Come and Go 04/30/13

Sometimes you just have to believe that what happens is what’s supposed to happen.  Such has been the case these past few days.

Man O War Cay was a delightful community with a reputation for being more “civilized” than many of the others in the area meaning less partying and more productivity than is seen in the surrounding islands.  Known for boat building and a thriving canvas industry, the island did have an air of efficiency.  We found four women hard at work in their little canvas shop sewing bag after bag in a multitude of colors and sizes.  The boat yard had numerous boats in different stages of creation.

After our evening snorkel expedition the previous night, Steve went out with the boys for s first hand lesson in spear fishing.  All of this was accomplished early and our entourage of three boats up-anchored and headed to the inside harbor to get a mooring for the next night.  Unfortunately, the charts were surprisingly inaccurate – something extremely unusual in our experience.  The harbor was much shallower than reported or rumored and as Rob and I maneuvered Moonshadow through, looking for an available mooring, we crunched on the bottom!  It was not far from high tide and we thankfully pushed our way through whatever was on the bottom and quickly turned tail and exited the harbor. 

After we all headed back to an outside anchorage and subsequently got settled, we dinghyed up the channel and set to seeing the island.  We enjoyed our walk around the town and especially the ice cream we scored along the way.  The community is small and lovely with colorful houses and a beautiful beach the entire length of the ocean side.  Steve busied himself with a load of laundry to add to the accomplishments of the day. 

Once again we spent the evening saying goodbye to our friends aboard Truansea and Providence as Moonshadow had decided to make the push to cross the next day.  A nice meal and lots of hugs and we secured the boat for the next days’ sail. 

Of course, when we woke the next morning, the forecast had clearly changed and our crossing window had closed!  In that we were in the mindset, we still broke rank with our friends and headed for the next anchorage north, Great Guana Cay.  Great Guana was known for its two popular watering holes, Grabbers and Nippers. 

As fate would have it, our goodbyes turned into HELLOS! when we spotted our dear friends Bill and Lori aboard Grateful Red across the harbor!  We can credit Bill and Lori with keeping our cruising dream alive over the past five years or so.  We met them in the Charleston Harbor where they stage their boat for travels to the islands every year.  We became quick and fast friends and looked forward to their arrival in Charleston each year when we’d proceed to talk sailing stories and boats year after year.

We wasted no time in reconnecting and decided to meet for a “grabber” at Grabbers that evening followed by a marvelous dinner of wild mushroom risotto, roasted veggies and fresh key lime pie that Steve and I put together.  Yes, cruising life CAN be gourmet!  It was so fun to reconnect with Grateful Red as we missed their Charleston visit this year with our early departure.

Since we didn’t make it very far, Truansea and Providence moved their way to the same anchorage that evening as well so the next day was back to life as we’ve known it.  We trooped around the island, enjoyed the crowds and craziness at Nippers in the afternoon and planned ANOTHER evening saying goodbye as we were making the passage “around the whale” the next day, putting a significant difference between us as they moved in another direction altogether.

After a final coffee with Grateful Red yesterday morning, we weighed anchor and started our passage.  We managed another beautiful sail despite the big swells and less than perfect winds and were anchored outside Green Turtle Cay by early afternoon. 

Green Turtle ends up being one of my favorite Bahamian communities after all of our travels.  It’s quaint and quiet and the people are delightful.  We found a marvelous bakery and Rob stocked up on cinnamon rolls, a rum cake and an apple turnover – guess he was feeling hungry!!!  I found my way to a cup of homemade mango ice cream – too sweet but still yummy.  The evening found us at “Pineapples” where we proceeded, once again, to consume more rum punches than were needed along with the Bahamian standard bar food of fish and chicken fingers.  Such a healthy lifestyle!!!

We are under way again with practically a wisp of wind to assist and are crawling along at just over 2 knots making whatever progress we can get out of the day before the promised system of squalls and bad weather arrive.  This is the batch that spoiled our crossing and the forecast isn’t promising anything positive for the next week.  We’re moving ahead nonetheless hoping to stage ourselves in a position to “jump” when the jumping gets good – hopefully sooner than the current projection!

We’re all ready for home and with the sky overcast and the weather less than ideal, we’re
getting a bit antsy.  The cards are out and Steve and I spend half our time discussing how we’re going to use what we have onboard to make amazing food dishes that none of us need with our complete lack of exercise!!!!!  And so it goes on the slow road home!