04-09-2015 - BAHAMAS, Green Turtle Cay, 4-3-15 - 4-9-15

We arrived at Green Turtle Cay, in the Abacos, the north eastern islands of the Bahamas, on 4/3/15, which was Good Friday. We were extremely pleased to realize that we could check in on Good Friday, even though it was a holiday. We found a place to load phone minutes onto our Bahamian phone, and bought delicious coconut bread to bring back to the boat.

We also found a public dumpster at the public dinghy dock, for which we were very grateful. We had been warned that trash disposal in the Bahamas would be difficult, expensive or impossible, as it is on many islands when boating. We had begun to try to dry our fruit peels in the sun so they would shrink and take up less space. We were relieved to discover that such extreme measures would not be needed!

Banana peel drying experiment - to reduce the volume of our trash

We tried to arrange to go scuba diving, but the dive shop was booked because it was a holiday week. It was also very expensive, but we put our names on the waiting list anyway. The operator said, "In case anyone comes down with the "Rum Flu" and cancels." We didn’t get called.

We explored the island, and found beautiful Gillam Bay Beach, where we swam, walked and searched for shells. We were looking for sand dollars, but someone else found them all first! Fortunately the beach was as pretty as the picture on our Discover card, so we easily forgot about the sand dollars ($$$). Swimming in the salty, clear, shallow water of the bay was heavenly.

Chuck walking along Gillam Bay Beach

Gillam Bay Beach

On trips into town (the settlement of New Plymouth, on Green Turtle Cay), we had lunch at “The Wrecking Tree,” and visited the Alton Lowe Museum of Green Turtle Cay and the Loyalist Memorial Sculpture Garden. 

Welcome to New Plymouth

Bronze statues in The Loyalist Sculpture Garden

View of the outer harbor from the settlement of New Plymouth

We also checked with the customs lady to see if the boat “Lady Ella” (that we “sort of” travelled with) had arrived, but she had no record of them. Maybe they decided to stay in FL?

On Saturday night, we went to the (ubiquitously advertised) fundraiser dinner for the Island Roots Heritage Festival coming up in May. $15 dinners – one jerk chicken and one ribs, both with rice and conch, sides: coleslaw, potato salad, mac and cheese. We added conch fritters, 6 for $3. All food was very good. We were stuffed!

Island Roots Heritage Festival Fundraiser Dinner

Over the first few days, we contacted Verizon many times, using our pre-smart Bahamas phone, (newly loaded up with minutes from The Down Through Liquor Store) to find out why our Verizon connectivity was not working. They told us we needed to be away from the water. What??? We’re on a small island! We tried using it in the interior of the island, but it still didn’t work. We cancelled the added Bahamas service and suspended our US service, since it was also unusable.

We soon discovered that the Green Turtle Club (resort), near the anchorage, has a lovely outdoor sitting area with free, open Wi-Fi. Yeah! We accessed email. Unfortunately, the Wi-Fi didn’t extend to the anchorage. No big deal.

Under the magic WIFI tree

Chuck in his private office

We met Perry, a Bahamian who works the conch salad stand at Green Turtle Club. I bought Conch Salad and Lobster Salad from Perry ($10 + $10) and watched him make them.

Perry, the Conch Salad vendor

Perry at work

Making the incision in the conch shell

Separating the conch from its shell

The entire conch, held by its foot

The delicious, edible part, after trimming

He showed me how to clean the conch and how to make the two salads. Here is how he made the salads:

2 cups conch salad: Fresh cut tomato, onion, green pepper (ratio: 1 : 1/2 : 1/4), salt, raw freshly-chopped conch, OJ, hot sauce, lime juice (from 1/4 of one lime)

1 cup lobster salad: Fresh cut tomato, onion, green pepper (ratio: 1 : 1/2: 1/4), salt, chopped cooked lobster meat, lemon juice, hot sauce, lime juice (from 1/4 of one lime), mayo

He told me I could put the leftover conch salad over grits for breakfast and it would be “Slap your brains out good!”  It was! But we didn’t wait for breakfast. We tried it that night for dinner.

Conch salad over grits

Chuck also caught a fish in the anchorage
and we sauteed the tiny fillets with butter and Old Bay Seasoning. Delicious!

Two days later, I was swimming in the anchorage, checking our anchor, and spotted 2 large conch under the boat. I grabbed mask and fins, and brought them both up – one at a time. They’re heavy! We opened them, not as gracefully as Perry did, but successfully, and I skinned the harvested conchs. That part was so much harder than it looked!  I cooked one with a few vegetables, rice and coconut milk, (“Conch and Rice”), and made gumbo with the other.  By the way, this was perfectly legal. Our fishing license, which came automatically with our check-in to the country, allows us to take conch, as long as they are fully mature.

Summer Wind, at anchor in White Sound, Green Turtle Cay

Having spent so much time in Vero Beach, we had met almost all of the cruisers who came through there. So it wasn’t long before we saw someone we recognized. It was Sally, from Maine, who, at the age of 19, is single handing on Athena, with her little black dog.  Sally grew up on and around boats. Her parents bought her Athena so she could take this trip and travel to college. Sally left Maine and sailed down the east coast and ICW in the late summer and fall, and then over to the Bahamas in the winter, to visit her grandparents. She is planning to attend college on the west coast of FL in the fall of 2015. I had read her blog and made a point to meet her when Athena showed up at Vero Beach Marina. While there, we invited Sally and her visiting girlfriends to dinner on our boat and had a lovely evening.  Here is a link to Sally’s blog:  http://www.pressherald.com/mainer-sally-gardiner-smith-sailing-college/

Sally on s/v Athena (taken at Vero Beach)

We visited other beaches on Green Turtle Cay and had picnics. We hunted for shells and sea fans. On “Ocean Beach” I found a bottle of vodka. It had been opened but was sealed with barnacles. The label had washed away but the bottle cap was metal and was imprinted with the word Vodka, in Russian, which looks more like “BO (triangle) KA”. So glad I took Russian in college! I sniffed it. It smelled like hand sanitizer. Yup, that’s vodka.

Found on Ocean Beach – I’d love to know how it got there! 

Unfortunately, no message in this bottle.

Ocean Beach

Ocean Beach

Sea Fans, collected on Ocean Beach

Limestone, dissolved by water, over time

Walking along a different, but very similar, Ocean-side beach, the next day

Nature's Art, multi colored limestone

More limestone artwork 

On Thursday, 4/9/15, we turned on the engine at 7 AM, hoisted the anchor at 7:10, and left Green Turtle Cay, headed south for ‘The Whale” and Marsh Harbor. The Whale is a set of cuts, north and south of Whale Cay. All boats, except the very smallest, need to go out into ‘the Mighty Atlantic” at Whale Cay because the interior passage is very shallow and rocky. So we go out on one end of Whale Cay, travel the 2 mile length of the island in the Atlantic, and return to the Sea of Abaco on the other side.  All travelers are concerned with the conditions at the Whale each day, since it can be very rough and occasionally impassable. Even on a calm day, sea conditions that have built up between Africa and the Bahamas can make conditions difficult in The Whale. So we listen for official reports and ask fellow cruisers (or anyone listening) for informal reports. Conditions for us were rolly and a little windy (15-16 kts), but doable. When requested, we gave this report over the radio to another boat as we were passing through.

At noon, we arrived in Marsh Harbor, the big city, ready for new adventures.

Sandy and Chuck 

on S/V Summer Wind