here often.  One has left a wonderful hammock.  It was lovely - wish I had it on the boat! (in shade, of course...)

Once we returned to the boat, we decided that there was not enough protection from the wind and sailed an hour southwest to the second, better spot, along with 9 other boats preparing for the same crossing.  This new anchorage also gave us a good vantage point to begin our trip the next day.

Before daybreak, we left.  About 9 hours later, we finally crossed into the Little Harbor channel, into the islands that make up the Abacos.  It was a long trip - Smokey had on her "are we there yet???" face.  I think I did, too.

En route, we began talking to another boat, as we both dragged fishing lines in hopes of catching the big one.  Well, we didn't, but they did!  And then they were nice enough to invite us over for dinner to share their catch! mmm!  The next day, we all 4 took a little day trip and sailed on Latitudes from our anchorages to Little Harbour, home of Petes Pub and Gallery.

Little Harbour is just that - a little harbor.  It has a shallow entrance that prevents us from taking Latitudes in unless it is high tide.  So, we just anchored outside of the channel and took the dinghy in.  Here is an overview of the harbor from Pete's.

The pub itself is a tiki hut, built on the sand, and with a few shaded tables. Wonderful!

Both Pete and his father, Randolph Johnson, were/are sculptors. Randolph Johnson settled in the abacos in 1951.  Their work is beautiful.  Check out this wonderful webpage for the background on the foundry and pictures of their work.  http://www.petespub.com/randolph-johnston.html



Besides the foundry, there is a gift shop (of course!)

 From Little Harbour, we set sail for the 15 miles to the beautiful town of Hope Town, with it's famous lighthouse.

 Unfortunately, the electronic gods were on strike and both our chart plotter and our back-up chart plotter on Luke's tablet failed.  Fortunately, the back-up back-up navigation app on Luke's phone worked!  Luke spent a lot of time today doing a factory reset on both of the evil chart plotters.  They seem to live!

But, back to Hope Town.  Pretty little houses and shops, all painted bright colors.

Luke was outside, in the cockpit (working on the evil chart plotter) when he noticed a Bahamian style racing boat sailing past, full of happy sailors.  Calling to ask, he learned that there was a race to be had today!

We jumped into the dinghy and zipped the two miles or so to the race site.  But we were disappointed.  This was not a Bahamian race, but one for any cruising boat in the harbor that wanted to race.  The one above was the only Bahamian style boat.

Back to Latitudes for us.  I gathered an amazing amount of dirty laundry and headed to the Laundromat at the nearby "resort", spent $25 and several hours, and now we have clean clothes.  Ahhhh, the luxury!

Tomorrow, before the heat of the day (low 90's and some humidity), we will go across the mooring field to the town of Hope Town and do a little sightseeing.  Taking the camera!

A day in Spanish Wells

Yesterday afternoon, around 4, we took the dingy to the far western side of the island to buy fresh fish - we had heard that the fishermen come in, clean their catch, and will sell small bits to the individual buyer.  Success!  Only one fisherman was left by the time we found him, but he offered us Tiger Grouper (excellent!).  The filleted bounty is below was only $20. Three meals.

Two ferries come into Spanish Wells on a regular basis - one is mostly a people ferry, the other carries more freight and big stuff.  We were on our way back to Latitudes at her mooring after our fish purchase when we noticed a huge cloud of black smoke and an enormous ferry gouging up a new channel with stirred up mud/sand.  It was the "other stuff" ferry, hell bent on making a U-turn in the narrow channel so she could unload things off of her stern. She did make the turn, but basically blocked most of the little channel.  You can see the very narrow channel left in front of her, especially as this taxi boat is heading to pass the ferry. Notice our colorful batik sun shades.

Today we splurged and rented a golf cart for 24 hours - only $35.  That is cheap!  Here is our chariot.

And here is the lovely painted building she came out of.  Homage to the ferries, golf carts, and the main prize, spiny lobster.

Today is a special day in Spanish Wells - the two "mail boats" come in.  I guess they do bring mail, but they also bring in the essentials for the island.  This one was busily offloading all sorts of things as clusters of locals gathered to collect their ordered stuff.

Off in our golf cart, we first drove down the narrow harbor side street, full of pretty houses.

The older homes on the island are made of concrete.  Often the concrete walls are painted the same color as the homes, and the walls go all the way to the edge of the narrow streets.

 But there are still reminders that life can be hard here - old homes for sale that need lots of TLC. and money.

Down main street (there are only two streets - main street with the stores and the harbor side street)

The island's Laundromat.

Off to the shallow sound, where in the distance you can see the other mail boat approaching the channel.

Here she is up close - this is the IMPORTANT mail boat - she has all of the fresh produce for the island!

The beaches are beautiful..

Casurina trees line the beaches. These trees are actually an invasive species, but they provide the important shade on the tropical beaches.

Mr. Crab doesn't need any shade.  He likes his sandy, sunny beach. 

Here is the bridge to the adjacent island, Russell island.

Things are a-changing on Russell Island.  Seems one fellow owned most of it, died, left the land parceled out to the grandkids, and now they have most of the island for sale in small parcels for homes.  or a marina.  Someone bought enough to dredge out a marina, put in building sites, and places for your boat.  But it seems that no one came.  The marina is empty, as are most of the building sites.  The dream...

 

The reality...

 

 

 

What has remained constant is the goats.

 

 

Seems that the grass is still greener on the other side of the fence.

 

 

Back from our sight-seeing, we stopped at Budda's for a late lunch.  "Budda" doesn't look at all like Budda, but he does have a snack bar/bar at his home.  He cooks out of this converted bus.

 

 

the back yard has been converted to bar with tables and shade.  The food was great, the place really clean, and lots of fun.  We had conch and beer.

 

 

 

While it may look a bit marginal, it was clean, and the food good. Mrs. Budda - Joanie - also gives haircuts and has an ABC Store on site.  The first ever bar and ABC store on the island in it's history.  She petitioned for them by listing the location under the name of the cay rather than the town name.  Seemed to pass through unnoticed in Nassau.  The church folk here sure noticed but it was too late.  Let's just say that they have a booming business!

 

To the grocery store for fresh produce and back to Latitudes for another round of grouper for dinner. The weather seems to indicate that we can leave for the Abacos on Sunday.