It IS better in the Bahamas!

     We were up and about long before four sunrises, and had watched four red suns sink into mostly calm seas before 'Southern Vectis' and her crew were able to say, "We're here!"   As we made our way tentatively up White Sound towards our dock at the Green Turtle Club we knew that we'd made the right decision to return to these beautiful 'islands in the stream' - the Abacos.
 
    All had gone smoothly with our outbound journey from Florida.  We met our  'buddy boat', Jumasi, at anchor in Lake Worth, and set off at 3 a.m. on February 6 to cross the Gulf Stream to West End on Grand Bahama Island. Eleven hours later we were tied up to a dock at Old Bahama Bay Marina.  There's always a feeling of relief to have made it across the 52 miles and strong northward push of the Gulf Stream, and the camaraderie of boaters with tales to tell soon turns a dock into a friendly village.  But we still had two more long days ahead before we could say "We're there!"

The following day we made our way tentatively through the shallow Indian Rock Passage and headed for Great Sale Cay, our overnight anchorage on the Little Bahama Bank.   The wind was almost on our nose and the waves were a little choppy, but we managed to turn the motor off and do some sailing for a few hours!  We arrived at Great Sale Cay - an uninhabited half moon of sand - just as the sun set. As is always the case when there is an exodus to or from Florida during a 'weather window', there were quite a few boats already at anchor.  The wind changed the next day and we made good time to the first of our ports of call,  Green Turtle Cay.

We spent three days happily tied to a dock at the Green Turtle Club.  Sigita and Martin on 'Jumasi' had docked across the bay at the Bluff House Marina as there were no slips left at the Green Turtle Club when we first arrived.  On our arrival into the harbour we were welcomed by Al and Maggie on Tortuga, friends from Ft. Pierce, and they came on board for a champagne welcome party.

We enjoyed out time at this lovely spot. The marina has improved a lot since our last visit four years  ago, but there was still one feature that remained the same - you could eat your dockage!  So each night we faithfully had dinner in the club's restaurant knowing that now our dockage was 'free'!  We dinghied into the quaint little town of New Plymouth with Al and Maggie and, after a bracing walk on a beautiful deserted beach, had a delicious lunch of 'cracked conch' - a Bahamian specialty.  We met up with Sigita and Martin and a whole gang of other boaters over at the Bluff House, which has also improved a lot since our last visit - especially the showers!

 We had intended to stay longer than three days, but we needed to get over one more hurdle on our journey, and that was to cross 'The Whale'.  This is a stretch of water which is an opening into the Atlantic, and is fringed with jagged rocky islands, and prone to what the locals call 'rages'.  If you cross through at the wrong time you can get in a lot of trouble.  But on Tuesday the weather
forecast predicted a good day for Whale crossing, and so a flotilla of boats left Green Turtle and successfully made it through.  Once through, the flotilla broke up as each boat sailed or motored away across the turquoise waters of the Sea of Abaco to one of the many islands - Great Guana Cay, Man-o- War, Elbow Cay or Marsh Harbour,  We headed for Treasure Cay, as we had not been there on our previous trip.  We arrived to find a small harbour, marina and resort and the most beautiful beach we had ever seen!  We'll spend some time here!  Also here are fellow boaters we had met at Green Turtle. Last night we were invited onto Steve and Debbie's grand 50 foot motor cruiser for sunset cocktails, and tonight we are all going to a pizza night out!   Life is good!