Author: Doug
Black Sound Marina, Green Turtle Cay
"The secret to living in Hope Town is to live approximately" Written on the wall in Vernon's Grocery, Elbow Cay.
OK, it was truly perfect weather today. Sunny, about 80 degrees, moderate NE to E trade winds. As I'm typing this at the galley table I can look out the port and see a sky full of stars. The air feels and smells of the tropics.
Monday's forecast caled for a "vigorous ridge of low pressure" to come through on Tuesday with wind gusts to 40 knots and a lot of rain. So we went back to Hope Town harbor (poor us) and picked up a mooring to take advantage of its 360 degree protection. Also, there is a lot to do there that is not neccesarily weather dependent.
The forecasters were wrong. Again. It was a beautiful day.
One of the things I have come to love about this part of the world is that they let you discover things, good and bad, for yourself. A few days ago when we were in Hope Town we wandered about the streets like knuckleheads, thinking there must be a beach around somewhere. There are no "BEACH THAT WAY" signs like we would have in the US. We even considered renting a golf cart to go to one. But we never found the surf and sand.
Allow me to digress. In the light of no good deed going unpunished, if you have followed our blog you know of our firefight in the scrub on Allen's Pensacola. There is a tree that grows in tropical places called a poisonwood tree. They grow profusley on Allen's Pensacola. I'm quite allergic to Poison Ivy. As I know now, I'm also allergic to poisonwood. Somehow I got exposed to this foul, mean spirited, sorry excuse for vegetation, most likely while I was hauling buckets of water up to pour on these very same plants to save them from burning. If I'd known then what I know now I would have laughed while I watched the whole darn island go up in flames.
It started in one tiny spot, but soon My legs and one arm itched. They itched a lot. And they broke out into a rash. Then they oozed, and swelled too. I needed a clinic.
So I went to the clinic in Hope Town. I don't want to pass Dixie Chicks style judgement on my own country, but man, it is easy to get minor health matters taken care of here. Thirty six dollars and thirty five minutes later I was on my way to feeling much better. Also, the clinic was on the road on the way to the beach. So we went. It was a wonderful ocean side beach with breathtaking water colors and pink sand.
The boys and I also discovered a spot on the Sea of Abaco side of the cay where someone dumped a barge, two big boats, two cars and a VW bus (circa 1970) in about 1o feet of water. When we snorkeled the area it was covered in fish of all types. The most we have seen anywhere, including mermaid reef. Simon and Bryce loved that one of the boats had an intact toilet seat inside. Right next to the lionfish, just past the school of rainbow runners.
Wednesday morning we left early for Guana Cay. There is a famous bar and grill there called Nippers which sits high on a dune overlooking yet another perfect ocean side beach. It was our favorite stop in 2007 so we were all looking forward to going back. The boys found some sea glass there and what we think is ambergris. We also bought a really cool conch shell horn from a guy named Milo (don't pay his first price). Bryce can really make it ring, Jen is worried he is going to pop a blood vessel or something.
We left Guana that afternoon and traversed the Don't Rock again on on our way here to Green Turtle where we picked up a slip at Black Sound Marina.
There are 7 guys here in the slip next to us. They arrived just before we did in an old beat up catamaran of indeterminate origin, no more than 32 feet long. They all just graduated from med school at the University of Tennessee, decided to buy a boat in Pensacola and sail it to the Bahamas. Never mind that they didn't really know how to sail, they figured it out as they went along. Seven guys on a small boat is a lot, one of our other dock neighbors said he peeked in the cabin this morning (about 10 am) while they were all still sleeping. He said it looked like a can of Vienna sausages. Their dinghy motor is older than I am.
But they are out here doing it and I respect them for it. At their age, or any age why not take a chance? They may never have the opportunity again.
Today we slept late then dinghyed/walked to Bita Bay. Bita is hard to describe, it is an ocean beach but is actually a shallow cove formed by a large reef and a tiny island that sit just offshore. There is good snorkeling in the protected waters of the shallow cove. Though it was supposed to be windy, 15 to 20 knots, the wind never really came up. Darn near perfect.
The boys put in a few hours of school work again today. They are so fortunate have a supportive principal and teachers.
Tomorrow we head for Mun Jack Cay. Hope the weather holds.
Doug needed a doctor on a boat trip......typical!
ReplyDeleteHey guys......This is my first comment as clicking on the link didn't work for me and I was typing in MrMorgan, using an r instead of a v!
ReplyDeleteMarsh Harbor is where Judy and Scott Gregory from Quincy have a home. She is the granddaughter of all the Coca-Cola money and the person who awarded Kaitlyn her scholarship to Wesleyan. Also, Kaitlyn's roommate at Wesleyan, Candace Morgan, is from that island and her family owns an ice cream shop or grill there. Can't wait to see you when you get back! Penny