Amulet underway

After the somewhat disappointing couple of nights at Great Guana Cay, we pressed on a couple of islands north to Green Turtle Cay.

Another wind warning, so we were looking for a bulletproof anchorage, and we found it in White Sound on Green Turtle Cay. The only problem was the shallow entry channel-5 feet at low tide, and again, we draw 6.5 feet. I settled on a time of 14:30, which on a 10 AM low tide, should have filled in the necessary 18 inches, with still an hour an a half of rising tide to go. We arrived at the entrance after a lazy downwind sail at 13:30 on Saturday, April 22nd, and gave it a try.
About 150 feet in from the entrance, we ran into a sandbar. We were stuck for 40 minutes until the tide lifted us off, and we proceeded into the harbor, really backing down on the anchor to set it or the anticipated wind.

We sent ashore and made arrangements to rent bikes for the following day, and hiked to the ocean beach, then hiked to Coco Beach, on the northern side of the island. We chatted up a very nice couple from Nova Scotia who were on the beach, and there on vacation. We returned to the boat. The following morning, it started raining, then started blowing hard.

The rain continued throughout the day, negating our bicycle riding plans, so we hunkered down, did change the large outboard's carburetor in the rain, and wind, took naps, read and watched movies.

At the crescendo of the storm, we had one of our solar panels blow off the bimini, so had to contain that at 2300. Unimaginable quantities of rain all night, even for two Seattle boys. In the morning, we saw that 5 boats had dragged, including the boat directly behind us. Our solar panel was damaged beyond repair, but we had a spare one aboard, so installed that. A neighboring boat came over and said he saw a consistent low 40's on his anemometer at the peak of the storm at 2300. He also said he heard boats in Eleuthera reporting gusts in the 80's and 90's.



On Monday, April 24th, we were able to take our bicycle ride, and found a delightful town, untouristed, and genuine.
There was approximately a 30% white population, and 70% African descent. South of town was a very large crescent beach, that allowed us to hike to the end, at the very southern tip of Green Turtle Cay. We went for a swim and enjoyed the shallow, clear, aquarium like water. Had a nice lunch in town and returned to the boat.

The following day, we went for another bike ride to the same beach, and returned to the boat for lunch, then in the afternoon, hiked to the north end of the island and went beach exploring.

We very much enjoyed Greet Turtle Cay, found it to be the real Bahamas, with just the right blend of authenticity, beaches, restaurants, and protection from the weather.

On Wednesday, April 26th we pushed on to Man O' Jack Cay, leaving just before the 0900 high water, this time no problem in the channel. We arrived at Man O' Jack and anchored in 9 feet of water at the main anchorage, which features a "cruiser's beach", that is, one set up with dinghy anchors, chaise lounges that people have donated, bbq areas, etc. The few residents (we think around 12-18), are very tolerant of cruiser's and have opened the islands trails to them, which we took full advantage of.

Our first venture out was a snorkel, which I didn't think would be a good one, but was absolutely exceptional, one of my top 10. I saw two turtles, a shark, lots of very colorful coral, and underwater arch, and many fish, including two puffer fish that must have been 2 feet long. It was very gratifying, unfortunately, I had left the camera on the beach thinking that the snorkel would be mediocre.

In the afternoon, we started walking the island's trails, cam across a white sandy beach approximately a mile and a half long with no one on it, we walked down that to the north end of the island, then proceeded west, in all we covered around 5 miles, and were exhausted when we returned to the boat.

Another beautiful island-the last two, Green Turtle Cay and Man O'Jack were absolutely exceptional.

Picture is of the southeast beach on Green Turtle Cay.....