Heading South

Wednesday the 31st we pulled anchor, headed to the marina to fill the fuel cans and fill up the water tanks. This would be the first time we had to pay for water to fill them if you don’t count the “no option” water charge at the marinas for $4.00 a day. Twenty cents a gallon wasn’t bad and it had been some time since we last filled the tanks. We took off about 11am and waved Marsh Harbor goodbye. It served its purpose but we are getting bored and ready to go. s/v Sovereign Swan, FinniRish, and Tybee Time all took off finally making tracks for islands south. The weather is calling for calm winds and beautiful skies for the next 5 days so we wanted to take advantage of it. Our first stop was anchoring in front of Tahiti Beach on Elbow Cay. We dropped anchor in about 8 feet of clear water and took the dinghy to shore where there was a pretty beach and many coconut palms lining the scenery. It was the last day of lobster season so Dirk & Harvey took off around the cut to see if they could get lucky. Ellie, Jim, Dawn, and I decided to hit the beach and do some relaxing and beach combing. I was happy as I was finding sea glass from the start, besides I can be perfectly content beach combing all day. Later, Dawn & I walked into the palms to see what coconuts we could dig up. I of course forgot my shoes so I spent most of the time digging sand spurs out of my feet while Dawn was able to go a lot deeper and find some nice ones. The men came back empty handed but with tales of trying to tag team a grouper, the grouper won. Dawn decided to have Dirk try and climb a coconut tree and grab some green ones for sun downers in the evening.

This is Tahiti Beach where there were so many coconut Palms

We all met at FinniRish and the men began hacking away at the green coconuts finally cleaning enough for us to have our sun downers. What a nice evening it was and it was the first time I had the coconut milk right in the shell with rum. Ummmmmm .

Just pour a bit of coconut milk out and replace with rum, insert straw and enjoy

Sunset at Tahiti Beach

The next day we headed to Snake Cay which is an old abandoned lumber operation. We anchored just south of the mouth and dinghied into the opening where about 15 to 20 spotted eagle rays hang out. The entrance has a fairly deep spot where the currents work in and out and I guess the eagle rays like that. Everywhere you look you can see remains of the old operation as you can see parts of machinery and vehicles along with many old tires littering the bottom. We anchored the dinghies and all jumped into the water hoping to have a close encounter. I saw a rather large ray and dove down to swim alongside him. It was absolutely wonderful and it’s so easy to forget that one must come up for air when you are alongside them. Totally amazing when you see how large and graceful they are really never paying too much mind to us. Dirk managed to capture the entire group on video. After testing our lung capacity for a while I played around a bit in the shallower water and found several fish and a green moray eel hanging around. Soon we climbed back into the dinghy and made our way about the maze of little isles that littered the scenery looking for rays and other assorted sea life littering the sea bed.

Here's a pretty star fish "sea cushion" brought out for photo opps.then released

As we approached the end the guys happened upon another deep hole which unfortunate for them but three conchs had fallen into. Two were legal so Dirk decided they would be a good addition to sun downers in the evening. When we got back to the boat we decided to pull anchor and head to Tilloo Cay and anchor for the evening. While we were at Snake Cay we spotted Hobbs & Heidi from Big Toot. We had spent some time with them in Marsh Harbor and we asked if they wanted to join us, so now we were a pack of four traveling together. That evening sun downers were at Big Toot , introductions were made, and assorted snacks were happily consumed along with the fresh conch caught only hours earlier. Can't get any fresher then this

The plan for the next day was to head to Sandy Cay to do some snorkeling and diving but we found when we arrived the next day that the anchorage was not the greatest as it was hard to set an anchor. S/v Sovereign Swan was not happy about the anchor set so they said they would meet us at the Lynyard Cay which was our next anchorage. We set anchor and decided that the seas were too rough to attempt the dive so we all picked up anchor and headed to Lynyard Cay which we would end up staying for a couple days due to seas being too rough to make it to Cherokee point. Easter Sunday found us up early with calls to the family wishing them a Happy Easter and heading into Little Harbor and Pete’s Pub where we had lunch and several Pete’s Pub Blasters.

Pete's Pub, is a great quaint outdoor pub

There’s a reason they call them blasters…..We were joined by Stu and Chuck from s/v Long Gone who we had met in Marsh Harbor along with a couple of their friends. A great day was had by all and a nice day on the beach collecting sea glass and shells made it that much better. Here is Dirk adding our Tybee Time to the wall

Tuesday the 6th we decided the anchorage was getting a bit rolly and the winds were due to clock around which would mean we would be exposed to more waves. Two nights of restless sleep and our decision was made to make way for Little Harbor which was a 30 minute trip from the anchorage. We had to wait until high tide as there isn’t much water getting in there and Dawn & Harvey draw a bit more than we do so they followed us in with us calling out depth every few feet so they wouldn’t ground. We grabbed a mooring ball and they anchored in one of the few spots to do so. Big Toot had come in the day before and FinniRish decided that if we had to wait on weather they would do it from Marsh Harbor so they could at least re provision and take care of some business. We should be here a few days so they will rejoin us before its time to head south. Little Harbor is a great little place, little being the best description. There is a small harbor surrounded by a high cliff on one side which opens to a small cove with a beach on the other side. Pete’s Pub is an open air bar that serves lunch at a pretty reasonable price. Large angus cheeseburger with a side of rice & corn and coleslaw for $14.00, and I might add, it’s very tasty. Of course one must wash it down with their signature drink called a Blaster. Moorings are 15.00 daily and the 4th day is free when you pay for 3. Garbage is 5.00 per bag to dispose and there are no facilities. But what a great place to hang out…..There are no grocery stores or businesses so stock up on food, water, and anything else you might need before you get here. Here is where we are moored in Little Harbor

Today Dirk was itching to do some conching as he keeps seeing the locals come in with lots but can’t find any himself. He ended up going over to the bar and asking if there was a local that could help him out. Charlie was pointed out and agreed to give Dirk some pointers and show him some good spots to go. Not an hour later they returned with their limit and a beaming Dirk. He was happy as he always is when he gets to do his hunting and gathering business. Charlie also sat there and helped Dirk clean them up giving him pointers along the way. Looks like conch fritters might be on the menu tonight. We finally decided that if we were to be here for several days we would bite the bullet and buy Internet for the week so we could check in with folks back home, update the blog and have access to some weather sites. One never realizes just how much we rely on these darn computers to make our lives easier, but just like TV we are learning to live without it. Our plan is as soon as we get a decent weather window is to head south to Eleuthera. You may hear from us before then depending on how long we will be here.