Position: N 26 45.673 W 077 20.181
We left Great Guana Cay and sailed further north. We needed to get through ‘The Whale’ while the weather was in our favor and today was a good day for it with 5 to 10 knot winds and little-to-no sea swell. The Whale can get a bit hairy in heavy winds and seas from the northeast. It involves going out into the Atlantic and paralleling a rocky island named Whale Cay for a couple of miles, then cutting back in through the reefs. All negotiated with ease in the day’s mild weather.
We’ve needed to clean Rachel’s bottom for over a month, and with our desire to get back to the states before, as a friend says, “they start naming the thunderstorms”, time was running out. We had a big moss garden growing down there, so we stopped at No Name Cay (N 26 44.610 W 077 17.978) (what a great name) and snorkeled down under the boat. We scrubbed and rubbed for about an hour and realized we were making hardly any progress. It would be way easier with proper dive gear and weights (which, of course, we don’t have) so we decided to hop up to the town of New Plymouth at Green Turtle Cay and find someone to clean it for us.
We also had another reason to go to New Plymouth. Our friend Bruce, a single-hander on ‘Zingara’ was celebrating his 65th birthday in a few days and was anchored out just off the town. Julie took it upon herself to organize a little party. Bruce then decided to leave the next day to start his trip back to the states. So Diva and Rachel headed to New Plymouth to help Bruce celebrate two days early. Julie baked a big pan of double chocolate brownies while we were underway so he would have a birthday cake.
We started the evening with happy hour at a local beach bar. The nephew of one of the bar owners was cleaning conch at the dock. Mark struck up a conversation with him and he agreed to clean Rachel’s bottom for $1.50 / ft – the going rate in Marsh Harbor and Hope Town is $4 / ft, so this was a real find! We then spent a fun evening out on the town, had dinner together, and then headed back to Rachel for dessert.Diva and Zingara went their separate ways the next day and, since we’d be here for a few days waiting to get Rachel’s bottom scrubbed, we went into town on an exploratory mission. New Plymouth is another quaint, picturesque town but not as touristy as Hope Town. Like Hope Town, all the concrete streets are just wide enough for 2 golf carts, the preferred mode of transportation here. Each island in the Abacos seems to be different yet similar. The Abacos have more white native Bahamians, descendants of the loyalists who came here to escape the American Revolution.
We really enjoy just wandering around and chatting with the locals, listening to their accents, finding out what they think about, and how they live day to day. We are trying to get the most out of what may be our last Bahamian settlement before we make the crossing back across the Gulf Stream to the US. We may be delayed a bit by the westerly winds that have been predicted to start tomorrow and last through much of next week. We’ll keep a close eye on the weather and expect to head back to the US when the next good weather window presents itself. We’ll keep you apprised of our plans as they develop.
