26 29.09 'N:76 59.37'W
2019-04-07
Lubbin It

We moved the boat just 8 nautical miles to the northern anchorage at Tiloo Cay. The anchorage is almost directly across from Michelle and Dave’s cottage on Lubbers Quarter. We were looking forward to spending a few days hanging out at Lubbers with the Lubber’s crew. Lubber’s Quarter is a funky little island with lovingly maintained properties. We spent a week enjoying the great sense of community where everyone is greeted with a smile and a wave. We were introduced to the neighbourhood sport of corn hole a game at which Paul excelled and I unfortunately did not. This was a happy hour pass time and I don’t think we passed any cottage that didn’t have their own set of corn hole boards out front decorated to match the cottage. Paul is threatening to construct a set when we get home.
There is a castle on the north end of Tiloo Cay that we have anchored near each year when we visit Lubbers. This time we were invited to dinner along with the Lubbers crew. JL, the owner, is a gracious host and we had a great evening enjoying the good company, good food and beautiful surroundings.
As usual it was a fun week with time spent on the island as well as ripping around in Dave & Michelle’s boat, Lubbin it. It was a week of goodbye parties as most of the residents were preparing to depart for home. Food needed to be consumed so we seemed to roll from one dinner party to the next!
Michelle has been using her creative talents to paint colourful fish using dried palm fronds as the base. Each of these whimsical creatures are unique in shape and colours. She made us one for 2 Outrageous. I love it!
It was time for us to say our goodbyes and move the boat to Marsh Harbour. It was time to get the boat ready for our gulf stream crossing to the US. We visited Maxwell’s grocery store to get our provisions. Wow, all the fresh crunchy stuff one could want. I was in crunch heaven. The next day or so was unsettled weather. We used this time to prepare some meals for the freezer that we would be able to thaw and reheat during our ocean passage. We made Chilli, curried chicken and pulled pork. All were prepared in the pressure cooker.
The squalls finally cleared and the afternoon of April 10 we went through the Whale Cay passage and anchored along the shore near the Treasure Cay airport. The winds had calmed down and we had a pleasant evening with only an occasional passing squall.
The next day was sunny and hot! We moved across to No Name Cay and decided to take advantage of the calm seas to do some snorkelling on the outside reef. We saw some really beautiful coral but not that many fish. The wind piped up while we were out there and basically chased us back around to the anchorage. Migration arrived just as we came around the corner. Charlie was yelling to us that there was a boat dragging anchor with no one on board. I’ll say, it was anchored in front of us and now it was several hundred meters behind us. It had stopped dragging at that point but we realized the owners were likely the people who were out at the reef snorkelling. Paul dropped me off then raced back out to find them. We moved the boats to Coco Bay at the north end of Green Turtle to get out of the SE winds. This was yet another anchorage we had not stayed at before!
We were making our way slowly just waiting for the weather to turn favourable for a gulfstream crossing. We had a pleasant sail in 8-12 knot winds to Powell Cay. There were lots of boats in the anchorage, no doubt doing much the same as us, just waiting for a favourable weather window in order to get moving. Alas, the weatherman said no gulfstream crossing to be had just yet. Back around the whale we go! We spent one night at Water Cay then moved to Treasure Cay where we met up with Ti Amo. There were no mooring left in the harbour but we managed to find a couple of spots to anchor. We met the gang from Ti Amo at the pool bar where we purchased the most expensive rum punch ever. ($12 US, yikes!)
We were monitoring the weather constantly and it was changing constantly. In fact the window for crossing was improving each time we checked. There would be some squalls as the wind clocked around to the north but within the next 24 hours the wind was forecasted to move to the east and decrease. Ok, back around the whale we go again. This time the trip through the whale was very sporty. We had made contact with Jay & Tonya on Minx and made plans to cross together. The window was not long enough to make it to Charleston, SC, but would allow us to get to St. Augustine, FL.