Green Turtle & Manjack Cay

Well after arriving, getting checked in and heading into the Green Turtle Club marina I stepped on land for the first time in about a week.

Here I am hoisting the Bahama courtesy flag

We all took long hot showers, changed and headed into the Tipsy Turtle bar for a sun downer celebration.After indulging in 3 signature Tipsy Turtle drinks apiece we finally decided that dinner needed to come next. We headed out to the porch where we had the 1st conch of the season served in conch fritters and each one of us ate some of the best burgers we had had in a long time. Ummm maybe it was because it was the first meal I didn’t have to cook in a while or maybe it was the turtles, but man was it good. Off to bed for an early night and up early to get some laundry done before we took off. 4 tokens costing $17.00 got me 2 loads of wash and 2 loads of dry, gee it’s good to be back but I can’t wait till it warms up some and we can live in swim suits. While Barbara and I did laundry the men were back on the boats refilling the fuel and water tanks and once we were done we pulled out of the dock and headed to the outside of Green Turtle to anchor for a couple nights. The above photo was taken next to the boat at the dock, look at that clear water..

We of course took the tour of New Plymouth visiting the local shops, stopping for lunch, and getting a few groceries bought. Dirk & Klaus took the dinghy out one day to the reefs to snorkel and hunt while Barbara and I took the time to beach comb and relax.

How relaxing is that...


First day out and Dirk got his first two lobsters of the season.

On the 18th we headed to Manjack Cay for a couple days of beach combing and snorkeling. The water it turns out is just a bit chilly to be in for any length of time for me but Dirk is just fine with it and goes at it every chance he gets. A squall came through the anchorage the next morning and we drug anchor for about 20 feet before it reset itself. Now mind you in all the years we have owned Tybee Time we have a great record of never dragging. Manjack is a great anchorage but really only in calmer weather. We knew this from last year and we weren’t due to have any type of weather. Oh well, Mother Nature plays it her way. We were actually okay where we had reset but decided we felt safer a bit farther away from the rocky walls that were now about 60 yards behind us now so we picked up anchor and moved to a different spot. This evening we would need to head back to Green Turtle as a cold front was due to blow and we preferred to be on a mooring ball in the harbor for that one. First however we decided to check out the reefs one more time and indeed came back with 2 more lobsters. We then pulled anchor and headed back to safer waters. That night the cold front came in and brought with it some hefty winds. At one time we recorded 40 knots as it heeled the boat enough to toss some things out of the shelves. Whew, I’m glad we are on a mooring but now we have to worry about the people anchored around us and hope they don’t drag. The next morning it seemed everyone was pretty much in the same place which was where they stayed due to a rough day predicted again. Seems there is about 2 to 3 days of settled weather and then 2 days of cold front so it’s out to the anchorage for a few and into the harbor for a few. We have been checking out the reefs and the various beaches here in Green Turtle quite a bit. My beach combing has paid off with the find of many sea beans, sea biscuits and sea glass. Brown hamburgers, red hamburger, various hearts and other types. Some look rough but I read that I can polish them up

I’m a happy camper and Dirk to date has bagged 9 lobsters, most of which end up on our plates a couple hours after spearing. I'm not complaining though, would you? Dinner one evening consisting of lobster cooked on the grill with garlic, butter, and Lemon with sauteed summer squash with garlic and onion and rice pilaf. Not eating too shabby....

Yesterday we moved back out to the anchorage and bid our buddy boaters Klaus and Barbara on s/v Klabara farewell. They have decided to take a mooring ball and stay in Green Turtle for the duration of their time here as they have to be back in the states the end of next month. This gives them time to relax and explore the island at a snails pace and that's what its all about. We will miss them dearly as they have been great buddy boaters and have become dear friends. We wish them safe travels on their way back to the states. As for us, we continue on south staying out in the anchorage for a couple more days before heading south through the whale and on to Great Guana, home of Nippers and Grabbers and more beautiful beaches.

Bahamas

Day after day we watched the weather on various web sites, sail flow, passage weather, NOAA and every time we could manage to get up early enough, we would tune in the SSB (single side band) to catch the weather guru Chris Parker. Weather windows opened, and then they closed. Anyone that has made a crossing can pretty much agree in my opinion that it’s not the crossing but the waiting that is more nerve wracking. Well, it’s pretty close anyway after sitting here recalling some past crossings we have made. Our buddy boat Klabara is also anxious as this will be their first crossing and time is getting short for them as they must be back in Florida by the end of February to return to Canada. For their sake we hoped it would be soon. Things were coming together, the boat was about as provisioned as it could be without completely losing our waterline, the fuel tanks were full, water topped off and to boot Chris Parker said that Tuesday would be a go for the crossing. Although it would be a short window we would jump on it. The last of items were checked off, lee cloths were attached so we could keep items contained in case it was a rough crossing, V Berth, aka garage, tied down,

meals prepared so all I would have to do is re-heat them, jack lines, harnesses, life vest and ditch bag laid out. It was to be an early morning. Sleep was hard to come by but 2:20 found us way too easy in my opinion. Coffee was prepped and we pulled anchor with a takeoff time of 3:10. Our anchorage was very close to the inlet so we didn’t have far to go in the dark finding our way past the channel markers to get into the ocean. As predicted, the winds had calmed down from the day before and the seas were 3 feet or less. All good in our book….The plan was to go straight east till we hit the Gulf Stream than take a heading of 085 and head for Little Bahama Bank, north of Memory Rock. From that point we headed to Great Sale which would be our anchorage for the night. Travelling in the dark is never fun even with radar; we were happy that we had no issues and were glad to see the light hit the horizon in the morning. We hit the Little Bahama Bank eight and a half hours later glad as usual that it was over although we still had another eight and half to go.

You can see the line of lighter water which indicates you are on the banks

As the light was beginning to fade on the banks it became foggy which is unsettling to travel in but we had to continue on with nowhere to stop.

Our first Bahama sunset on the banks

We could have anchored on the banks but like I had said the weather window was to be a short one and sometime early morning the winds were due to pick up and being anchored on the banks with strong winds is something I don’t want to deal with. Once again our radar was saving our butts and we appreciated it. As we approached Great Sale we saw a few lights emerge out of the fog of other boats anchored. There were only 4 others anchored so we had no trouble finding a place of our own to throw our own anchor out. So seventeen and a half hours after we left West Palm Beach we were anchored in the Bahamas ready to begin another cruising season. A few things were put away and very soon after that sleep was on the agenda. We decided to stay put here in Great Sale until Thursday as the winds are predicted to blow pretty steady all day. On Thursday morning Chris Parker said the winds would still blow but not as bad as the previous day. They were supposed to be15 to 25 out of the north and it’s not the best to travel in but we needed to move on. And move on we did with our sights set at Crab Cay. It was a long day with most of it spent heeling and getting splashed with salt water over the side. What I wouldn’t give for a full cockpit enclosure right now. It was 66 degrees out of the wind and it seemed like a lot less in it. By the time we set the hook it was all I could do to whip up a little bite to eat and haul myself to bed as there was to be more of the same in the morning. Friday we pulled anchor at at about 8:30 with Green Turtle in our sights as we have yet to check into the Bahamas. By lunch we anchored off the government dock and Dirk went into customs to get the paperwork done. I will add what I have found out regarding the length of stay that can be gotten right now. There have been numerous reports of cruisers this year only receiving a 30 day cruising permit at a time. At the end of that time you must go back to customs to request another. It seems like anywhere that every customs office makes its own rules up depending on how they are feeling for the day. Our buddy boat and we both received 90 days so at that time we will request another 90 and continue cruising. We then pulled anchor and headed into White Sound to grab a slip at the Green Turtle Club Marina. After checking in the first thing on the agenda was to grab a nice hot long shower. We will go grab a meal later as the marina special right now is that whatever you eat or drink gets deducted from your slip fee. Sounds good to me but remember, we are in the Bahamas now and it won’t take too long to run that tab up. So now this is the start of our new adventure. Time to quit running every day, take a breath, sit back, relax and enjoy. Just hope the weather decides to be Bahama weather rather than what our friends are experiencing back home right now.

Finally broke the bonds of Vero Beach

Vero certainly was a stop that we wanted to make but we really didn’t have intentions of staying as long as we did. But then I don’t think many people do, it just happens. As I had said before, Vero is actually very cruiser friendly with the availability of getting what you need where you need. The bad thing however is sometimes it makes shopping too easy, thus spending money like it was burning a hole in our pocket. Let’s just say that it was time to move on as it was becoming too expensive to be here. We spent Christmas along with our friends Barbara and Klaus from s/v Klabara on board Tybee Time. I made a glazed ham along with the corn casserole I had been craving for some time. Klabara brought over red cabbage, dumplings with wonderful gravy and I made a nicely spiked rum cake for desert. We were gonna head to the boaters lounge for drinks and conversation with the other boaters but it had soon turned dark and had gotten too cold for any of us to want to brave the dinghy ride to do so. So instead we stayed here, drank warm gluehwein and watched a Jeff Dunham special. The weather had been cold and it was getting colder. Isn’t this Florida? Lucky for us we had bought that heater, but my goodness were we going through some propane. Your kind of limited as to how much you can buy, by the amount you can carry. Any boater knows that buying it from West Marine will put a major dent in the cruising kitty but the only other places were Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Wal-Mart which required switching buses and a longer commute. A few times we just bit the bullet and handed the money over to West Marine. Several nights we saw temperatures in the 20’s which didn’t allow the days to warm up too much. We spent our evenings keeping busy playing cards,

eating, and watching several movies we had purchased just for this reason. So with no weather to travel we stayed put and celebrated New Years Eve also in Vero. New Years day we looked at the weather and decided we needed to head south and so the following morning we paid our dues to the marina, untied ourselves from Klabara and slipped off the mooring ball. As we hit the south end of the mooring field Dirk blew the conch horn to say farewell to some new friends made, Kathy & Earl from s/v Seeker.

I have been in touch with Kathy for quite some time now as they own a 39 O’Day and well you tend to know others that own the same boat as you. I’m sure we will cross paths again as they are headed the same direction soon. We made our way to Jensen Beach Bridge and spent the first night in a long time anchored, and un-rafted. The following day we headed to West Palm Beach and it was what seemed like the land of bridges. When we left West Palm in June we had traveled the outside, I now know why. There are several fixed bridges that we could go under no problem but then you have 3 bridges that open on the half hour and one that is quarter after and quarter till. Well these bridges are situated so that when you go through the first one you have to race to get to the next and so on. If the bridge tender is late in opening or you have a current working against you, you may not make the next bridge, thus causing you to wait 30 minutes for the next opening. It’s not like you can pull over and park your boat while waiting, usually you have numerous fishing, pleasure boats that can make it under zipping past you left and right as you sit in the middle of the channel turning circles. It can be quite the nail biter at times and mentally wears you out. At least it does me and a lot more other boaters I have talked to. Finally we made it through all the bridges and picked our way to the south anchorage past the inlet and threw the hook out.Hopefully this will not be our home for long as we wait for the magical weather window in order to cross over the Gulf Stream and make it back to the Bahamas. The one nice thing here is that the weather has been warmer and we wore shorts for the first time in a long time. The water is clear enough that you can see the bottom so Dirk took advantage and dove in to clean the bottom of Tybee Time of all the slime build up from just sitting all that time. Unfortunately when he went down he noticed that our prop shaft zinc was missing, not good. The zinc on a boat is a chunk of lead used as a sacrificial metal to protect the exposed metals such as props, through hulls and so forth from being destroyed and eaten by stray current in the water. It’s difficult to explain if you’re not knowledgeable about how electrical current works on your boat when it’s plugged into shore power. Bottom line is that if your zinc is gone the current attacks the good stuff. How and when it came off, we don’t know but we had put a new one on in July when we had the boat hauled in Beaufort, NC. So the zinc was gone and our prop took the abuse. Dirk noticed the blades of the brass prop were beginning to have the edges eaten away. It wasn’t enough to cause any problems yet as it had been a while since we had been in a marina for any length of time but we felt we needed to get a spare prop and prop puller before heading to the Bahamas. Lucky for us we found a company in Washington State that could make it and ship it same day so that we could receive it the next. All the others were several hundred dollars more and wanted six weeks to get it in. Leave it to Dirk, he knows how to shop around. So now we sit, hopefully not too long here and wait along with several others for the weather to cross. Hopefully the next post you see is great news saying we finally made it.