From green turtle
A day late, but I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas…We did! It started about 7:30am when the neighboring boat here in the anchorage came by and invited us to join them on the beach for a strawberry breakfast. Strawberries dipped in yogurt and brown sugar, on the beach…a perfect beginning to Christmas day. Turns out John and Sally are from S. Freeport, Maine…almost neighbors.
At noon time we went ashore to the Cruisers Potluck. Rum Swizzle provided by Brendels Dive shop, food provided by about 100 cruisers! A big turnout. About 4pm we headed back to the boat. John and Sally, Suzi and Dennis, and Chris and Dave (just met them at the potluck) came back to the boat for one last round of drinks. Turns out that Dave grew up in Chelmsford! They all left about 5:30, and Alan and I had an invite to Jan and Cams boat…so, one more last round of drinks, and we were back home by 7:30. A full day, but a fun day.
Leading up to Christmas found us beaching and exploring. One day we dinghied about 3 miles to No Name Cay. An uninhabited cay, with only the pigs to greet us. Five pigs live there, and they waded out to our dinghies as we approached. Unlike the pigs in the Exumas, these guys aren’t swimmers. We were pretty cautious going ashore, because we weren’t sure how friendly they were…but when they didn’t get any food from us, they just laid down on our anchor rode and took a nap. The beach there is great for shelling. So many shells, sea biscuits and sand dollars washed ashore, and no one to collect them all. There were also several big, red, sea stars along the shoreline.
We also did a lot of beach combing along Green Turtle. The southern tip is called Gillam Bay…a long shallow bay at low tide. It was all good, until the skies opened and it rained buckets. We took shelter under the deck of a beach house. As soon as it was no longer a white out and the thunder and lightning subsided, we trekked back to the boat, but we looked like we had been swimming, we were so wet!
From green turtle
Suzi and Dennis at Gillam Bay...before the rain!

Between beaching, exploring by dinghy and happy hours, we have been very busy. Tomorrow we will leave Green Turtle and go just about 5 miles north to Manjack Cay. Supposed to be good lobstering there…we’ll see!