Snorkling!
13 December 2005 | Green Turtle Cay
We left West End and sailed across the Little Bahama Banks to Mangrove Cay, a very small uninhabited cay located in the middle of the banks. We anchored off this cay with two other sailboats and spent the night there. The water on the banks is a variety of different shades of blues, all very pretty. The depth on the bank is only 10-13 feet, our boat draws 5 feet. At sunrise we raised the anchor and continued onto Allens-Pensacola Cay, this was an all day sail. We had school in the morning, as usual. There is a mandatory recess whenever a fish is on one of the two lines we always have out! We had a couple of false alarms and did not catch anythng. In Art class we made Christmas decorations out of the many shells and sea biscuits we have been collecting!
We spent one night in Allens-Pensacola Cay then arrived in Green Turtle Cay 2 days ago. We have to keep a constant eye on the weather and a Norther was heading our way, the same one that blanketed the East coast in snow. A Norther consists of stong winds and maybe some rain and squalls. We always want to be in a secure anchorage meaning protection from the strong winds when these blow through. They usually last only 1-2 days.
Green Turtle Cay is a lovely Cay! There is a small village, New Plymouth, which we will go into today.
There are quite a few vacation homes or rather cottages painted in the tradional island colors which are very nice. The beaches are beautiful, soft white sand and we are the only ones on the beach!Yesterday afternoon, after school, we went to the beach and took our snorkling gear. There are coral reefs just off the beach on the Atlantic side of the island. The boys had their first snorkling experience -Daniels reaction- " It was cool, we saw a moray eel and lots of angel fish, grunts, snapper and goruper! It was great to see the boys having so much fun!
We are anchored with about 15 other boats, some we have seen before and others we are getting to know.