Ft. Pierce, Harbour Town Marina, USA

We left Green Turtle Yacht Club as planned about 6am and saw a beautiful sunrise.

 We then headed to Great Sale Cay  arriving about 6pm on Wednesday 5/8.  We were happy to see the large yacht in the Black Sound channel was gone. They ran aground out of the channel at low tide and needed to wait several hours to float again. We had a great night at Great Sale prior to our crossing. The seas were fairly calm and winds light for our trip off the banks into the deep water and through the gulf stream. We motor sailed a lot and we had plenty of fuel, so no worries! We beat the heat with sun showers. We made our own sea salt with the occasional spray over the boat, which felt good, but we did get salt encrusted.

Tom checked into the waterway net on his ham radio every day. It was great being able to get the local weather every morning.

 We were treated to a dolphin show on the banks just before entering the deep water of the Atlantic Ocean.

We saw some amazing cloud formations and cloud to cloud lightening in the gulf stream.

When Tom was sun stroke or very tired he let Kathy be Captain...he even photograph the moment haha!

The night watches were very cool with flying fish, bright stars and lots of plankton that lit up the water. We entertained ourselves by taking pics of ourselves and everything else!

 We arrived safely in the USA at Ft. Pierce Harbourtown Marina at about 8am 5/10.

We napped , went swimming, napped, ate dinner with friends Carl & Joyce, showered and called it a night. Today we are almost back to normal and will head on to Vero Beach as we head north towards home.

Green Turtle Cay

After spending a few nights at Treasure Cay we went through Whale Cay Passage. It was a great passage even though the surf was breaking on land. We anchored out of Black Sound until the tide was rising then instead of getting a mooring we stayed at Leeward Yacht Club for a week. We met up with our new friends, Dennis & Claire, from Cinnamon Girl and had a great week. Several other boats we have met in our travels were also there which made it nice to get together before we all departed to head to the states. Everyone's departure was different and we head out at "zero dark thirty" tomorrow. "Truancy" saw us leave Treasure Cay very early and he is the one who coined our departure times! While in Green Turtle we experienced a Waterspout/tornado that came very close to the marina we were at and turned at the last minute. Tom said hurry up get below, but get the camera! Lol! We also toured more of the settlement and went to the Island Heritage Festival both days. The second day they had a Junkanoo which we had never seen and was a lot of fun. They had Bahamian Island music and local food which we liked sampling. The weather has been perfect and we have all spent a lot of time at the pool. It will be hard to leave this mon!

Man of War Cay

No smoking, no drinking & nothing open on Sunday .....and they do boat building and Kathy had to have one of the really nice bags they make. Tom has enjoyed seeing all of the Lignum Vitae trees. The island is quiet and the beach is beautiful. Did I tell you it's quiet? HaHa! We relaxed and watched a couple of rental boats run aground at the entrance and then their docking skills. We enjoyed a good laugh at the fire drills...only because it wasn't us! Tom has just loved the navigational markers as well.

 It was a relaxing 2 days with cooking ,cleaning, laundry & beach combing. The sea beans are still a quest & fruitless so far. We have found other sea treasures though. As food is eaten, shells & coral take their place. We left Man of War this morning and Tom decided to drag a fishing line while we were sailing and .........Snapper! It's what's for dinner! It was 5-6lbs and fileted while it was still flopping. We are safely anchored in Treasure Cay to wait out forecasted thunderstorms.

Hopetown & Tahiti Beach, Elbow Cay

Five days at this stop has gone by very quickly. We leave tomorrow for Man of War Cay, as we start making our way north west towards Florida. The Elbow Cay Lighthouse was a fun visit. Tom went twice! The 120 ft. 101 step candy striped lighthouse was built in 1862 to warn sailors of the nearby reef. It is still operating today by a kerosene light. The views at the top were breath taking. We explored the settlement with it's tiny shops and beach. We rented a golf cart and went down to Firefly resort for lunch, which had awesome views and fantastic food. We then headed to Tahiti beach which has an enormous sand bar at low tide. With the full moon it was extra low. We found sea glass, sea biscuits, sand dollars and some other cool shells and coral. The Hopetown Inn & Marina where we have stayed is a nice resort marina with 2 pools and hot tub which we have put to excellent use. Some boats have come in with plentiful catches of Mahi, so we hope to get the line wet on the way to our next stop!

Marsh Harbour and beyond

Mangoes Marina has been a nice spot for us to sit out some unsettled weather and do routine boat stuff, shop, restock, have pool and play time! We have met up again with Dennis and Claire on Cinnamon Girl and have met so many other cruisers doing the same thing we are doing. We went to Snappas a local bar to watch a Rake and Scrape band and everybody per Tom were "Junkanooing... Junkanoo is a local mardi gras type celebration several of the islands have. We shared a rental car with Dennis and Claire today so we could explore Cherokee Sound and Little Harbour. We all had a blast. We went to the longest dock in the Bahamas and the longest dock I've ever been on. Claire and Kathy found sea biscuits and sand dollars on the very large sand bar. We then headed to Little Harbour and the famous Pete's Pub where we all had a delicious lunch of conch, grouper  & burgers. The site is where Randolph Johnston settled in the 1950's with his family after arriving by schooner. Initially living in a cave, then he built a forge and studio where he created spectacular bronze castings.

Few more pics of Treasure Cay

We really enjoyed  Treasure Cay and headed over to Marsh Harbor today and will stay at Mangos for a few nights. It's getting hot,hot,hot in the Bahamas! Thank goodness for the steady breezes and water everywhere!

Treasure Cay

Green Turtle Cay was such a nice stop on our journey we did not want to leave. The golf cart rental for 2 days ended up being such a treat. We were able to see parts of the island we would have missed. We pulled into many out of the way areas and explored. Tom searched for sea beans and Kathy found some unique shells and small pieces of brain coral. We are getting some cool decorating ideas from the locals also. It is also hard not to notice how the last 2 hurricanes to hit here have impacted these small island cays. The people here are resilient and keep building things back up; so many things like docks and homes are new. Many trees are lost and erosion evident, but the beauty remains. TOMKAT voyaged off to Treasure Cay on Saturday and anchored down before we were hit with a good thunderstorm. We held good and did not need to put out the big "mother"! The next day we headed to the beach which is rated as #4 out of the top 10 beaches in the world. We quickly saw why. The water is aquamarine and the sand is so soft and like powdered sugar and it is about 3 miles long. We chilled under the tiki umbrellas and went to the pool later. The area is a nice resort that mariners are able to use for a small fee. We think we'll stay here for several days, it's so pretty and relaxing. The biggest treat besides the beach has been the turtles in the harbor! We love watching them. All the ammenities we need are close and and the wifi is the best we've had.

Reporting in from Green Turtle Cay

We are in Green Turtle Cay and enjoying some fabulous weather! We headed out last week from the West End(We have renamed it rip off end...they overcharged for everything including custom entry)  towards the Abacos. We stayed at Great Sale Cay for a couple of days to weather out the Cold fronts and Thunderstorms that lasted for a few days. Great Sale Cay (pronounced "Key") is an uninhabited Island and at times we were the only boat which was cool. We saw an incredible rainbow and sunset after the last front pushed through. On Saturday we arrived at Spanish Cay to beautiful weather and feel this where our Bahama vacation started as we pictured it. It was exciting to see Cinnamon Girl tied to a dock when we pulled into our dock. Cinnamon Girl is a "Panda" s/v from Freeport, Maine who has been at our last few stops and Dennis and Claire are great people to visit with. We enjoyed the dock,pool, hot tub and walking the private island. We enjoyed a conch burger and grouper fingers which was so yummy. Chuck and Anita who run the island were so informative, gracious and made sure we were well taken care of. We tried fishing off the docks but.....we attracted a shark and caught a bird mid flight and then the shark circled the bird. All ended well, the bird was able to untangle itself and fly away and the shark swam away to our delight! On Monday we headed over to Green Turtle Cay. After the tide was mid we were able to get in the channel it was so shallow and we'll stay inside Black Sound on a mooring for most of the week as we explore the Island and look for turtles and sand dollars. We walked to town yesterday and explored the 18th century settlement with all of the unique cottages and shops. We went to a bronze sculpture garden and many shops are set up in little cottages. We bought some fish (still tramatized over the bird!) and some incredible coconut bread that was so fresh and wrapped in wax paper. We'll rent a golf cart tomorrow and explore the north end off the island and it's beaches.....maybe do some fishing!