February 25, 2018 - February 28, 2018
We left our mooring in Hope Town at around 11:30 am and stopped by the fuel dock for water. After filling our tanks we headed out to the Sea of Abaco (the protected waters between the barrier cays and Great Abaco Island) and motored to Marsh Harbour and anchored time to get to Maxwell’s Grocery store before it closed at 4:00. After unloading and stowing our provisions I made some blueberry muffins for breakfasts and cooked a frozen pizza for dinner.
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| Low carb muffins are a nice change from our usual quiche. |
We spent Monday morning doing chores and errands one of which was to have our LPG canister refilled. We couldn’t pick up the canister until after lunch so we decided to have our final Marsh Harbour meal of the season at Da Blue Hole restaurant which we think has the best hamburgers around.
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| You can see by the view from the restaurant why it is so popular. |
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| I never get tired of seeing palm trees. |
After lunch we hauled anchor and headed to Man-O-War Cay. It is sad to think we
won’t see Marsh Harbour for at least another year, but continuing our adventure is exciting. We are stopping at Man-O-War Cay mainly to purchase Androsia batik fabric for the quilt I have started. Androsia fabric is an 100% cotton fabric batiked and died at a factory on the island of Andros in the Bahamas. The motifs batiked on the fabric have an island theme - turtles, palm trees, pineapples, hibiscus, fish, etc. I purchased two bags of Androsia scraps in December to start work on the quilt. Once I figured out how many three inch squares I would need to complete the project (at least 650) I realized I needed lots more fabric. After grabbing one of David Albury’s moorings in the harbour we started out for Sally’s Seaside Boutique to purchase the Androsia. Her boutique sells clothing, pillows, napkins, placemats, accessories, and bags all created by her and her staff out of Androsia fabric. She sits in one corner of the shop sewing while minding the store. She helped me with my selection and even threw in a couple of extra scraps for my quilt and asked if I would send her a photo of the completed quilt. I was so excited about my purchase I kept looking in the bag at the beautiful colors (only a quilter would understand this I’m sure).
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| Beautiful, right? |
After my shopping I was tasked, as the First Mate, to clean the bottom of the dinghy. I don’t mind these jobs since being in the water is my favorite place to be. However we had seen some fishermen cleaning their fish on our way back to the dinghy. After I finished my cleaning job and swam around for awhile Bob informed me that the fishermen had told him they had seen a seven foot shark around their fish cleaning station just the other day. AHHHHHHH!
Early the next morning we left Man-O-War and motored out to the Whale Cay passage. This passage is a channel that takes you out of the Sea of Abaco into the Atlantic Ocean, around the Whale Cay, and back into the Sea of Abaco. Bob had read and listened to the various weather reports and planned this passage on a day with light and variable winds making our transit an easy calm one.
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| This is my view from the cockpit while motoring. The seas and wind were both calm. |
We arrived in White Sound Harbour in Green Turtle Cay late that morning. After securing a mooring we went to the marina to explore this section of Green Turtle and have some lunch at The Tranquil Turtle Beach Bar. A sudden rain shower came up while we were having lunch and we scurried back to the boat to close the hatches and clean up the watery mess. We both decided that White Sound was a little too like South Florida with “islandy” resorts, shops, marinas, and restaurants. We much prefer the authenticity of the settlement and Black Sound Harbour.
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| Kind of a fake looking tiki hut vibe. |
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| As always there are beautiful views from the restaurant. |
On Wednesday we checked out the moorings in Black Sound and reserved one of Donny’s Marina moorings. We took a little trip into the settlement and stopped at Emily’s Blue Bee Bar to sample the original Goombay Smash said to be created at this bar/restaurant. The drinks were delicious and we enjoyed the atmosphere and Bahamian music. At the Tranquil Turtle they were playing country western music…strange.
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| Nothing fancy, it's just clean and colorful with great food and drinks! |
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| No ostentatious decorations here, just what customers have added. |
We have decided to keep our mooring here in Black Sound Harbour in Green Turtle Cay for a month and take excursions to the out islands when the weather permits.
Thank you for reading my blog.
