Our Last Days in The Bahamas

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June 5, 2023

Our visit to the Abacos is coming to an end. After Man O War, we’ve had a few more adventures but are now planning our escape. Our weather routing resource has given us a weather window, leaving from Green Turtle Cay, where we are now, in the afternoon on Tuesday, traveling across the sea of Abaco through the night and then crossing the gulf stream in the morning on Wednesday. It is a nearly 170 nm, 21 hour crossing back to Florida from where we are. Given the general weather patterns right now, this is a pretty good window to hit and SHOULD be reasonably smooth. We’ll get an update Tuesday morning to determine if this is still a good window. The weather changes as we all know.

But, what have we done after leaving Man O War to fill our last days in the Bahamas?

Anchoring in the Crystal Blue

One of the things I really wanted to do while here was anchor in the crystal clear blue water. We knew of the perfect spot but also knew we might have to endure some weather and swell from the Atlantic to do so. All turned out to be true. It was worth it. The only thing we chose not to do was dip into the water as there was a bit too much on-and-off rain and swell for our beginner taste.

When we arrived at Crossing Bay, our blue water anchorage, it is quite calm but we knew storms were coming. They were predicted and we could see them.
Oh look! A water spout in the distance! This could be interesting. We’d yet to have very strong winds with our rains while here, would this be our first experience. We had out 225 ft of chain, much more than we normally do and we’d backed down much harder to make sure we had a good set.
We had a good hard rain, with a bit of wind, but not bad. Whew!
The next morning, look at that blue! Sane same direction where we saw the water spout.
There was quite a bit of swell as we anticipated as we were open to the Atlantic. Our Flopper Stoppers DID help to temper the roll, but it was still a bit of an uncomfortable night.

Moving On to Green Turtle – Black Sound

After our rocky night, Jim wanted some smoother water and wanted to anchor near New Plymouth in Black Sound on Green Turtle Cay. New Plymouth; think another Loyalist settlement … Plymouth… New Plymouth… In through more skinny water to Donny’s Marina and a mooring ball there. Everyone had said Donny was a character and they were right. Very nice guy but one has to follow his rules.

What is not to like, Pretty, calm and close to town. But, the rains did come here too!

A pretty anchorage and we take our dinghy just across to the dock and walk into town. It was HOT and there was not much going on in New Plymouth. Unlike Man O War where things were active and rebuilding was coming along quite well, New Plymouth seemed to be a shell of itself. Many buildings were rebuilt but as many were not. And those done did not seem to be occupied. Part time homes? How to understand one settlement vs another.

In many places you will see an un-restored house next two those that are all fixed up. This one looks to be in pretty good shape and one wonders why it is not occupied.
Another house in much worse shape. It was open inside but not clear if anyone was living there. Kittens seem more common in the Bahamas than dogs. These guys seemed fairly friendly. We didn’t get any closer than this, but they all turned to look at us and pay attention in a relaxed manner. Clearly someone is taking care of them at least a little. I was still sad to see them though.

The town seemed to be in a holding pattern with not much enthusiasm. The museum was closed, not yet re-opened from Dorian damage. That was a disappointment for me.

The town did have a sculpture garden with plaques and busts of many of the prominent earlier shapers of the community. This sculpture in the center of the garden was the most fervent discussion of the Loyalists movement to the Bahamas. Clearly, this community still have a sense of it’s british heritage.

We did have a nice lunch and then walked on Gillum beach, on the Atlantic side of the island.

Gillum bay was a little hard to find, but one of the prettiest beaches we walked on.

Don’t Forget White Sound

We made reservations at Green Turtle Club and Marina in White Sound to sit out the anticipated storms. The storms did not materialize to the level originally expected, but we decided to move the 3 nm to White Sound anyway and see see how the “Florida” half of Green Turtle Cay lives. This is the western end of the Cay with lots of vacation rentals and private homes. Everyone here seems to be from Florida. It is in much better shape than the New Plymouth end of the Cay, but still fairly quiet.

Looking from our marina across to the other marina in White Sound, the “suburbs” of New Plymouth.

After all the hype we had heard of Green Turtle Cay, we have had a hard time getting our head around it. Perhaps we are just too focused on heading back to the US.

I was surprised to find an indoor bar. Maybe the only one we’ve been in in the Bahamas. I’m not sure what it is, but folks staple up a dollar bill (US or Bahamian) with their names on it. I’ve seen this in several bars here. Ok, our new boat friends convinced us to do it. We too are on the ceiling in Green Turtle Cay.

We had a very nice dinner last night at the restaurant at the marina, chatted with some folks we met briefly in Man O War and took a nice long walk this morning on the Atlantic side beach. Not much left to do on Green Turtle as our dinghy is on Rincon and not “gettable” without moving out of our slip. Maybe a bit breezy for me to paddle board. We visited the pool and chatted with some families from FL on a quick long weekend over. This is quite common for Floridians.

Our likely final beach walk for this Bahamas trip. Depending on our schedule tomorrow, we may have to kill some time before crossing into the Gulf Stream and thus, might pop to a Cay for a quick beach visit. we’ll see.

Final Thoughts

Jim and I are still processing our visit to the Bahamas. We are used to traveling much longer distances and moving more frequently than we have on this trip. We really did not understand how close everything is or we might have planned to visit a much larger swath of the Bahamas on this trip.

There is some interesting sculpture in the Bahamas.

Nor have we gotten our heads around activities here. Contrary to owning a boat, we are not big water sports and fishing people and thus, day after day of swimming, snorkeling, fishing and paddle boarding is not quite sufficient stimulation for us. I do love seeing the turtles, birds and fish though. Adding in the “famous bar” on each island or cay, we are still missing something. We really wanted more history, culture and diversity of activities as we have seen on our other boating trips.

There is a good sense of humor in the Bahamas, be it little signs like this, impromptu art or just the kindness and friendliness of the Bahamian people.

Definitely our favorite part of the Bahamas has been our interaction with the locals which seem to have been mostly the 7th generation Loyalist locals. A fascinating history and people. We have met several boaters whom we have enjoyed chatting with and learning about their adventures and travels. That has been fun as well and perhaps we’ll keep in touch with some of them.

What is not to like?

The water is beautiful and we really appreciate seeing the crystal clear nature of it. Something hard to find in east coast US waters. The clouds, although portending storms have been spectacular and I’ve really enjoyed looking at them and taking their pictures

The sculpture of the clouds was quite beautiful.

How to see where we have been

One of the things that is perhaps not very clear on my site is that I keep a map of Rincon’s boat movements each day and where we stop. I find it fun to look back, and you can too! If you want to see our actual path the interactive map found here can be explored by zooming in and clicking on the lines and points.

See you back in the US!

The tide is about a half a foot higher than normal tonight due to the full moon. We are hoping for a non cloudy night tomorrow night for a bit of moonlight sailing.

Comments

Our Last Days in The Bahamas — 1 Comment

  1. I love the color of that blue water. Thanks for the map showing where you have been.