Hog Cay, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

 We had a lazy day on board.....reading on my Kindle, managed a few chores but nothing photogenic!  Hazy sunset and early evening.  

Hog Cay, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

 In the morning, I could see that someone had built a large trash fire on shore.....so I went to the forward storage locker and got out 2 weeks worth of trash.  (The only real way to dispose of trash here is to burn it).

 

I burn the labels off the tin cans and pull them from the fire all "clean".  I can throw them overboard once we are in 1000 ft deep water with no (or very limited) environmental impact.  There are 2 separate fire pits, one for burning trash and one for cooking.

 

That chore finished, we chatted a while in the shade of the hut.

 

And left the perfume bottles for Rita to pick up sometime.

That was about the only excitement for the blustery day - we did return to the cruiser hut for sundown and had an early evening.

Hog Cay, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

 We hatched a plan yesterday with Charm to do a long hike - leaving one dinghy to the north and one to the south.  We had to do this because there is some in-hospitable terrain that prevents walking a "loop".

Kris and Dean as we head north to drop one of the dinghies.  

 

One dinghy anchored - we'll hike back to this in a few hours.

 

Here's our track - a long one!

 

As we walk along the shoreline back near the anchorage, there is a water aerobics class in progress.  They have music playing and looks like they're having a good time.

 

 

Looking back over the anchorage at the start of the "hill trail".

 

From the high vantage point on the trail - Charm all alone in the bay.

 

Duane and Dean solving all the world's problems!

 

The start of a different trail marked by creepy baby doll heads (but this isn't "THE baby doll trail"....the cruisers have a strange sense of humor.....

 

A turn in the trail marked by flip flops....

An area that is sometimes dry was a bit of a obstacle path with all the salt water around.

 

A squall came up and we got a bit sand-blasted....but it passed quickly leaving us just a bit "salty and sandy".

 

Lots of ups and downs as we hiked the rocky shoreline.

 

Just beautiful here.

Time for a bit of a snack break....found a bit of shade.

 

Back to the hike for the final couple of miles.

 

Kris and Dean had found a nice baby doll and had toted it all the way to the start of the real "Baby Doll Trail"....found a nice spot to tie it up with other flotsam.

 

I had picked up some items that looked like dog toys - thought they'd be a good addition to the creepy trail.

 

Kris had found a mortar AND pestle on the beach - left it as a trail marker.

That wrapped up the long hike - back to the dinghies just in time to avoid another squall.

Kris & Dean invited us over for pizza night - good fun and conversation.  We cut it a bit short as the evening had turned very windy and I wanted to get back to the boat and get settled for the night.  A fun busy day!

Hog Cay, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

 We had a  pleasant and busy day!

First we got the call that the mail boat items had arrived in the morning.  About 10 days ago, Donna from Bluejacket had placed a huge grocery order from Nassau, combining orders from 7 boats in the anchorage.

Now was the time for her to separate it all out and let us pick it up....she's hidden back there working with a calculator.....

 

Huge thank you to Donna for organizing this!

 

So happy to have fresh veggies again.  I was down to a couple of carrots and 1/4 head wedge of cabbage.

 

There was a general announcement on the VHF that one of the fishing boats had donated a large piece of wahoo to the anchorage and that tonight would be a potluck/wahoo roast.

But, the firewood pile had gotten pretty sparse - Duane and I set out to retrieve some.  We took the dinghy up to the "Creepy Baby Doll Trail" since there is some dead wood along that path.  

We took the creepy unicorn doll and tied it up along the trail for others to enjoy.

 

And Duane re-positioned our previous offering of a baby doll head as it had come loose from it's previous bush.

 

A tarp protects the dinghy and keeps it relatively clean.

 

All loaded and ready to dinghy back to the cruiser hut.

 

Before long it was time to head ashore to the gathering.  Berger from Mayanna make quick work of grilling the wahoo fillets.  Wonderful stuff!

 

Fun chatting with other cruisers.  A few new faces and some familiar ones that have just come into the anchorage.

 

Wow, gotta love pot luck meals!

Chatted away until sunset.

Pretty and peaceful.

 

And relaxed by the firepit for a while before heading back to our boats.

Hog Cay, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

 We had invited Meshugga over for dinner - so I got busy in the morning doing some prep work.  I'm making a curry for dinner, so lots of slicing veggies to make it easier to throw it all together in the late afternoon.  For a little extra side dish I made some naan bread.

 

It turned out very nicely.

And I made a chocolate/nut coffee cake for dessert.  This will be served with a melted chocolate bar syrup.  I didn't photo the curry but it looked like any curry....

 But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself....in the late morning after I had most everything under control for dinner, we went out for a snorkel since it was relatively calm weather.  We went to the cut between Hog Cay and Ragged Island.

Was beautiful.

The only catch of the day.   Duane chased a nice hogfish for a while be after a few missed shots gave up when the fish swam away....

Jerry and Karen from Persephone and Jerry from Bluejacket were on a different reef in the area - they stopped by for a nice chat and had a bucket full of fish/lobsters.

Back to the boat - got a call on the VHF that Sam & Cindy from Bookend were going to take their E-foil boards in a give some lessons.  So nice of them!  

Unfortunately, a lot of our photos had water spots on the lens (really hard to see in the bright sun so we didn't know until we got back to the boat).

But riding the board was a hoot!!  This is me getting on the board for the first time....unfortunately, this is what a lot of the photos looked like...

 Duane getting instruction from Sam.  The handheld device is how your control the speed of the board.

But the difficult thing is getting your balance to kneel or stand on the board.

Here's Jerry from Bluejacket doing a good job balancing.

 

 

Of course, my camera takes terrible long-distance shots and a lot of the shots are into the glare of the sun.  

You'll have to believe me - this is Duane up on foil on his knees.

And this is Duane moments later as he face-plants it into the water!  No worries, it's easy to get back on the board and try again!

 

Fun watching everyone try it - here is Lou from 360 almost standing up but in a few seconds will be in the water!

The "young folk" from Wabi Sabi (Ryan and Ali) of course were pros in no time (no photos of them as they were always out too far for my camera).

Sam coaching Duane a bit as he got started.

Sam was so patient with all of us.

And Sam gliding in so gracefully - both Sam and Cindy make it look easy.  (But they have plenty of practice!)

Back to the boat to get cleaned up and ready for guests.

 

Had a wonderful evening with Dee and Nicholas from Messugga....

 

Not a spectacular sunset....but I guess we can't have one every day!

We had a lovely evening, ending with a card game and much conversation.  Wheww, I was a tired puppy by bedtime!