Mike
01/19/2008, Treasure Cay, Bahamas

Thursday Jan. 17... Treasure Cay Happy Birthday Jake!

I spent the morning sneaking over to a little used fish cleaning station to fill water tanks. We have six five gallon containers for this purpose and during the morning I made three trips. Two trips actually filled the tank but I wanted to rinse some salt off the boat so I borrowed about 15 gallons more.

I don't know that I have mentioned that our friends Anne and Neville are here to pick up some friends who are flying in and are anchored right next to us. They are very interesting people and I thoroughly enjoy their company.

Water detail finished, we set out with Bob and Jan from "English Rose" to walk the beach in the opposite direction as we had yesterday. It was a least a couple of miles to the far end of the beach but once there we found a plaque commemorating Carlton Point, the spot that the first loyalists landed after fleeing the newly founded United States Government. We finally got around to taking a few photos of the water and will send them along when we can get this out.

We returned to the boat at about 2:00 and I went to work installing the new LCD screens for our instruments. They had arrived the day we left Vero Beach but I really hadn't found the time to rip out the old ones and rewire the new. It took a couple of hours but everything worked when we turned them on....

We've been experimenting with Skype and were able this morning to call Mildred who is recuperating in a nursing home back in Holland. It is a little weird, and the signal comes and goes which changes the pitch of voices but it actually works well most of the time when we have a good wifi connection.

As we were cutting up snacks ... "Sojourner" pulled in and anchored next to us. Rick and Linda were rafted with us in Vero Beach before we went home for Christmas and we knew that they were here somewhere but had no idea where. They came over for snacks along with Bob and Jan and we all had a nice time catching up.

Tomorrow we will move down to Marsh Harbor

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Mike
01/16/2008, Treasure Cay, Great Abaco

The picture was taken on our passage from Great Sale Cay to Manjack Cay by Peter from Isabel -from Britt, Ontario.

Green Turtle to Treasure Cay-January 16

We spent a rocky night off Green Turtle in an unprotected anchorage. I was up three or four times making sure that our anchor was holding. At 6:30 I listened to the weather on the ssb and at 7:15 we were off to face the Whale passage which at times is a little dangerous.

From our anchorage we could see our destination, but between us the water is too shallow for passage. Instead, our route is between two islands and out into the Atlantic and around Whale Cay to a very narrow channel before we navigate back into protected waters. When the wind is blowing from the north or east, ocean swells hit the shallower water of the passage and break.

Last night the wind picked up from the NNE to about 15 knots and we knew that the passage was going to be rough....however, the weather dictated that we go this morning or wait till next week. After a short radio conversation with "English Rose", we decided to sail down to the passage and take a look. When we got to the Atlantic, we found rolling confused seas of about 4 to 6, but no breaking waves so we pushed on using our sails for air breaks as we plowed through the beam seas. In about 40 minutes we were on the other side in perfectly calm water.

The remaining trip to Treasure Cay was uneventful and we arrived are about 10:30. After putting things away it was off to the dinghy dock and across the point to the beach. In size and shape it reminded me of South Manitou... the resemblance stopped there. The water and sand are perfect. We tried to take a photo but the camera seems temporarily out of service.

Tomorrow we will head south to Marsh Harbor to find a welder. . . or maybe on Friday-it's pretty nice here.

P.S. I managed to talk to my mother today for a moment on Skype (not the best connection) and all is well with her. She will be 6 weeks in therapy, but has a great attitude.

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Mike
01/16/2008, Green Turtle Cay, Abacos, Bahamas

There may be a little repetition-Mike didn't know I shot a quick entry out yesterday.

Tuesday Jan. 15

I set the alarm this morning for 6:30 to listen to Chris Parker... and then took off to visit Ann and Neville on "Peace" who spend most of their winter here. We met them at the lock in the Dismal Swamp and have seen them a couple of times on our trip south. A couple of days ago while checking the engine I noticed the one of our alternator belts was loose so I got a wrench and tightened it up. Today, it was loose again.... The base of the tension arm was broken. We need a one inch weld and I knew that Neville would know where to send me to get it done. I had tea and toast with them and met one of their friends Brian who is from Traverse City.

Neville's advice was to stop in Marsh Harbor and ask about welders on the Cruisers Net in the morning.

Bye the time I returned, it was time to explore our island so we took off with Bob and Jan from "English Rose" to check out the coves and beaches. As we motored slowly in the dinghy in calm water, there were always star fish in sight...Fish of all shapes and colors moved out of our way as we cruised the coral shoreline.

We had our spear gun and were watching for lobster but they were hidden under rocks. I needed to get in the water to have any chance of seeing one. We beached the dinghies in a cove and I took off with mask, fins, and spear to go fishing. There were tons of fish.... Anne had told me not to shoot Anglefish and the Trigger fish were too spooky to get very close to. The grunts were probably the best targets but the only ones that came close enough ( 2 feet from the end of my spear) we too small. I did not see any lobster but I was not in the right place for them.

I know that most of you have seen photos of the water in the Bahamas, but you would really have to be here to appreciate the different blues. It is impossible photograph.

After our adventure we returned to the boat for lunch . I went over to English Rose with our charts in the afternoon to pick their brains about how we should proceed south. They are probably going to stay in the Abacos most of the winter.

Since my diving stuff was out, it seemed to be about the right time see if our failure to follow Piccaroon last summer out of Cove Island... the hull was fine. Dave, I couldn't even seen any missing paint so you can quit sending people half way around the world (or to Vero Beach where Elysium 6 visited on Dave's behalf) to apologize.

I did however find some living things, and scraped most of them off. The very bottom of the keel has some barnacles that I will have to deal with in the future. The very bottom of the keel did not get much paint last spring in the cradle and it really shows.

Later in the afternoon we weighed anchor and motored 5 miles down to Green Turtle Cay and anchored off New Plymoth. We went ashore and wandered the settlement that looks like a Bahamian village...pastel colored houses, narrow streets, roosters crowing, and kids on skates and bikes. Bob need gasoline so we dinghied to the other end of the island...White Bay where there is a marina and resort. We needed some ice are were directed to the bar where they bagged us up some ice and sold us each a Tipsy Turtle ... the house specialty that tasted a lot like a rum punch.

At dark we returned to Sapphire and grilled a pork loin and had dinner while listening to the Spartans defeat Ohio State.

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