Our time in the Raggeds was very enjoyable, not much different than other years. The weather was very good and no fronts of any significance. Most of our time was spent walking the trails and beaches. Most cruisers would say that there were fewer lobster to be found than other years but still there were some to be found. When we arrived there were only one or two boats in the area but after a few days a group of about four other boats arrived. For a week or so we were five boats at Hog Cay. Our cruising friends on Carina showed us how to make jewelry out of sea glass and hamburger beans; very fun morning! We spent most evenings on the beach for Happy Hour and watching the sun set, looking for the elusive green flash. Twice we saw a green glow as the sun set but maybe not an actual green flash.
One of the cruisers told us about having found bottles with messages inside on a couple of occasions over the years they had been coming down. One had a rather touching note inside and the couple had connected the people who had thrown the bottle in the ocean and they were very glad to hear from the people who had found it. That led to another story of another cruiser who has been coming down here for a number of years. This other cruiser whose name is John is originally from Scotland. Last year he found a bottle with a message in it and contacted the people who had thrown it into the ocean. What is amazing about this story is that the people who put the message in the bottle were also from Scotland. Not only that, they lived only about 30 miles from where John was from in Scotland. It turns out this person is an artist and has sent out a number bottles and is doing paintings of the places where they are found. So this year the couple from Scotland flew to the Bahamas, John picked them up in his boat and brought them down to the Raggeds to see the island where it was found.
Luck would have it after hearing these stories we were walking on a Ragged Island beach and we too came across a message in a bottle! The message in our bottle wasn't so exciting. Someone on a Princess Cruiseline in the past year threw the bottle over and asked to have the message returned so they could see how far it traveled. We will send it to them when we get back to the states.
After having spent about a month in the Raggeds we decided to head north with the hope to visit Cat Island which we have not visited yet. We are now at Long Island in the Thompson Bay area, a place we have been before, awaiting good weather to go to Cat. It has been fun finding some new trails to walk, new caves and beaches we had not explored before. The locals on the island are very friendly and the best way to get around is to hitch hike. There is only one main road that connects the whole island and people always stop to give you a ride if they have room. This was very helpful when we had to do laundry in Stella Maris, a 25 minute car ride from our boat. We learn a lot of history of the island from the locals while riding with them. The locals have also organized some events so we cruisers can all get together. There have been around 20 boats here this last week, some of whom we know from past years like Lynn and Peter on First Edition, and Frances and Laurie on Glory Days, and we meet new cruisers every year, like Vickie and Len on Phase II. All fun since we cruisers tend to have the same needs and think alike! It is a very caring community.