Great Guana Cay and Nippers

Saturday we left Green Turtle Cay along with four other boats, Sweet Pea, Brown Eyed Girl, Something Special  and Solstice at about 7:30.  It was smooth sailing until we got closer to the Whale Cay and made our way around and into the open Atlantic, but even then it wasn’t too bad, just some really big swells.  We were glade that we had waited, because the week before this area had 7-9 foot waves.  We all arrived to our next port Great Guana Cay at around 11 am, so a short day for a change.  We took the opportunity to explore the island a little.  Stopped at Nippers on the Atlantic side and saw some fantastic views of the ocean.  The colors of the water were outstanding.

Marina at Great Guana Cay

Front end loader picture  especially taken for  Jack, Owen and Will

Nippers Bar

Views from Nippers

On our way back to the boat we stopped at the one grocery store for some fresh produce and after cocktails on the marina porch with our fellow travelers we made dinner on board and settled in for the evening.

Cocktails on the porch

Sunset at Great Guana Cay

Sunday after setting the few clocks that we have on board forward, we all went to a well known bar/restaurant by the name of Nippers for their special Sunday pig roast.  It was really good and all you could eat.  We feel like we just finished a big Thanksgiving dinner.  Nippers is on the Atlantic side of the Key and it was really windy but the ocean colors were beautiful.  We had to pinch our selves several times as we thought of where we were.  How lucky we are.

Looking up at Nippers

Sid from Something Special 

Pool at Nippers

Fun times

Chris, Sandy, Dale and Jim 

We plan on heading to Marsh Harbor tomorrow, it is only a short 8 miles away.  We hope to be able to get a phone when we get over there.  Marsh Harbor is one of the bigger cities in the Bahamas.  At this point we are fully caught up with the blog.

Love to all,
John & Mary

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.

Our new friend Chucky the Conch

We did let Chucky go free

Hope all is well back at home.  Christy and Kelly, we hope you are enjoying your sisters weekend. 

Love to all,

Mary and  John

West End to Green Turtle Cay

Our first night in the Bahamas was quite peaceful.  Sweet Pea, a fellow Looper who we had rafted up with a few times on the rivers arrived at Old Bahama Bay after we did. It was good to see them again and now they were flying a gold Looper flag since they completed their Loop trip.  Due to impending weather we all decided to leave today, Friday and head for an anchorage at Great Sayle Cay.  We left a bit earlier as we typically will run at a slower speed, between 7 and 8 knots.  All the other Loopers have twin engines while we only have a single.  The first couple of hours were nice then the wind an rollers picked up and we had to speed up some to make the ride tolerable.  Even doing that all the other boats slowly pulled ahead of us. Due to the forecasted south winds we anchored in the lee of the island rather than the preferred harbor. 

The harbor is supposed to be great in all winds expect those from the south. There were many boats anchored with us.  We lowered the dinghy and John used the lookie bucket and reported that the anchor as well as 10’ of chain were completely buried.  We all then went to shore for a beach cocktail hour.

It was quite windy overnight and we neglected to wrap up the Looper flag on the bow.  The main stateroom is in the bow and the noise from the flag flapping in the breeze made sleeping difficult until John got up and wrapped it up.  Even then Mary slept in the main cabin because she didn’t like the noise of the waves against the hull. All in all we did manage to get some sleep.

On Saturday we all pulled anchors and were on the move by 6:15am, our plan was to get up early and leave at  “0 dark thirty” as Kerm would say in order to get a jump on the group.  Because of problems getting to sleep we didn’t make the early start.  We had another day like the last, started out ok but wind and waves picked up and were with us until we arrived at Green Turtle Club Marina.  It was even quite windy once we arrived at the marina which made docking a bit of a challenge. 

The colors of the waters were amazing on the trip today, we tried taking pictures but I’m afraid they won’t truly convey what we saw.

There was a problem with our water connection and it took us a while to get a hose connected.  Once that was done it was time to give the boat a thorough scrubbing.  Due to the amount of salt spray today there were times that it was difficult to see the instruments.  The boat was just crusty, this is something new to these freshwater boaters and we don’t like it at all.  Now mind you we probably go overboard in keeping the boat clean but still all the salt is gross.

After getting most of the salt off the boat, I don’t think we will ever get it all until we get up the Hudson next June we went and checked in.  This marina was having a special docking rate.  Your restaurant/ bar bill is reduced by whatever is spent on dockage until the dockage is free.  To get this special the rate is a bit higher but no more than any of the other marinas we are planning to stop at so it seemed to be a good deal. 

Our tentative itinerary is to spend five nights here then move to an anchorage for one night then on to another marina.  We will repeat this for the month, with a one night at anchor between each marina.  John likes to anchor out while Mary is none to keen about it so this seems to be a reasonable compromise. Our next marina will be Marsh Harbor, then Hope Town, which is on Elbow Cay, then Treasure Cay followed by Port Lucaya.  Our last stop before crossing back to the states will be back at West End, which is where we first arrived.  All of this is weather dependent.

We went to the bar for a drink and had our first rum concoction, called the Tipsy Turtle, which was quite good.  At the bar was as a couple on a sailing catamaran from Maryland who were in West End with us as well at the anchorage last night.  They have been here before and said the way to get the most bang for your buck with the dockage special is to have breakfast and a late lunch rather than dinner.  It seems like a good tip and I think we will do that.  We invited them to have dinner with us an all the fellow Loopers.   We all had a good time and called it a night early as many of us were tired from the lack of sleep at the anchorage.

Tomorrow we will take the bikes into the town of New Plymouth.  This will be our first experience in seeing an actual Bahamas town.  There is a Bahamas telephone office there and we hope to get a sim card for  our unlocked phone that will allow us to call within the Bahamas for a decent rate and also call the states once in a while to check in.  We have been told that you can also get a sim card for the I Pad and sign up for a month long unlimited data plan.  We will see.

John & Mary

Bahamas

We Made It to the Bahama's

We completed our crossing with 3 other boats, Alqonquin, Brown Eyed Girl and Something Special. We left at O dark thirty (as Kerm would say)  shortly after Brandy IV who decided it was not a good crossing day for them.  It was quite rough in the inlet and for a couple ( a lot of miles out).  The three other boats left after us and we had to wait for them to catch up to make sure they were willing to do the crossing.

The waves when we started were probably 2-3 foot and then as time went on they seemed to become less, or perhaps we got more used to them.  The water colors were outstanding.  The Gulf Stream was the deepest Indigo blue and then as we came into West End the waters were more turquoise, just beautiful!  We both had to pinch our selves to believe that we had made it to the Bahamas with our own boat.

Our first sight of the Bahama's

Passsport with the Bahamian Flag flying

The beach at West End

The pool felt great after 7 hours traveling.

Plans for tomorrow are most likely to move to an anchorage with some of the other Loopers because it is supposed to become more windy in the next few days and we do not want to be stuck here during that time. Any way we are excited to be hear and oh by the way we purchased four lobster tails from a local fisher for 20 bucks and thought we were doing good, until Sid from the boat Something Special told us he had purchased 6  tails for the same price.  Oh well, we need to learn from the Canadians.

Freshest lobster we ever ate.

Did we say again that we are in the Bahamas.  We still are trying to digest that fact.  Hope all is well with every one and we will catch up again as we are able.

Love to all and wish you were all with us to enjoy,

Mary and John