Treasures

Location: Undisclosed Cay, Abacos, Bahamas

Position: N 26 ?? W 076 ??

The Abacos, the northern island chain of the Bahamas, is mainly populated by descendants of English loyalists and their slaves who fled the American colonies during the revolution. Because of this there is more of a white population here than in other areas of the Bahamas. The Abacos is one of the more touristy areas, after Nassau, but that being said it's not really that touristy. We tend to try and stay with the more natural and less inhabited areas when we can, but that's not always possible.

Yesterday we went on our first beach-combing trip of the season on an almost uninhabited island, the location is secret. This is one of our favourite pastimes. On a good day we'll find sea beans, sea glass, or unusual shells, on a bad day we just get a lovely walk on a beach. Either way it's win-win!

Yesterday we really scored in the sea glass department. This was especially exciting as the whole time we were in the Western Caribbean we found no sea glass. Not even one tiny piece! Sea glass, as you may know, is broken pieces of glass which get swished around by the waves crashing them against the sand and causing them to get scuffed. The perfect piece of sea glass is a piece which has no shiny areas left on it. White, green and brown are the most common colours (think beer) so we always find more of them. Other 'prize' pieces are any other colour but especially blue, which is quite rare.

As you can see we did find a few pieces that were 'prize' but also came home with a golf ball. We found tons of sponge one of which we kept, and a cute piece of coconut that if painted could look like a monkey's head with a tuft of hair. You have to be imaginative... and what else are we going to do anyway. It's all about entertaining yourself and staying out of trouble right? Just like when we were kids.

What are we going to do with all this stuff?

Blue Water

Location: Green Turtle Cay, Abacos, Bahamas
Position: N 26 45.824 W 077 20.045

This Khronicle is about how beautiful the Bahamas are - no grounding reports, no boat job complaints, no whining!

Our boat jobs were complete, Rachel was all provisioned up, fueled up and ready to go. We finally set off from Lake Worth, Florida to cross to the Bahamas and had a delightful and, thankfully, uneventful trip. We fished (unsuccessfully, unfortunately), crossed the Gulf Stream and passed onto the Bahama Banks. The water goes from a depth of over 1,500 feet to 9 feet in the space of 20 minutes, a bit disconcerting, to say the least. Night fell and we traveled overnight across the banks. This was a bit nerve wracking in the pitch black in depths of only 8-14 feet (we draw 6 feet!), relying entirely on our electronic equipment for steering and depths. We have traveled this area before and the charts are very accurate, but after Hurricane Sandy had passed we weren't 100% certain!! Luckily nothing untoward happened. The moon rose at about 10:30 and we could see again. We were anchor down at 8:30 and all cleared in to the Bahamas before noon.

Now that we are back in the Bahamas we are filled with joy. We had nearly forgotten just HOW beautiful it is here. Our fist morning, as we traveled down the banks toward Green Turtle Cay (remember – “cay” is pronounced “key” here in the Bahamas), the sun was shining and the water, spectral in every shade of blue to green, was spectacular. It has been so long since we've been able to see the bottom in 20 feet of water! As the sun rose we looked out and remembered how much we love it here. A picture tells a thousand words so go to the blog and see for yourselves. We have been here now for 4 days and we just can't get enough of the sandy beaches, the friendly people and the oh-so-beautiful water.

Yesterday we went for our first snorkel in two years. Boy have we really missed this pastime! The water was cold but it was great to be swimming around the coral heads and re-acquainting ourselves with all our favourite fish. Mark tried spearfishing for lobster with no success, but who cares? We had a great time just swimming around looking at stuff.

It is phenomenally beautiful here. The people we meet are friendly and helpful. The friends we are with (new and old) are generous, clever, and quite enjoyable to be around. All these continue to draw us out here, wrenching ourselves away from our loved ones - who we miss, sometimes terribly. But sometimes, especially at times like these, it's all worth it. This is what it's all about.

Speechless,