Green Turtle Cay

Mar 3 thru Mar 6

—Blogpost written by Bob

Saturday, March 3

The wind really increased during the night and into early morning. The wind was gusty and cool. It is currently blowing out of the north at 17 knots—it was a lot higher at times during the night. 

We are currently being pushed south on our mooring line by the northerly wind and we’re sitting in 11.3 feet of water about an hour before high tide--so, it is likely to be about 8 feet at low tide.  On land just to our south is a pier that collapsed at some point in the past.

This collapsed pier is about 50 to 75 yards
away from our mooring.  I wonder how
long it has been this way and how
long it will take them to fix it.

A high wind condition (15 to 30 knots) is forecast to stick with us until Tuesday, according to the two major weather forecasts on which we most rely.  Our weather windows to travel to Marsh Harbour are now single days:  Tuesday and next Saturday.  We're going to try to do a little provisioning today and then evaluate how long we could wait until we have to go to Marsh Harbour.  (We will probably have to stay in Marsh Harbour a couple days to work around the weather.)


We went into town to get some provisions, looking for which one of the three small grocery stores accepted credit cards.  The first one we visited (and the only one we haven't visited previously) did accept them--it was Lowe's Grocery.  When they tried to run our credit card the phone line experienced problems--even after several tries it wouldn't work.  So, the proprietor gave us store credit until the phone system is repaired.  We will go into town tomorrow and again try and use our credit card to pay off the store credit.  I am impressed with the how the proprietor handled this--VERY professional and trusting!  Lowe's Grocery will get all our business for this month for sure.

An open fishing boat pulled up on the beach just south
of New Plymouth on Green Turtle Cay.

Another fishing boat pulled up on the beach south of New
Plymouth.  The traps sitting on the pier are fish traps.

The wind is still quite turbulent at 4 PM. The strong wind is producing a low-pitched hum (like that of a string bass) as it passes by the rigging of a nearby sailboat. The noise created by the wind is similar to that of a distant train. There are white caps on Black Sound even though the waves are less than a foot high. If the wind would just clock around 45 degrees more to the east there would be less fetch for the waves to develop. 

We started happy hour about an hour earlier than normal today—it just seemed like the right thing to do. We zipped the front window into the dodger to shield us from the wind and, consequently, the cockpit is quite warm. We had pizza for dinner on board which is always a special treat for me.

Sunday, March 4

The wind subsided considerably during the night (thankfully).  Only rarely did we hear (and feel) the heavy “clunk” of our 44-lb anchor as the mooring line tried to lift it and move it sideways. This morning, I tied the anchor up to the bow pulpit and out of the mooring line’s path—I don’t know why it’s taken me a couple days to think of doing this.

This morning we tied the anchor up to the bow pulpit to
prevent it from touching our mooring lines.  This was
creating a clunking noise during the night.

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The velocity of the wind has already increased to 11 or 12 knots (still out of the north) with the sun’s rise—it is likely to increase a lot more as the day progresses. There are a lot of puffy white cumulus clouds in the sky and it is much cooler this morning than it has been lately—the temperature is probably in the mid-60’s in the shade. 

I straightened out the two mooring lines this morning--one had a big knot in it that prevented us from feeding it through the chock on the bow.  It took me a good half hour to get the knot out of the line, even using a marlinspike.  I put a section of vinyl hose over the other (smaller diameter) mooring line where it comes through the chock on the opposite side of the bow.

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The native people here on Green Turtle Cay have a thick old English accent similar to the people on Tangier Island, Virginia—both places were settled around the same time (late 1700’s).  Sometimes it is difficult for me to understand them.  Most of the properties have been handed down through generations. The people here appear to be honest and hard-working for the most part and the black and white races seem to be well integrated—they live next to one another in the settlement of New Plymouth.  Social classes are not noticeable here on Green Turtle like they are in Marsh Harbour. 

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One of the many abandoned houses
on Green Turtle Cay.

The weathered side of another abandoned house
in New Plymouth on Green Turtle Cay.

Ahhh, I never tire of looking at palm trees and
turquoise water.  This is a view from the
southeast side of New Plymouth.

Friends of ours, Jonathan and Marion of Eleuthera II, came over for happy hour (on our boat) this afternoon.  It's Jonathan's birthday (actually it was yesterday, March 3) and we bought a small carrot cake at McIntosh Bakery to celebrate it.

Eleuthera II on a mooring buoy
next to us in Black Sound.

Monday, March 5

We seem to have a good weather window today and tomorrow to go to Marsh Harbour!  We also have to work around the tides leaving and re-entering Black Sound. So, we will leave at 9:15 AM this morning (about an hour before high tide) and return tomorrow morning at about noon (about an hour after high tide). (Tides creep further out a little less than an hour per day since the lunar cycle is shorter than the sun’s cycle.)

The wind is currently blowing out of the north northeast at 11 knots here in Black Sound. The sky is partly cloudy. I can hear the heavy ocean surf on the eastern side of the Green Turtle—I hope it isn’t too rough going through the Whale Cay Passage this morning.

We dropped our mooring lines at 8:30 AM and headed out through the channel and into the Sea of Abaco--at this point the water was smooth.  As we got within a few miles of the Whale Cay Passage the wind shifted around to the east and was blowing over 20 knots.  We battled the high wind and waves for about an hour.  Needless to say, it was very uncomfortable riding the waves like a bronco.  Within about a half mile of the Whale Cay Passage, I decided to turn around and come back to Black Sound.  I was most concerned about the fact that our outboard engine was still mounted on the dinghy and we might lose it in the high waves.  The following photographs were taken on the way back to Black Sound:

It was very difficult to capture with a camera the mountains of turquoise water that we encountered.  The seas were probably 10 to 12 feet and we didn't even make it to the ocean.  I turned the boat 180 degrees around immediately after a big wave rolled under the boat--I didn't want to get caught broadside to the waves.

We arrived back in Black Sound at about 10:30 AM and it was so still and peaceful.  After we got tied up to our mooring again, Maggie asked if it was happy hour yet--it was only 11 AM.  In looking back at the weather forecast, the wind shift and increased intensity just before noon was predicted--I just missed it.

We walked into town after lunch on board to pay off the store credit we had at Lowe’s Grocery.  The island’s telephones lines were finally working today which allowed us to pay using our credit card.  We picked up a few more provisions and walked back to the dinghy dock (about 1/2 mile away).  We brought 5 gallons of fresh water back to the boat from the marina (in our blue 5-gallon water jug) and emptied it into our starboard water tank. (We’ve decided to do this every time we go to the dinghy dock since there is seldom available space at the marina’s dock for us to get fresh water, even though 100 gallons of fresh water is included in our monthly mooring rental.)

Captain Jack is taking advantage
of the late afternoon sun.

The wind has died down to less than 5 knots (currently from the northeast) and I can no longer hear the heavy surf on the ocean side of the island. It is hard to believe how calm it is at this time. My muscles ache just from the effort of staying upright during this morning’s excursion. For the remainder of the afternoon (after our walk into town and back), I lounged in the cockpit in the warm afternoon sun reading a book. It was heavenly! 

Black Sound at sundown on March 5.

I'm sure we will sleep well tonight...

Tuesday, March 6

A crowing rooster at the marina woke me up this morning at 7 AM.  The sun was already up. Our boat (and others in Black Sound) clocked around facing west southwest—a complete 180-degree shift from the past 10 days or so.  The very still air was cool.  I put on jeans and a long-sleeve t-shirt for my usual morning quiet time in the cockpit. The reflections from the surface of the water were almost as clear as the images I could see through the air.

Another cruising boat moored nearby.  A yellow
kayak is stored on the port bow.

Along about 7:15 a couple of men started to work on a dock nearby and the silence of the early morning was broken.  I think they were loading about a dozen 20-foot sections of rebar from the dock into the bed of a yellow pickup truck.  When loaded they drove off to the north on Loyalist Road in the direction where some new home construction is underway.  From then on the infrequent traffic on the nearby road was a blend of golf carts, pickup trucks and small cars carrying people going to work in the morning. I’m glad I’m no longer a working stiff!

About 10 AM we took s/v Rainy Days into the marina’s dock to fill up the fresh water tanks. We had been bringing 5 gallons at a time back to the boat every day but it was a very long process. When we saw the open space at the dock this morning, we jumped on the opportunity to fill up. The remainder of the day was spent reading and relaxing, a guilty pleasure for someone who rarely does nothing.

The wind is picking up a little out of the south as I grill four small lobster tails and a sweet potato for dinner. This is my last day of being 70 years old—I’ve considered starting to count my years backwards but whether I am 71 or 69, what is the difference? I’m still an old fart.  I want to remind everyone that my second annual 70th birthday party is tomorrow evening (March 7) at Pineapple's Bar & Grill on Green Turtle Cay.  (You will have to fly into Treasure Cay and take a water taxi to Green Turtle Cay--everyone is welcome!)

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