Turkey's Don't Float

November 25, 2004
By Tom

Friday, November 19, 2004 - Mangrove Cay, Abacos, Bahamas

We intended to leave around 1 AM for the Bahamas, but the winds were still up and nobody else in the anchorage was budging. At the risk of feeling like a herd animal, I figured it would be a good idea to have company during the passage.

The rest of the boats in the anchorage headed out at first light, and so did we (moo). The winds were on the nose, which we knew they were going to be, and the seas were still pretty sloppy when we got out there.

It was a long, noisy, bumpy day of motoring. Maggie seemed indignant at the motion and instead of standing watch with me, retreated to her hammock to avoid the bouncing. She was still in little princess mode when we landed. But we got across the stream without incident, which was our only goal for the day.

The delayed departure gave us some problems in our plans to make Great Sale Cay. Basically, we couldn't make it there until 11:30, which was 6 hours after sunset.

We debated heading into West End and checking in, but decided against it, based on what we'd been hearing among other cruisers. Instead, we headed across the Little Bahamas Banks.

Near a place called Memory Rock (it really is just a rock), the ocean comes up from the mega depths to form the Banks. Our depth sounder went from not reading (over 300 feet) to reading 25 feet within minutes. It was cool to watch the water go from the really deep blue of the Gulf Stream and beyond to the brilliant aqua of the Bahamas.

Once on the Banks, I turned over the helm of the mother ship to the Amy unit and went below to make fried chickens. I say chickens, because you cannot really tell for sure that all of the parts in the fryer pack came from one bird.

A word about the water here. It's actually so clear, you can see the sand critters on the bottom. Amy says it makes everything look close, but I think it makes everything look blurry, and thats extra scary to me (Mitch Hedberg reference). It's kind of cool.

Also of note were the little fish that the boat scares so bad that they insist on coming to the surface and then walking on their tails across the top of the water. Perhaps they are worshippers of J.C. and the Boys. You know, Jesus? That guy who walked on water and now Michael Jackson likes to name his child intoxication beverages after? (Jesus Juice) Maybe they are followers of Christ and they think we're jewish. Weren't they the guys who killed christ?

Anyway, we got into Mangrove Cay just after dark, which sucked, but we were able to follow the mast head anchor light of the boats already anchored in and we had the anchor hard set and the boat put to bed by 8 pm. One quick round of post country crossing drinks later and it was time for bed.

Welcome to da Bahamas, Mon.

Saturday, November 20, 2004 - Great Sale Cay, Abacos, Bahamas

We slept in a little late this morning and for the first time in recorded history, Amy got up before me. See, miracles really do happen. Now if I could just get her to make a few breakfast blueberry waffles and some scrapple.

Travel at night in the Bahamas is basically suicidal, so we knew we couldn't reach Green Turtle Cay, which is where the customs check in is today, so we decided to take it easy and just head over to Great Sale Cay, 20 miles away.

Most of the fleet anchored here had the same idea and we traveled in company over to Great Sale. We dropped the hook at 1:30 after 3 hours of motor-sailing in 9 feet of the clearest water you have ever seen.

Once we tidied up and recorded the ships log, we donned our swimming trunks and swim fins (Maggie stayed in the cockpit) and jumped overboard to play in the ultra clear environment.

I swam down along our anchor chain and was greeted by alternative life forms who were inspecting said anchor. I waved and tried to make first contact, but I secretly cursed myself for not bringing my arsenal of fish procurement devices down with me to harvest the 3 inch long life units.

We parted company and I continued into the depths (12 feet) to inspect my anchor. It was pretty cool to see how it had buried itself into the sea bed bottom.

Back on the surface we played around and tested our snorkeling gear, which appeared to work as advertised. As we are in the northern most part of the Bahamas (Abacos), the water is fairly cold and we stayed in for only 30 minutes or so.

After swimming time, I made pizza crisps out of the remnants of our last loaf. Guess I'll be slaving away in the kitchen again tomorrow.

Currently, we kind of feel like illegal aliens, but we hope to make Great Sale Cay tomorrow and then clear customs and then we will be legally welcomed into the Bahamas.

Sunday, November 21, 2004 - Manjack Cay, Abacos, Bahamas

Yet again, we were up early and Amy actually managed to see the sunrise. We and the rest of the armada got underway and headed in the direction of Green Turtle Cay. The wind was on the nose, so it was a day of motoring.

We did our one hour on, one hour off routine and on my down time, I made bread, fried some chicken quesadilla's and played on the computer.

We talked to Flying Cloud on the radio, and they said many of the boats in the anchorage from last night were stopping at Manjack Cay. Because it's Sunday, we figured it was unlikely we could check in with customs and immigration this evening in Green Turtle Cay.

We instead chose to stop at Coconut Beach on Manjack Cay. It's only seven miles over to Green Turtle tomorrow, so we are probably in good shape.

After we arrived in our designated anchorage, we donned wet suits, snorkels, and fins and proceeded to "just keep swimming" around our boat. It's mega cool to swim in water this clear.

We spotted several Sea Cucumbers and one Starfish. I wanted to shoot the Starfish, but fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and Amy just said no.

I think we will sleep in tomorrow morning and then proceed to Customs. I will be attempting to smuggle my ferret into a foreign country and I am prepared to lie in defense of the Wickie. I wonder what the penalty is for carrying a concealed wickie?

Monday, November 22, 2004 - Settlement Creek, Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas

We slept in this morning til almost 8, which it turns out is late for us over here. We only had to go a few miles to get down to Green Turtle Cay and clear customs, so there was no hurry.

We actually got to use the sails and we sailed the entire way down. Of course the wind was light to non-existent, so it took us two hours to go those 4 or 5 miles, but thats ok too. We're on island time mon.

Oh yeah, all of the islands here end with the word Cay which is actually pronounced Key. And no, I don't know why they don't spell like us.

We anchored off the government dock and I took our paper work ashore in the dinghy. Clearing customs was surprisingly easy and except for the $300 fee, pretty painless.

Our ferret is now an illegal alien. The officer didn't even ask if there were any pets on board, and I didn't bring it up. It seems as if everything we were told about clearing in at Green Turtle instead of Nassau or West End was true.

The little town of New Plymouth is the "hub" of life on Green Turtle. It is a very European feeling city with tiny, narrow streets except that all of the houses are painted wild fluorescent colors. See pictures for supporting evidence.

We've been spending a lot of time in the water. Being able to see 20 or 30 feet under water is pretty cool, although I'm itching to start shooting at something. We met a single hander named Richard today who has been coming to the Abacos since 1971 and he is going to take us out to some of the reefs tomorrow on the ocean side, so we'll see what is out there.

We're having a great time and Maggie says she may never come home.

Tuesday, November 23, 2004 - Settlement Creek, Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas

We met up with Richard on Kai Vai this morning and we took him, his dinghy and our boat and sailed under spinnaker 3 miles to another anchorage convenient to the ocean side reefs. We all piled in our dinghies with our snorkle gear and headed out.

Once we got to the reef, I dropped our dinghy anchor and Richard rafted up to us. Then it was over the side and into 20 feet of water. The reefs were absolutely amazing. All sorts of sea critters swam along happily.

I think I identified about 5 or 6 different types of edibles down there, but since this was our first trip out, I left the fish whackers in the dinghy. I did stalk several tasty looking snappers and one parrot fish and after a time, I was able to get within firing range of them. They better watch out next time !

We motored back to Settlement Harbour after snorkeling and Richard went back to his boat. A cold front is expected to push through tomorrow and all of the boats here have moved into the protected anchorage at White Sound. We will probably move as well

Wednesday, November 24, 2004 - White Sound, Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas

Another day in paradise.

We woke up this morning and I made waffles for breakfast. I know, its a tough life. The predicted front is getting closer, and the wind was over 20 knots this morning. We are safe and snug inside White Sound.

I went over to Richard's boat this morning to talk about the weather. His boat is able to receive the cruisers net, while ours is not. I think we are having antenna problems. The weather is suppose to be severe the next few days, so we will probably hang here for a while.

Richard came over to our boat again for happy hour. He is quite entertaining and he reminds us both of our friend Jim Noe. We invited him over for Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow and we hope to find other cruisers to join us. Before we left the US, I bought a 7 pound ham (I hate turkey and everyone knows that much like little kids, turkey's don't float) and are intention is to host a Thanksgiving dinner aboard the mother ship. How many other cruisers show up remains to be determined.

Thursday, November 25, 2004 - White Sound, Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas

We went to the Green Turtle Club last night to hear The Gully Roosters play. They were ok, but not great. I suspect the guy singing and playing the guitar was probably pretty good, but his three band mates played about as well as Maggie would.

This morning we began preparations for our Thanksgiving dinner. I went boat to boat in the anchorage here and invited everyone, but it remains to be seen how many people will actually come. At least there should be plenty of food.

We discovered this morning that neither Amy or I knows how to cook a whole ham. We sort of pieced together a recipe using the pressure cooker, but if our culinary experimentation fails, we may be reduced to eating Vienna Sausages for the main course. They're kind of like ham, right?

The wind is really howling today. Several boats (including us) have dragged anchor. I happened to see it when it happened to us and after a few moments of sheer terror, we got both engines in the water and running and we were able to re-anchor with minimal difficulty.

The weather sounds like it's getting worse instead of better, so we are not going anywhere for the foreseeable future. So, here we sit. Amy is reading her book, Maggie is eating her Thanksgiving Day meal and I am writing this log. Gobble. Gobble.

More to follow, end of line.