Day 16
Today wasn't a very interesting day. We woke up, had pancakes, checked the forecast and then decided in lieu of snorkeling or feeding the pigs again we'd nope our way back to Green Turtle to anchor our in more shelter. It rained and poured all day, so we stayed inside and read and cuddled and whatnot.
Later on when the rain stopped we went to Sundowners and had some drinks and food and chatted with more locals. Used their wifi. Generally had a great time of things. The fuel line broke again, so we patched it up with flex tape and zip ties again. The lesson to be learned here is that tape and gas don't like each other very much and we need a more permanent solution.

Day 17
Went into town in the morning to get breakfast only to find nothing was open yet. Island Time is admittedly starting to get on our nerves a bit. 8am means 8:15 or later, and when you're hungry it's an unpleasant surprise to find that at 8:15 they're still not open and you need to wait who-knows-how-long just for them to open, and service tends to be slow here in the islands so that exacerbates the problem.
Looking forward to going back to the States in that regard.

Had a pretty lame and pricy breakfast at MacIntosh's that took forever. Tried to go to the other liquor store that's just trying to get its start but it wasn't open yet (actually before hours), so went to the Lowe museum.

It was a weird experience, to say the least. Our guide plainly stated how the owner of the house and other Cay residents became rich by misguiding ships at night into coral and then robbing the ships blind ("it wasn't invented here, just in England" is one of the sorry excuses for an... excuse she gave. The other was "it wasn't like piracy, they didn't want to kill anyone"), called "wrecking" which is where the Wrecking Tree bar gets its name. She also mentioned how they destroyed the sponge population and thus the industry but it's returning now.

Most interestingly to me as an American, she also flatly talked about how British colonists came over with their slaves. Normally we Americans have an apologetic tone, or would caveat that though sad it was typical for the time. But this lady just didn't seem to care much about the fact that this town was founded by people that thought it was okay to own another human being. I guess the Civil War and Rights movements have left their mark on the American psyche. That or this lady just didn't care.

We left the museum feeling as though the subject of the museum, as beautiful as his boat models were, was not exactly a protagonist of the story of our world. But it was now past 11, and the other liquor store should be open right about now...

Nope. Island Time.
We threw our hands in the air and picked up our groceries, then went to the other liquor store to pick up MORE RUM, loaded it all in the dink, and went on our merry way back to the boat. Raised the dinghy, then the anchor, fueled up, and began the journey home.

We noticed the Abaco reefs on the chart with one area marked as having mooring balls for diving, so we set that as our destination. Went through some scary water on the route, and when we got to our marked destination found even scarier water - coral heads sticking out that looked almost like mooring balls. When we realized we were hurtling toward coral Shawn quickly threw the engine in reverse and we gave up on the reef.

*shudders*

We're traveling with the wind now and making much better speed, so despite our late start and detour managed to make it to Crab Cay at 6pm. Tomorrow we'll head to Great Sale and see if we can make it to Mangrove, and then based on time if we could possibly make it to West End to do a crossing in the morning. If we just make it to mangrove, we'll travel to West End the next day and then wait until the day after to do the crossing. Florida is a big target but being able to see the waves and steer into them will make the ride much more comfortable.

Since we're heading towards Great Sale I'm expecting to not be able to make a blog post tomorrow or possibly even the day after as we didn't have cell service at either of those cays. When we reach West End I'll definitely be able to update y'all.