Crew log for March 19th - 20th, 2023
Trip Summary:
• Hope Town, Elbow Cay – Green Turtle Cay
• Trip Distance of 28.8 NM, Total Distance To-Date of 3,205.4 NM
• Departed at 09h00, arrived at 15h45
Wow. This is our 100th Crew Log report. Despite all the planning, I couldn't have imagined this adventure, let alone documenting 100 Crew Logs, with more to come! For those of you who have been following along with us, thanks for reading them and we hope you enjoy them.
We are in Hope Town which is in the Sea of Abaco. There is a large sand bar that stretches from Treasure Cay, all the way across the Sea of Abaco to South Bar, appropriately called Sand Bank Cay. In order to get further north and west, we would need to navigate through Whale Cay Cut, which meant, briefly sticking our bow out into the Atlantic, before tucking back in again on the other side. Getting through Whale Cut required the right conditions, lighter winds and nothing out of the north east. We also decided to time our arrival at the cut with slack tide, which meant we had a leisurely morning to prep for our departure.
The winds were south west, between 10 – 15 knots and it was sunny with a few cloudy patches. Almost perfect conditions for our trip. We were headed to New Plymouth on Green Turtle Cay, one of the barrier islands off mainland Great Abaco. It is 3 miles long and a half a mile wide and is only accessible by boat. About 450 people call Green Turtle Cay home, the most of which live in New Plymouth, which was founded in the 18th century.
New Plymouth also features the "Loyalist Memorial Sculpture Garden," a Bahamian National Monument featuring 24 busts of prominent Bahamians arranged around a central pair of life-sized bronze figures of both black and white loyalist women. While there are cars on the island, golf carts and bicycles are the usual mode of transport. Green Turtle Cay is known for its beaches, several resorts with marinas and, is a stopover-point for southbound vessels during periods of rough seas in the Whale Cay Passage.
In August 2019, Green Turtle Cay along with the rest of the Abacos was struck by Hurricane Dorian. Although there were no reported causalities resulting from the hurricane, the damage to Green Turtle Cay was substantial.
As I was putting waypoints for the cut into the chartplotter, a couple from sv First Love dinghied over to ask about our plans. Gill, originally from South Africa and Sharlene, were from North East, Maryland and wondered if they could attach their marker to our mooring ball to secure it. They joked and said they were also members of the “Small Boat Club”, which meant they we on a boat less than 35 feet, which is rare. They had a wealth of experience and freely shared some helpful advice with us. They also knew Magali, another Small Boat Club member.
We had spotted a couple of waterspouts to the east that created a little excitement, but they fortunately were well away from us. Luckily, our trip through Whale Cay Cut was very uneventful, just as we’d hoped. There were several other boats transiting in both directions, and all reported very good conditions. I guess all that research and planning pays off after all!
The anchorages at Green Turtle Cay were all full as were the marinas given the pending bad weather, which meant we’d have to anchor. Unfortunately, there is no room in either Black Sound or White Sound to anchor. The ocean bottom around any areas that might have been a possibility was littered with hurricane damage debris and any where there wasn’t, the space was occupied by salvaged boats.
Our only real option was to anchor just outside, to the east of Green Turtle, off of Black Sound Point. There were a couple of boats already there, including ParBlue. Unfortunately, the bottom was covered in grass and we struggled to get the anchor to hold. We decided to check out White Sound and were excited to see an empty mooring. However, when we called the mooring operator, they said the mooring wasn’t safe and told us not to tie up to it.
We eventually anchored in Joyless Point, just outside the entrance to White Sound. It provided excellent protection from the north and east, but we would be completely exposed to anything out of the west or south. As we were anchoring, the skies opened up and it started to pour. It rained a lot. When I came in, Judy said the song “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?” by CCR was playing on our playlist. In case you were wondering, the answer is, YES!!!!
There were 6-7 Canadian boats in our anchorage and 3-4 more in the Black Sound Point anchorage. Most, like us, were headed home, although 1 or 2, had just arrived and were still heading south.
Judy cooked up an amazing meal with the lobster tails we got at Hope Town. Absolutely delicious and a nice way to end the day. Later that night, it started to pour again and the wind kicked up. Things got a little bumpy, but thankfully the anchor held.
We dinghied into Green Turtle Cay and New Plymouth to do a little exploring and maybe find a spot for lunch. There was still a lot of evidence of damage from Hurricane Dorian, although there seemed to be a lot of people around. Businesses were open but it was obvious that many of them were operating out of temporary locations or at reduced capacity. The resorts around White Sound seemed to be much further ahead in their rebuilding efforts.
Our friend Kay from Willow recommended we check out, Plymouth Rock Liquors and Cafe for lunch. It was a small cafe and the walls were lined with liquor bottles. I recognized a couple who had been at the cello concert in Hope Town a few days before, sitting in front of the whiskey section. They were leaving the boat in Green Turtle for a few weeks while they headed back to the States.
Another couple were sitting in front of the rum section, so we picked the table next to the liqueur section. Thankfully no one had an urgent need for a bottle of Triple Sec or Irish Cream, which meant we could enjoy our meal uninterrupted. It was definitely one of the more unique places we have ever eaten. I couldn’t help but pick up a couple of bottles of wine before we left. No one had to move.
We headed around the corner on the dinghy into Black Sound harbor. We had met a couple in Annapolis on a boat called “I Know You” a CS36, the bigger sister to our CS33. They were from Fredericton and sailed the boat out of St. John. They told us they decided to put the boat on the hard at Green Turtle and head back to Fredericton in February. It was easy to spot in the boatyard, given the Canadian flag was still on the back of it. The dodger and sails were still on it too, which made us question how safe it would be during hurricane season.
We also met Stacey Merritt and his first mate, also out of St. John. Stacey was a boatbuilder, originally from Digby County, Nova Scotia. He had recently completed a custom hard enclosure for his Hunter sailboat and added a couple of feet to the back to make it easier to get on and off. Stacey planned to be back at the marina in St. John before the first of May, which was when he had to be back at work in the boatyard. I don’t think we’ll be buddy boating with him.
We dinghied over to White Sound and toured around area, which is when we saw Gypsy, a ketch out of Georgia. We first ran into them at Lucaya, just after we arrived in the Bahamas, and went hunting for cell phone SIM cards together. We saw them again a few times, the last time when we were having happy hour on the supper yacht. Again, we reflected on how interesting it was that we have this community of new friends that are all floating around in boats that we keep running into. There is something comforting about seeing a familiar face in an anchorage.
Back at the anchorage, the conditions hadn’t improved. It was still uncomfortably rolly and for the first time that I can remember, we had to run the engine to top up the batteries. It had been overcast the last few days and so we weren’t getting much out of the solar panels. We had a windmill, but for the life of me, I can’t make that thing work, so it is tied off.
I apologize for this Crew Log from Green Turtle Cay, but I promised myself from the start, our account of our adventures would be honest. Of all the places we had visited to-date in the Bahamas, the damage in Green Turtle was the worst we'd had seen. However, regardless of the physical condition, the people were welcoming and there were lots of signs of progress. I expect if our anchorage had been more comfortable and the weather had been better, our assessment of Green Turtle Cay might not have come across so gloomy.
That said, we decided there was too little joy in Joyless Point. We had however, heard good things about some of the other anchorages in Abaco. We wanted to see some of them before we headed back to the US. We were headed to Manjack Cay, not far from Green Turtle, which was beautiful and one of the more unique places we visited in the Bahamas.
But more about that, next time.
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