It’s been a while since we have posted – lazy is all I can say! And we really didn’t have many pictures to post. I’ll try to recap where we’ve been since then.
Since Junkanoo and our time in Green Turtle Cay (GTC) we’ve been to an island called ‘Manjack Cay’ and we absolutely loved it there. The only residents are Bill & Leslie and their chickens. They have lived on the island for 16 years and are Americans. They power their home and guest cottage, as well as Bill’s well stocked workshop with solar power. 
The only thing they don’t have is A/C. They catch rain water in a cistern. They have cut many paths through the island, but the only one we traveled was the one to the Atlantic Ocean side. It is about a mile from one side to the other (straight across, so to speak). The beach on that side is splendid and probably two miles long(2nd pic). The last day we were there we never saw another living sole on the entire beach! On the Sea of Abaco side (where the anchorages are) and right outside of Bill & Leslie’s home, they have a very nice 
beach (picture @ top), and they encourage cruisers to use it, as well as the entire island. Instead of the standard ‘No Trespassing’ signs we see in the states, they have a sign that says “YES TRESPASSING’. They have bonfires on the beach and invite the cruisers to come in and enjoy them. They have planted a lot of coconut palms and share the coconuts as well. Jeff cleaned two coconuts for us before we left – there must be a trick to cracking and cleaning those that we don’t know. A couple of bloody fingers and an hour later and we had a Ziploc bag full of coconut pieces. I’m sorry to say the camera was on the boat while we were on the shore doing this, so no pictures. We will definitely go back to Manjack!
From there we moved on south through the Whale Cay Passage to Marsh Harbour. Marsh Harbour is a good place to re-provision (buy groceries), do laundry, buy the ‘stuff’ you can’t find on other islands. Here is an example of grocery prices – Bounty paper towels $3.95/roll; Bush’s baked beans (small can) $1.95; one Mango $2.39; boneless skinless chicken breasts $5.99/lb, which I thought was very reasonable. You get the idea – generally everything is at least twice the price as at home, some things a little more. Remember, everything that is for sale here comes in pretty much by boat to the islands.
The boat is called the ‘Mail Boat’ (picture @ right) and one of the first questions you ask upon arriving on an island is when does the boat come in. That way you know when to grocery shop. Marsh Harbour is the third largest island in the Abacos, next to Freeport and Nassau. It is a noisy harbour and not a place we want to just hang out, although the first evening after we anchored there we went into a place called Snappas Bar & Grill to hear Brown Tip play ‘Rake & Scrap’ music. That was a real treat which I’m not sure how to describe. I’ll try. Most of the music is Bahamian and we did not recognize the songs. The music is on CD’s and two to three people play saws, drums (singles), morocco’s and cow bells along to the music. When I say saws, I mean a hand saw, with the wooden handle against your armpit/chest area with the teeth facing up, with one hand holding on to the narrow end and your other hand scraping a knife across the teeth of the saw. They bend the saw blade back and forth to get different sounds out of the saw. And the dancing – I’ve never seen anyone as limber as the young man that was playing one of the saws!! It was a real treat to see the show.
Next, we moved across the Sea of Abaco to Guana Cay - it sounds like a long way doesn’t it? – it’s not – it only took us about 1 1/2 hours to get across. Guana Cay is a place we really liked. It is basically a small village – I don’t know how many people live there, (although there is a big development being built on the far end of the island) but they have enough that they have a small grocery store that was quite well stocked with very reasonably priced items, some things less than in GTC, which is much more populated. We visited the famous ‘Nipper’s’. It is a bar/restaurant on the ocean. They also have cottages for rent, etc. Quite a colorful place place! 
On the walk out there we came across a backhoe on the side of the path that was 'very colorful'. 
The Atlantic side beach was very nice to walk on and we finally found some ‘sea glass’. Savannah is still enjoying chasing waves and running on the beach.
We found 12 pieces of sea glass yesterday while walking on the beach. I had no idea what sea glass was til a few weeks ago, even though I had heard the term. It is broken pieces of glass of all colors that have been washed and churned through the sand, so that they no longer have sharp edges and are no longer shiny. People make jewelry out of this and it is quite pricey (for broken glass).
Last evening there was a pot luck dinner @ Grabber’s Bed Bar & Grill (how about that for a name!) for anyone staying on the island and the cruiser’s. They are located on the Sea of Abaco side of the island and you can watch the sunset from there. They do this every Wednesday – it was great! What a variety of food. One family picked coconuts, grated them and made two coconut cream pies. They were very good, but very different than the coconut cream pie our family is accustomed to Nanny making. I’m prejudiced – hers is better. Another cruiser made conch chowder – fabulous!
This afternoon we sailed back across the Sea of Abaco to Treasure Cay. And what a wonderful sail it was. The winds were about 12 kts.and building. It was great and made the days when we have had to motor worthwhile. Everyone starts looking for protection from the coming fronts a couple of days before they (the fronts) arrive and we are expecting a front to come in on Saturday. You can’t wait til the last minute or there is no anchoring space left, at least in the protected places, and they are few. We will stay here til the first part of next week til the winds settle down. I dinghied the pups in late this afternoon and it is a very nice place, with a beautiful beach. It is a small harbour, with protection all around, so we will not have to worry too much about boats dragging their anchors through here (I hope).
That brings you up to date. Maybe we won’t wait so long til the next post.
New Years Day found us (as well as hundreds of others) in New Plymouth, Green Turtle Cay, attending ‘Junkanoo’. The population on Green Turtle Cay is only about 500, but that does not stop them from having a celebration.
New Plymouth is home to Miss Emily’s Blue Bee Bar and the world famous “Goombay Smash”. We had to have one – they go down very smoothly and it was easy to see how you could drink many of them – but with 3 or 4 kinds of rum and very little juice we knew we would be in serious trouble if we did.
Junkanoo is a parade in which the participants of all ages are dressed in very colorful costumes, which are adorned with jewels and feathers. I can’t imagine how long it takes to make some of the costumes, but on close inspection they start with cardboard and build from there. It is definitely not something you do at the last minute.
Some of the groups in the parade carried and played large goatskin drums and cowbells. You could feel those drums in your belly. As the parade passed by us, we, along with many others, joined in behind and danced to the rhythmic beat.
After the parade we went with some of the other cruisers to Pineapple’s Bar where Jeff had his first Kalik, which is a local beer. A good time was had by all!!!
We forgot to take our camera to the parade, so the photographs are courtesy of Debbie on S/V ‘Deborah Lee’. She did a superb job of capturing the spirit of the festival and we are in her debt for the pictures.
Having traveled over 1100 miles from the Chesapeake to the Abacos, we were seldom able to sail. We almost always were under power (using the engine vs the sails) because the Inland Waterway is narrow or the wind was on the nose. We are now ecstatic that we are able to actually sail from one island to the next. The attached pictures are of “Salty Dog” reaching (the point of sail when the wind is on the beam) across the Sea of Abaco from Great Guana Cay to Treasure Cay, about 9 nautical miles, in a 15 to 20 knot breeze. We have also attached a few pictures of us on the beach at Treasure Cay. Thanks to Helen aboard “Wingspread” for the sailing pictures and Linda aboard “Sojourner” for the beach pictures. 
