Crab Cay to Green Turtle Cay

First a few photos (there are a lot of photos in this post) from our day at Crab Cay that I forgot to put in the last post:

Pizza and Montepulciano

“Mr. Pelican” by Cindy Carey

For those non-sailors, these networks of lines are called Ladyjacks which keep the mainsail from spilling all over the boat when lowered. The attachments of the lazyjacks to the stack pack (into which the mainsail stacks when lowered) are rotting from UV exposure.

A look around the anchorage from halfway up the mast

Bella Luna in the Crab Cay anchorage from mid-mast

Cindy, sporting our bluetooth headphones for communication during anchoring, docking, and mast-climbing.

The end of a beautiful day.

Wednesday was the last day of our passage to the Abacos. We raised our anchor and motored out of the Crab Cay anchorage around 7:15 a.m. About 20 minutes later, we rounded Crab Cay and progressed southeastward through the Sea of Abaco along the eastern coast of Great Abaco Island. Waves were about two feet and coming from the direction of our port beam. It was a pleasant three and a half hour passage with mostly sun, with a brief rain shower mixed in.

Scotland, the vessel who pulled into the Crab Cay anchorage last evening, who followed us to Green Turtle Cay

A brief shower drove us into the salon where I am navigating on my iPad.

A beautiful day on the Sea of Abaco

The northern end of Green Turtle Cay

Just before 11 a.m., we entered the channel marking the entrance into White Sound on Green Turtle Cay. Upon doing so, we hailed Andrew, the dockhand at Bluff House Marina to apprise him of our arrival. After making our way up the 7′ deep channel, we approached Bluff House Marina on our port side. Andrew was there waving his hands to help us tie up… And, we needed his help. We pulled into one of the “catamaran” slips which are 26′ wide. These slips have pilings off the dock, but no finger piers coming out from the main dock. So, we’d have to exit off either the front or back of the boat. We decided to back in, which was a challenge, given the 20 knot winds and current. However, we made it just fine after some fancy maneuvering, and after a while we were all tied up. It’s not the most ideal of situations since, in order to be close enough to step off our stern, our davits overhang the dock. There are 3-3.5′ tides which means they rise and fall above and below the dock level. Anyway… we ended up pulling forward a little bit and will probably pull forward a little more today. I definitely don’t want the davits to be damaged on the dock.

The channel marking the entrance into White Sound

Destination in view

Andrew, helping with the lines

Beatiude’s home for a few weeks: Bluff House Marina

The docking process was a little exhausting, so we walked up to the Jolly Roger restaurant at the marina and had a very good lunch of cracked conch and cole slaw (me), and a grilled chicken sandwich with cole slaw (Cindy). Afterwards, we returned to the boat to tidy up and get some laundry ready to wash. You will probably be seeing a lot of pictures of me washing laundry in a five gallon bucket in the future. The cost of laundry in the Bahamas is outrageous: Five dollars per washer load and five dollars per dryer load! We spent $40.00 doing laundry. Never again! (I know…Never say never.)

The sitting/lounge area for cruisers

Inside the Jolly Roger

The restroom/shower/laundry area

$40.00 for laundry!!!!

We squeezed in a little pleasure between loads of laundry by walking over to the private beach, where we laid in a hammock and watched the sunset. The setting was spectacular and the sunset was beautiful. Tomorrow is our last full day in the Bahamas for a while. We fly back to the states on Friday.