Calabash Bay, Long Island, Bahamas

 We did a garbage run, stopping by Bilancia to tote their trash as well.

 

 

Then we set sail under mostly overcast skies north.

 

Several hours later approaching Calabash on the northern tip of Long Island.

Anchored near the lovely Cape Santa Maria resort.  There was unfortunately a roll coming thru the anchorage making it less than comfortable.  Nothing to do about it since the roll was coming from more than one direction....

 

A lovely sunset.  Leftovers for dinner as I didn't feel like cooking much!

 

And we were treated to another SpaceX launch....it was lovely but I didn't get my camera settings correct this time....

Salt Pond, Long Island, Bahamas

 The predicted winds had somewhat arrived. Gusts into the 20’s but none reached 30 as forecast. 

The only excitement for the day was a visit by another Manta crew! 

 A lovely family from Vermont on board Bilancia - Alfonzo, Mica and their kids Ava and Alf.   Sampson is their sweet dog. Nice folks, hope to run in to them in the future!

Salt Pond, Long Island, Bahamas

 We were up with the rising sun for the 40+ mile trip over to Long Island.  There are 30 knot winds coming tomorrow so we needed to be somewhere more protected.

 

Just a lovely motor/sail - I love these passages over crystal clear water and white sand below.

 

Once we were settled on anchor, we dropped the dinghy to go over to the Hillside grocery store for a few fresh veg....the dinghy dock was crowded and the winds were already strong enough to bounce things around a bit.

 

Here is my $60 shop....

Back to the boat - quite a few more boats have anchored - more than 20 in the anchorage now.  Will be good protection from the north/east winds coming.

For dinner - a poke bowl.  Fresh tuna marinated in a soy/seasame/honey/ginger sauce and fresh veg over a bed of rice.  Really yummy!

We watched a episode of the Mr. & Mrs. Smith series.  Cute one.

Water Cay, Jumentos Cays, Bahamas

 Time is winding down for good snorkeling opportunities….we often don’t snorkel too much as we head north. Just not a lot of good spots on our usual routes.  So we suited up and went in search of some good coral.   

We found one good spot, lovely clear water!

Not much else though!  We spent a good hour putzing along with our “lookie bucket”….nothing much of interest. 

We did spook this large heron. Neat to see it fly away. 

In the late afternoon I was outside in the cockpit and spied a familiar shaped boat in the distance. Got out the binoculars and sure enough, another Manta!  Since we still had our dinghy down from earlier in the day, we took a short ride over and introduced ourselves. 

Just as we approached there boat, a shark circled our dinghy. 

Tim and Kim are on Columbine - nice folks on their first year in the Bahamas. They’re heading south to see the Raggeds for the first time. Hopefully will cross paths again.

Back to Sojourn with a load of laundry flapping in the breeze!

Water Cay, Jumentos Cays, Bahamas

 A Gunboat had pulled into the anchorage at sunset....they're high performance and high $$$.  Sleek and stealthy looking.

 

We were up with the sun and out Raccoon Cut for the 40 mile sail north to Water Cay.

Seas were a bit more than forecast so w didn't fish for the first hour or so.....things eventually calmed enough to drag the lures.  Just as we were nearing Water Cay we finally got a hit on one of the poles.  Just a smallish Skipjack tuna.  Better than nothing!  Hoped to get another Mahi but we'll take it!

 

Approaching Water Cay from the ocean side - not too rowdy in the cut even though it was a bit wind/against/tide.  Nice to travel with no engine noise.

 

We were surprised that there were 11 other boats at Water Cay by the end of the day....so we anchored just down the island away from the crowds.

 

Made quick work of filleting the fish.

And straight into the deep freeze. 

 

I had already planned supper so I'll do some sushi later....we got in the dinghy and took the fish scraps well away from the anchorage before dumping.....checked out some possible snorkel spots for tomorrow.

Raccoon Cay, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

 A little sad that it's about time to turn north again this season!!  A last look at "the cut" that we've called home for a not-small part of this season.

 

Had a great sail about 20 miles north.

 

Anchored in our now-favorite little bay at the north end of Raccoon Cay all alone.

 

We went for a nice long snorkel on some of the inside coral heads.   Unfortunately, the coral is almost all dead or dying.  Lots of sea-creature life though.  Duane picked up a "slipper lobster" for me jut to get a photo.

They are odd creatures - very small legs and you can just grab them....we could but don't eat them as they are relatively rare.  This one was gently placed back where it was.

 

And later that night there was a Starlink rocket launch from Cape Canaveral - I captured not only the rocket itself but if you look closely you can see the first stage dropping as a white ball back to the retrieval ship.

Little Ragged Cut, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

A not-quite-sunny day.....

We were long overdue for a run over to the garbage dump......

Still blustery winds but the shoreline was a bit protected.

A nice little walk over to the dump, good to get a bit of exercise as we'd not been off the boat in almost 48 hours!

 And late in the day we got a little "grocery delivery" - Rick & Susan on C_Language had offered to bring us a few things to save us a trip over to Maxines.  Nice to have a few more fresh veggies.  Time is winding down and we'll be moving north in the next few days.

Little Ragged Cut, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

 All was well last night as a storm front passed….we now have strong west winds causing a lot of choppy waves over the normally calm sandbar.   Nothing really happening otherwise!

Little Ragged Cut, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

 We're being treated to some pretty sunrises....there are just 5 boats in the cut.  Lots of folks have headed north already.

The folks from Blue Wonder, a large Broadblue catamaran were out with their toys....fun to watch.

 

Looks like fun but might take a bit of strength and coordination!

 

I caught this cool photo of two of them crossing paths.

Blustery day so no snorkeling.....time to make some more bread.  Seems to happen every day but really the loaf lasts about a week.

And since we're sortof stuck on the boat due to the winds I thought a batch of bagels was in order as well.

Especially for Dee on Meshugga....I tried really hard to keep them round!😁

Into the sugar water bath.

Egg wash and Everything Bagel spices.

All done!