John and Mary's Loop Adventure: Green Turtle Cay

Sunday dawned bright, sunny, hot but windy. We had a large breakfast at the resort and afterwards decided we needed some exercise. Due to the winds we decided not to take the bikes down and just go for a walk. We started for town not really knowing how far away it was. We came across some very scenic beaches on the Atlantic side, too rough for swimming or snorkeling but pretty to look at. One of the Loopers who had rented a golf cart came by and asked us if we wanted a ride into town. We begged off but a bit later we were offered another ride and we said yes. There were three couples from Ohio who have been spending a month here for the past 18 years. They showed us the little bay where there house was and then gave us a quick tour of town. We didn’t realize how far town was from our marina.

Town was much different than the small towns we are accustomed to in America. The streets were very narrow. Some shops were along the main street while others were in a small house on a side street. Being Sunday most shops were closed. There were a number of churches, everyone was all dressed up in their Sunday best, men with ties and ladies with dresses. While waking around we found a small grocery store and picked up a bottle of water for only $1.25 not the super expensive prices we had been told to expect over here. There was however a can of Spam for $7.00, so I guess it just depends on what you get.

Narrow streets of New Plymoth

Sculpture Garden

Old jail ( PINK )

Conch shells for sale

View of New Plymouth

Rocks in garden used to catch the rain water

After walking around the town for a while we decided to head back. We looked into taking a ferry boat back to the marina but would have to wait almost 3 hours until the next one. Even though it was quite warm the wind made the walk bearable. On our way back at almost the same spot where we got picked up on our way to town another couple who were staying at the resort side of our marina stopped and offered us a ride.

Once back at the boat we decided to jump in the marina showers to get cleaned up. Here in the Bahamas you have to pay for the water you use, anywhere from .15 to .65 a gallon. At Green Turtle we are paying .20. So it makes sense to use the marina facilities whenever possible. After getting cleaned up we went over for our late lunch and a “Tipsy Turtle” which is the resort’s signature rum concoction. Everything was quite good and while some of the other Loopers went out for dinner we were too full and had a quiet evening aboard.

Monday the wind was still howling so we decided to give the boat a second washing as we were still finding lots of salt residue everywhere. This time we measured the amount of water and found out we used 58 gallons. So keeping the boat clean in the Bahamas will cost us a few extra dollars. It seems worth it when you see what the salt can do a boat. We keep getting asked if our boat is new or if it has been repainted, so it makes sense to keep the corrosive salt off as much as possible. We found out the couple in the boat next to us wrote the Explorer chart book we purchased for the Bahamas. They have been here in the Bahamas since November getting information to update the book and told us this was only their third stay in a marina. They were a very nice couple in an older un pretentious boat. We had heard of cruisers running into publishers of some of the other guide books you need for the Loop trip in their large 50’ plus yachts.

After washing the boat we got the bikes down and went for a bike ride. We had heard that the phone company was out of sim cards so instead of riding to town we went exploring in the other direction. We ended up taking a long hilly ride to get to the marina across the bay. We had some fantastic views of where we came in on Saturday and due to the wind shift the waters there were quite calm today.

All the Loopers were having pizza’s for dinner which you had to pre order. Mary being the pizza person she is couldn’t wait. When we went up to order we had three choices, cheese, pepperoni and veggie. We chose veggie not knowing exactly what we would get. It was very good, with carrots, celery, broccoli, olives, onions and tomatoes. Of course we had to have a Tipsy Turtle to wash everything down. After dinner we settled in to watch Downton Abbey. This is a Masterpiece Theater series Christy told us about that we started to watch on line with limited success. PBS only made certain episodes available. What we saw we liked very much, so John (with Christy’s help) ordered the first two season’s on DVD and gave them to Mary as a Valentines present. Thanks Christy for letting us know of the series and helping with the DVD’s. We are really enjoying them.

Tuesday was overcast and the winds continued on. The internet is spotty at best and we had to take the computer to the resort lobby for a better connection. With the continued winds and the likelihood of leaving here on Thursday is slim. John worked on plan B as well as a C and D. We had breakfast at the resort as we need to eat up our dockage. Dinner on board tonight and more Downton Abbey.

Wednesday, still very windy we biked to town. We sent off some post cards to the grand kids toured a museum and stopped at a house / bar for some “Gomby Smash” another rum concoction. They were not very big but quite potent riding the bikes back to the marina was challenging. We did stop and check on the sim cards with no luck. They will have to wait until we get to Marsh Harbor next week. We will most likely pass on getting a card for the I Pad and just hope for the best internet connection at the places we stay. We do still plan on getting a card for phone service.

Seeing as it now seems we won’t be leaving here until possibly Friday afternoon or more likely Saturday morning we have revised our itinerary a bit. We heard of a pig roast on Guana Cay. We were going to stop there towards the end of our stay but will be making it our next stop before Marsh Harbor.

It was steak night tonight and there were 12 of us at the table. I don’t know if it was because we were a large group or what but the service was very slow. And when they did bring the food out we were simply told they ran out of baked potatoes and substituted sweet potato fries. Mary questioned why the wouldn’t ask what you would like as a substitute and the answerer was “that’s a good idea” oh well the steaks were good. While the dining for dockage is a good idea it can get a bit much at times. Hopefully the winds will die down and we can move on. A change in scenery is needed.

We had a captain’s meeting aboard Passport Thursday morning and it was decided weather permitting to make a run for Guana Cay Saturday morning. They have a pig roast at Nippers on the cay, which is one of those “must see” places. We will then move on to Marsh Harbor on Monday. Once we get around the Whale Cay Saturday morning weather will become less of an issue until we have to get around it again on the way back. In the afternoon we took the dinghy to the town stopping at a beach along the way. Picked up a few shells at the beach and saw lots of starfish on the way to town.

It is Friday morning and the winds are improvintg. We just had breadfast at the resort with some of our fellow Loopers. The day is warm so we are thinking of walking and doing some dinghy exploring today.