We leave early for New Plymouth, Green Turtle Cay, which is the nearest Customs check in point.. Once we are clear of Crab Cay our course is fairly straight, heading 128 degs on a closed hauled run to our destination. Under full sail we cut the engine and the feisty wind, gusting 30 knots, pushes us on at a good speed.

We anchor off in the bay at 3 pm - Customs is due to close at 4 pm - it's a bit of a push to inflate the dinghy and get ashore in time but our job is made easier with the electric dinghy pump doing the job in half the time of the manual foot pump. It's a wet, lumpy ride ashore - we clamber out of the dinghy trying to hide our sodden bottoms from view and arriving at the Customs office with a minute to spare - but we're already too late - they have gone off duty until tomorrow.

The small town of New Plymouth is delightful and we take a walk around the nearby narrow streets of pretty pastel painted clapboard houses and small hotels. The main mode of transport here, apart from Shanks' pony, is golf cart or bicycle.

Green Turtle Cay is about three miles long and half mile wide and was named after the abundance of green turtles that once inhabited the area.

The turtle soup industry managed almost single handedly to nearly put the green turtle on the list of extinct creatures and the continuing illegal harvesting of them is still a major threat to its existence. There remains a market for jewellery and ornament s made from the shell, leather goods from their skin and their meat, eggs and oil from their fat still makes its way into the food industry in some countries.

Green Turtle Cay is now more well known for its spectacular dive and snorkeling locations which rival the best in the world.