Manjack and Green Turtle Cay and Crossing the Gulf Stream back to US. April 8-21, 2017

We left Hope Town a few days early so that we could get through the Whale Cut ( a short route "outside" into the ocean to avoid a sand bar on the inside in the Sea of Abaco) prior to winds picking up which can make the pass unnavigable.  It was fine on Sunday April 9 as we passed through on our 36 mile run to Manjack (Nunjack) Cay north anchorage.  We had picked this out as a good place to hide from the forecasted 25 knot winds from the E and NE for the next few days.  We also found on Facebook that Kim and Bryan (Freedom) were also anchored there.  We had not seen them since Staniel Cay in the Exumas in February.  And they said they rode out a 47 knot squall there a couple days prior so we knew it would be a nice spot to hide.  And the hiking, beaches and sea life were reported as fantastic as well.  And here is proof!  Our boat in the anchorage in the background.

Clear water.

The view of the beach from our anchorage.

Here we are laughing along with Scott and Brigitte and Kim and Bryan but missing DeVere and Carole to make the group complete...the big laugh was because I was originally on the swim platform and too short to be seen in the photo!  That does not happen often for me!

A short 15 minute walk to the Lagoon Beach where lots of day trippers come to feed the sting rays, sharks and turtles.  The cay inhabitants (there are about a half dozen houses) welcome visitors to their trails and beaches.  And they have certainly spent some time building the trails, signs, beach gazebo, etc. 

We spent five nights on the hook here and the highest wind gust we got was just short of 30 knots.  But the anchor held well and it was a really nice spot to “hide”.  The one hour hikes each day were great exercise and the scenery is so nice.  We saw sting rays, turtles and starfish here!  Julie even spotted a shark on our high tide dinghy exploration of the mangrove creeks one morning. Here is a photo of one of the sting rays on the exploration.

This is definitely an anchorage we will visit again.  One of our favorites in the Abacos! 

On Friday April 14 the forested winds kicked up even more (and are forecasted to continue for a few days) so we pulled anchor and headed to Bluff House where Putz’n Around had already gone on Wednesday.  It was 20 knots on the bow as we backed into our assigned slip, not my favorite docking scenario (it is usually best to oppose the wind or current, not let it push you).  But Julie does a great job with spring lines as we back in and the dockhands are there to catch the stern lines on the super short finger piers here.  And with a three foot tide, the ladder on the back of the fixed dock slip allowed us to use our swim platform to enter and exit the boat.  Not ideal with the three foot plus tides but doable and better than the set up the sailboats in the marina had to deal with. Nice beach at the marina too.

We took a golf cart to New Plymouth, the settlement on the cay, for re-provisioning.  Many things were not open due to it being Good Friday but one grocery store was open to get most of our needed items.  It was a nice ride into town with newly paved road for a good portion of the ride.  We stopped and observed a couple other marinas along the way to learn a bit for a potential stay in the future. 

On Easter Sunday we watched the St Andrews Cathedral broadcast from Grand Rapids on the internet.  It is so nice to be able to “attend” Mass this way in our old home town!  We even spotted a few of our friends from the community in the packed house that it was.  Thanks Fr. G!!

Our walks each day were great.  We discovered the north beach on Monday.  Another beautiful beach location.  About a one and a half hour round trip walk.  Here is a seaplane along the way....pretty handy way to get to ones vacation home!  It rolls right down onto the bay only yards away for take off and landing.

Here is Coco Bay, the "runway" for the seaplanes (There were two on the bay)

There are plenty of nice rental homes here too.  Might be a great destination for visitors next year!  Fly in to Treasure Cay marina and take a ferry to Green Turtle.  Ferries run like every hour.  Hint, hint…

Tuesday April 18 we cast off from Bluff House to start our trip back to the US. The weather forecast was suggesting Friday as a good crossing day back to the US.

So we cast off our lines leaving Green Turtle Cay on April 18.   Our destination was Allan’s/Pensacola Cay, a short 30 miles or so, a short day so we could enjoy the anchorage.

We took the dinghy to shore and found the hiking trail over to the ocean side.  Yet another beautiful beach.  And a “memento tree” where cruisers leave a sign with their names, boat name and date.  Julie found a scrap of driftwood so we went back to the boat and prepared our sign for posting.

The trail map.

We also explored a couple beaches with the dinghy and found a few nice shells for the collection.  Another nice stop and sunset.

On Wednesday we travelled 40 miles to the anchorage at Great Sale Cay.  We had hoped to dinghy around a bit but it was very windy and we just stayed aboard and read, etc.  A nice relaxing day. We are easing back into the workdays...AKA travel days!  30 miles yesterday, 40 today, 65 tomorrow and 100 on Friday.  Gotta ease into this.😊 
Only three boats when we arrived but approximately 29 by the time sunset arrived.  We are going to miss this water clarity....

Sunrise as we leave for West End.

Thursday we travelled 55 miles to West End, the Old Bahama Bay Marina. 
We will miss this clean clear water...a short video.

https://youtu.be/COUat6DfNRw

It was hit pretty hard by hurricane Matthew and still does not have power on the docks.  Not a great deal at $2 a foot and a $15 water charge and you still have to run your generator for power. But it is a great stopping off point for the trip back to the US.  Some damage to one of the neighborhood homes.

 

The facility is quite nice with a pool, a beach, some good walking around the developing neighborhood, a couple bars and restaurants, etc. 

The weather for Friday is not looking as good as it was Tuesday when we set our crossing plan in motion. We will have to make a “game day” decision on whether to leave or not.  It does look like it is time to head back to the US...look at our Bahamas flag after the winds of the last 11 weeks!

We hosted a “Goombay Smash” happy hour aboard Sum Escape for Scott and Brigitte and Karen and Ken (Island Girl) from Sarasota.  We met them in Hope Town a few weeks ago.  They are retiring in Sarasota from the Pacific NW.  But can you believe it took us almost 3 months to get into the juice and rums we brought to the Bahamas to enjoy them?!
So we got up at 5:30 AM to check weather etc as we would want to be on our way by 6:30 for the 100 mile trip to Fort Pierce Florida.  OK, a little more deterioration with solid 4 footers projected.  But the waves should be from the SE, so our travels NW should put them on our stern. So we decided to go.  If waves are worse than expected we can always turn back.  So we cast off at 6:30 AM.  We joined in the parade of boats leaving for the mainland, we saw about a dozen on the radar at one point.


A few miles out we bid farewell to Scott and Brigitte, our travelling buddies for the last 11 weeks plus. They are headed to Stuart Florida.

And passed a couple of the boats we had seen on radar.

The seas were as forecasted with about 4 foot waves  (occasionally a larger one) mainly on our stern.  So we had a push from the waves and the Gulf Stream as progressed NW toward Fort Pierce Florida. We made really good speed with these "pushes" and arrived in our slip at the Fort Pierce City Marina, 100 statute miles dock to dock, by 3 PM.  

Many have asked "where are you now?" along our Bahamas trip.  Here is a rough map of our 1109 statute mile route from Ft. Lauderdale on the 1st of February until our April 21 return to Ft. Pierce. 

We will be here in Ft Pierce a few days then on to a boatyard for some maintenance on the engines and other general items.  Gotta keep our "home" maintained. 

It's nice to have free water and reasonable electric rates back here in the US.  We paid as much as $50 a day for electricity in the Exumas and water was anywhere from 20-50 cents a gallon. 

More later as we start our trek north for the summer.....