Green Turtle Cay

 We arrived in the Bahamas on the 17th of January. We had enjoyed some very settled weather for the first three days. That makes life on a boat very easy and pleasant. We had an amazing day of sailing on the 20th. It was very calm, but just enough wind to cruise along at about 3 knots. We did not plan to go far, so that was just fine with us. We stopped for the night outside of Foxtown. We were in an unprotected anchorage, but it was so calm we expected all would be fine. We would be wrong! We had no wind, but we were exposed to some ocean swell that was coming through the reef and we rocked and rolled all night. Lesson learned.

Thanks to our Starlink, I am able to get up to date weather forecasting anywhere we are. I had been watching a forecasted change coming in for the 23rd. During the winter months the weather in the Abacos is very comfortable. Highs about 80 F and lows about 70 F. We normally have a SE wind at about 10 to 15 knots. That all changes about once a week with a "norther". That is a cold front that comes from the North American mainland and turns our winds out of the North. It usually only drops the temperature about 5 F, but the wind can blow as strong as 30 knots for a day or so. It is time to find some protection in the lee of an island or even better, a protected harbor. 

One of those protected harbors is on Green Turtle Key. I had heard about a little cruiser hangout called Donny's in Black Bay on GTC. I sent him a request for a mooring ball, but he was full. He did offer us a marina slip for $45 per night. That is a good deal in the Bahamas. We went for it and thought we may stay a couple of days. Without really talking to each other, our friends Rich and Laura had made the same reservation. 

You have to go into the bay at mid or higher tide and remarkably we arrived at the entry of the harbor at almost the same time. 

I spent much of my time fishing as we cruised along. No, I did not catch anything, but did see a shark chase my lure for a bit.

Kim took advantage of the very calm conditions to put a coat of Teak Guard on our brightwork. Pretty crazy to be able to do that under full sails.

This is one of the many island (Cays) pronounced "Keys" that we sailed by. You can see how calm the water was.

Here is our slip at Donny's

Donny's is an icon in this area and caters to cruisers on a budget, like us.

Donny's Dock Dynasty. We met a number of other cruisers. This place was destroyed by Hurricane Dorian in 2019. It was rebuilt with the help of many cruisers that came back to help Donny out. To listen to Donny tell the story about the storm is pretty horrific. 

Green Turtle is a small island that is only about 2.5 miles long. Most of the travel on the island is by golf cart. We got around the island with a cart that Rich and Laura rented for a few days and then we rented one for a couple of days. We went to a beautiful beach that had a nice reef just off shore. We had a blast snorkeling and swimming at the beach. 

The beach on the ocean side of GTC. 

The sunsets are next level.

The black line in the crystal clear water is a reef that is full of fish to see. 

Kim, Rich and Laura and David and Paula at a restaurant overlooking the water.

Just another nice beach

They were cleaning fish on the dock above. There are 5 Nurse Sharks swimming around.

This is sun down and Sundowners restaurant.

I never get tired of these beautiful sunsets.

This is a totally different beach. We went there on a windy, stormy day.

Rich and Laura. Rich got three coconuts.

The signs in the islands are always interesting. This cart was terrible, but it got us home...barely.

A beautiful mural on a local building.

A view of the settlement of New Plymouth. It was established by loyalists to the British crown that had left the US after the Revolutionary War. 

The old Jail. 

There is evidence of the damage of Hurricane Dorian all around you. Much has been done to clean it up, but some looks like it happened yesterday. 

I just like this shot on the waterfront. The water is so clear. 

 You can not visit the Abaco's without seeing the destruction caused by Dorian. It is all around you. Many things have been rebuilt, but some structures are just a foundation. The damage is really hard to imagine. This is so much worse than any other storm damage I have seen. The people have survived and are getting on with life. The double whammy happened with COVID. They need the tourist dollars to rebuild. This is the first season since 2019, that people are coming back in large numbers, but it still has a long way to go. 

We really enjoyed Green Turtle. We ended up staying 9 days at Donny's. He has a weekly rate that is a great deal, so we started with that and then we had to wait out some more weather to leave. We finally left on January 30th. We had big hurdle to overcome next. It is something called the "Whale". What is the Whale you ask? Well come back to my next entry and I will tell you all about it.