Jewel

Location: Manjack Cay, Abacos, Bahamas
Position: N 26 49.302 W 077 22.130

We have just lucked into a jewel of an island. We left Black Sound, Green Turtle Cay on Tuesday afternoon at high tide and made our way a bit further north to Manjack Cay.

Manjack Cay is awesome. We had heard there was free WiFi here, but were a bit skeptical as we approached. All we saw was a lovely bay with mangroves, a small beach and 3 houses on the north side. But, as we got closer we saw that one of the houses had a BIG WiFi antenna! After anchoring, we whipped out our laptop and antenna and sure enough, we had a really strong signal. Woohoo!! We quickly took care of calling family members, something we hadn’t done for quite a while, and then headed to shore. Apparently the owners (who are ex-cruisers) have lived here for about 15 years. While cruising they became discouraged by the number of islands that were bought, made ‘private’, and no longer allowed uninvited visitors – so they decided to do their small part to change the situation.

On arrival at the beach we were greeted with a sign that read “Please Trespass”. Several well-maintained walking paths have been developed including a boardwalk through the mangroves and several paths to various beaches. So off we went for a much needed walk. We went by the house on our way back to our dinghy to thank the owners for this cruiser haven. They were on a trip but had another family taking care of the place while they were gone. We had a nice chat and they told us to feel free to walk anywhere and use the fire pit, coconut splitters and all the picnic tables, benches, and seats on the beach. As you can imagine this is a popular anchorage! Social organizers that we seem to have become, we asked if we could invite all the boats in the anchorage to a happy hour on the beach that evening. They approved, so our first order of business was to invite them.

Then we dinghied around the anchorage and invited all 15 boats. We ended up with a lovely crowd, lots of food, drink and lively conversation. These cruiser happy hours always afford us the good fortune of making new friends as well as renewing old relationships.

After spending a couple of days walking all the trails, which connect all the beaches on the island, getting some well needed exercise, the wind changed again. This morning we’ll move to Coopers Town on the other side of the Sea of Abaco to sit in the lee of Great Abaco Island for some southwesterly winds over the next few days. We expect to be bouncing around between Manjack Cay, Great Abaco Island, and Green Turtle Cay depending on where the wind comes from until we see a new weather window open up. We’re in the company of several other boats who have similar plans, so we’ll have plenty of time to visit, socialize, and catch up on a few boat jobs.

Fair winds,