Green Turtle Cay

Mar 9 thru Mar 11

--Blogpost written by Bob

Last night, beginning from a blogpost from INI A KENA, describing an effort to make the “perfect” Goombay Smash, we made a few versions for ourselves.  We used further adaptations to the ingredients to what we could reasonably obtain and lived within the crude levels of our measurements (using only a jigger) to an already “perfected” recipe.  Maggie and I split 3+ servings of the following recipe:

• 1.5 oz Gosling’s dark rum (Pusser's would be good too)
• 0.75 oz Cruzan coconut rum
• 0.5 oz Triple Sec (any brand is OK)
• 3 oz Dole pineapple juice
• 0.5 oz lime juice
• one packet of Splenda

The color turns out to be a dark gold, like a heavy beer or ale, and there is some foam on top after shaking.  We used a bright green lime wedge as garnish--it  is the “perfect” color contrast to the gold color of the drink. 

One of our "perfected" Goombay
Smash cocktails.

Of course, the “perfect” time to drink a Goombay Smash, in our opinion, is while the sun is still warm, about 1-1/2 hours before sunset.  (We drank Goombay Smashes at Miss Emily’s Blue Bee Bar in the middle of the afternoon and the drink was too light in color, in my opinion, and didn’t have as much body as the drinks we made on our boat.  I guess the timing wasn’t right either.)  So, ours is a “super perfected” recipe—certainly not the original. 

Friday, March 9

The wind died down considerably this morning and it feels a little warmer, probably due to the lack of wind. We currently have a preliminary weather window opening up for March 17 & 18 for our trip back to Marsh Harbour for cash and provisions. 

After breakfast on board we made a large jug of Goombay Smashes. Fortunately, for us the remaining pineapple juice was the critical ingredient and we had 30 ounces (3 ounces was required for one serving)—this meant that we could simply multiply all the ingredient amounts by 10. We made 1/2 gallon of Goombay Smashes. I wonder how long these will last?

After we made the Goombay Smashes, we went into the public dock with our dinghy and walked toward Gillam Bay.  This time instead of taking the right fork toward the beach, we took the left fork which went past a number of beach front homes.

These bulkheads were constructed
from some type of plastic

In front of one of the beachfront homes, a bulkhead was installed to keep the beach from eroding away.  The bulkheads were made of some type of plastic--this is the first time I've seen this.  I'm sure the bulkhead sections will last a long time but they were fastened to longitudinal with carbon steel bolts--these will only last about 6 months since they are exposed to salt water!

These are the channel markers at the entrance to
Black Sound.A little confusing?  One has to
stay between the red and the green
and ignore the extra pilings 
and advertisement signs.

Motoring out from White Sound after
our lunch at the Green Turtle Club

S/v Rainy Days on her mooring at the
southern end of Black Sound.

We had delicious crispy grouper wraps at the Green Turtle Club for lunch today.  Since we have grouper marinating in the fridge, we decided to have pizza for dinner tonight and grilled grouper tomorrow night--this was the most important decision we made today.

Our cruising life is really simple. We live from moment-to-moment and day-to-day, doing whatever moves us.  On a whim, we had lunch at the Green Turtle Club in White Sound and there, as we are trying to decide what to order for lunch, we decided what we’re having for dinner tonight (pizza) and tomorrow night (grilled Grouper).  Other than that, the only other decisions we had to make for today was when to get showers and when do we start happy hour—it doesn’t necessarily start at the same time every day.

Many times lately, I have felt like a slacker—today is one of those times.  Of course, in retirement, I’m supposed to be a slacker.  Writing this blog is now my purpose in life, at least one of them.  I guess as I adapt more to retirement, I will feel less like a slacker. We’ll see.

Dusk on Black Sound on March 9, 2018.

In our travels today, I picked up a large coconut that fell off a coconut palm.  Tomorrow, we will tackle the preparation of this coconut...

Saturday, March 10

The wind clocked around from the north (last night) to the east (this morning). It’s still very cool as the sun comes up. This is the tenth day we have been here on our mooring in Black Sound. The rooster at the marina is still crowing at a little after 7 AM.

This is the rooster that wakes me up every morning
before sunrise.  Here  he is crowing in mid-day
in response to a nearby rival's crows.

The owner of the marina, Donny Sawyer, is genuinely a nice guy.  He's making a major retrofit of a 23-foot fishing boat for someone, has a small boat rental business, as well as the marina's slips and moorings.  In addition, he has a vegetable garden and all these chickens as pets--they roam free around the property.  Sometimes I wake up in the morning, thinking I'm living in a barnyard.

In mid-morning, we took the dinghy up to Leeward Yacht Club and parked it at their dinghy dock while we walked to the next property north where there is a small hydroponic farms selling salad greens.

The plants are grown in a vertical arrangement with the
nutrient-mixed water being supplied at the top
of each plant stand.  The excess water
cascades to the plants below.

The vertical plant stands are arranged in rows where there
is sufficient space to walk between them.  The
customers pick their own salad greens.

The proprietor of the organic farm explained that the vertical watering system was developed for use in space because it occupied very little space.  Coconut coir and vermiculite mixed is the growing soil.  He plans to add a mesh roof on top so that the growing can continue into the summer months.  (This seems like something I could really get into!)


After a delicious lunch at the Leeward Yacht Club on Black Sound, we decided to tackle the coconut that I picked up yesterday.  The following photographs tell the story of my 1-1/2 hour effort:

The above photographs don't include pulling the white coconut meat out of the pieces of shell.  I still have all ten fingers in tact!  Was the effort worthwhile?  I'll let you know when we use the two cups of coconut meat for something.  (I drank some of the coconut water with some rum and I wasn't impressed.)

Sunday, March 11

It rained heavily during the night and into the early morning.  The sky is still overcast and gray.  The predicted thunderstorms never materialized, fortunately.

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This morning, I thought I would try to bypass our hot water heater in an attempt to avoid the fresh water leak and the resulting depletion of our fresh water supply.  So, I simply took off the fresh water inlet hose and the fresh water outlet hose and connected them together using spare fittings I had on board.

As a temporary bypass, I took the fresh water inlet line and
connected it to the hot discharge line.  I then drained
the fresh water out of the water heater.

The original (gray color) QEST fittings are still in place in the vicinity of the water heater. Everywhere else, I’ve changed them out using conventional hose and hose barb fittings. When I replace the water heater this summer, I plan to get rid of the QEST fittings and hoses entirely.

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Our weather window for going back to Marsh Harbour is now Friday (3/16) through Sunday (3/18) based on two different weather forecasts. This is great news since it will give us more time to get things accomplished in Marsh Harbour.

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I spent some time this morning researching the problem with the wiring for our masthead light, ordering a selector switch, and writing some emails to check the old work orders for when the masthead light was installed. I plan to do all the masthead work when we get to Vero Beach in about a month.

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Maggie's flourless coconut muffins made using the
fresh coconut meat from yesterday.  They
are delicious!  Note that one is missing.

We spent all afternoon relaxing and reading.  Stay tuned for our continuing adventure in the Abacos.  Incidentally, if you want a different (female) viewpoint of the same adventures, check out my wife's blog: AgingMermaid.blogspot.com.

Thanks for following our blog!