05/11/2010, Manjack Cay

May 5th, 2010 Green Turtle to Manjack Cay

After coffee, I changed our primary fuel filters and checked out the engine. Everything looked fine. I did add a little coolant to the radiator.

At 10 this morning we dinghied over to "Solitaire" for Nancy's birthday brunch. She made Huevos Rancheros for everyone along with a corn salad and cinnamon rolls. Kathy brought a fruit salad and Beth made a chocolate cake. We had a great meal and lots of good conversation.

After the party we sailed up to Manjack arriving around 1:30. We read for a while, then got in the dinghy to lead Bob, Bev, and Brian out to the reef for some snorkeling/hunting. No one was seeing much, so we drove over to Crab Cay to check out the beach we named Sea Biscuit Beach last year. This year, Sea Urchin Beach would have been more appropriate. We had a nice walk and decided to head up the creek into the mangroves to look for conch. We met Jim and Nancy up there and they had found one. We searched for a very long time to find two mature conch, then went back to the boat to clean them. Jim and Nancy came by on their way in and gave us their conch, so that got cleaned also.

There is something burning across the way on Abaco. The air is quite smoky and we have ashes on the boat. Not so delightful.

We all got together on Savage Son later for sun downers-typical boat stuff.

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05/05/2010, Green Turtle Cay

May 4thk, 2010 Manjack Cay to Green Turtle Cay

After coffee and the nets we weighed anchor and motored south about an hour to Green Turtle Cay and anchored off the town of New Plymouth. Before lunch I went in the Green Turtle Club and picked up 10 gallons of fuel which tops off our tank and all our jerry can storage That gives us a range of just over 500 miles, more than enough to make it up to North Carolina.

We put together some pasta, bacon, capers and parmesan for lunch and spent the first half of the afternoon reading. Later "Madcap" and "Savage Son" pulled into the anchorage and we all went for a walk in town ending up at Pineapples for a drink before returning to the boat.

Plans were made for Nancy's birthday breakfast tomorrow on "Solitaire" at 10 am and then a sail north to Manjack Cay for some swimming and hunting in the afternoon.

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05/05/2010, Manjack Cay

May 3rd, 2010 Fisher Bay to Manjack Cay, Abacos

When we got up this morning our plan was to run north about 6 miles to Baker's Bay to clean conch on Spoil Island and do a little shelling. I had purchased a picnic ham in Marsh Harbor a few days ago and had lots of pieces that needed to be used up. We also had a frozen pie curst so along with some spinach and cheese, I whipped up a quiche for a late breakfast. It couldn't have turned out better.

We weighed anchor around 10 and sailed up to Baker's Bay only to find very little protection from the southerly wind. After radioing "Solitaire" we exited the Whale passage with the idea of continuing on to Green Turtle Cay for the afternoon. But....there really wasn't a very good place there to clean the conch that we've kept in a bag overboard for the last few days ... so we kept going up to Manjack were we found some protection behind Crab Cay with 6 or 8 other boats.

After another slice of quiche...lunch this time, we loaded up our conch, hammer and a couple of knives and headed for shore. It was decided to divert to the mangroves where we have found conch in the past to top off our catch. Unfortunately we didn't find any that were large enough to add to our pile so it was off to the beach to clean the ones we've been carrying around.

With our conch cleaned and the sun lowering in the sky, Kathy got out the cookbook and found a new recipe for spinach salad with a hot vinaigrette dressing.

We put some potatoes in the oven to bake and a little later added our last two pork chops. It was a great meal... too much actually. I tossed the bone over the side and instantly had a black headed tern for a pet. It hung around till dark waiting in vane for another handout.

The Bahamas are under the influence of a high pressure system for the last few days that has been perfect for crossing to the States. We probably won't be ready to leave until Friday at the earliest and who knows what kind of window we'll have then.

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