Time to go ashore and see the sights - we've anchored here but never gone ashore.
Looking back at Sojourn in the anchorage.
Beautiful views from the hilly little town.
Mostly nicely kept houses. They are still recovering from Hurricane Dorian but most of the repairs are complete.
Nice dockage and fuel available.
The Rosie's Place restaurant wasn't open so we'll have to sample it some other time.
Back to the boat for hopefully a pleasant 3-4 days/nights sailing towards home! Sunset at sea…
Uneventful night, we traded 4 hour shifts at the helm. A few tankers overnight but nothing close to us.
Pleasant day sailing about 40 miles. This time we did put up all the sails to keep us moving along. Originally we were going to stop at Great Sale Cay but Bluejacket said they were going to continue on to the most northern Bahamian cays. So we decided just to follow suit.
Anchored off of the small town - we'll decide what to do next. The plan was to jump off to Beaufort, NC right away but there are some pesky thunderstorms in the forecast now.....stay tuned.
I started the morning by making a batch of pancakes. Since we'll be underway to the US for several overnights, I wanted to have easy breakfast material available. I wrapped these individually so they wouldn't stick together and put them in the freezer.
Jerry and Donna told us they were heading nearby to Allans Pensacola Cay on their way westward so we picked up the anchor and had a very pleasant hour long sail with just the mainsail up again. (We're lazy on these short sails and don't bother with the jib - we were sailing at 6-7 knots, which is plenty!)
Small cargo ship in the distance. This one looked like it had fuel or gas tankers on deck.
The normally deserted anchorage was actually quite crowded. We pulled up beside Bluejacket.
And they invited us over in the afternoon for conversation and cards.
Probably our last "couples photo" of this winter Bahamas season....we're looking a little salty!
Back to Sojourn for an early evening.
We had a lovely sail up to Crab Cay. Really going to miss this water when we leave in a few days!!!
In the afternoon Skyfall came into the anchorage.
And Cerca Trova invited us all over for sundown. Looking back at Sojourn and Skyfall. Just the 3 Mantas in the anchorage. A couple of other catamarans briefly anchored but then left for some reason.....I guess they just couldn't hang with the cool kids.....
As usual, a fun evening of all kinds of conversation. We'll probably be moving on soon to stage for the run back to NC.
Always fun when another Manta comes in and anchors beside you! Cerca Trova and her new owners Bruce and Lynnette. We had not met them but crossed paths several times in the past year or so.
So we invited them over for sundown - always fun getting to know Manta people. Fun evening.
Early in the morning I heard the rumble of the fuel tanker. I was surprised yet again that it made its way over to Sunset Marine. The channel there is a bit curvy and narrow. But the captain navigated it with no issues so I expect he's done that a time or two!
We were having some roll in the anchorage, just due to all the boat traffic as usual. So we pulled anchor and moved about 5 miles north to the more remote anchorage on the northwest end of Manjack Cay.
After lunch we went ashore for a walk. Cool starfish in the shallows.
Sojourn in the distance.
Beautiful beach and just the exact firmness of sand for pleasant walking.
There are some very small roadways/paths cut in the island so easy walking over to the protected bay on the northern end.
Just lovely. We walked back around via the shoreline, occasionally having to hop into the woods to avoid numerous dead trees on the beach left over from Hurricane Dorian.
Getting back to the dinghy a friendly ray met us....
Uneventful night, we'll be here a day or two more waiting on a little wind event to pass us by. Then we'll be making our way back to NC!
Just touring around in Black Sound in the dinghy - still lots of Hurricane Dorian damage and lots of boats washed up on the shorelines. This is the dock that we normally tie up for a walk over to Pineapples Bar....
Speaking of Pineapple Bar....time for a fun lunch out.
Love their countertop vinyl!
We were there at noon and were the only ones eating lunch.
Going back to the dinghy dock there were a couple of sharks hovering, looking for a treat I'm sure.
Back over into town on the dinghy - the view of Sojourn at anchor.
We just took a nice stroll around town. I know they did take a lot of damage in Hurricane Dorian but most but not all of the buildings have been repaired here.
Mr. Rooster was shy....
Good to see the jail was not damaged!
The view of town from the hill.
And that's about it for New Plymouth!
I did one last grocery shop - this is $60...not bad. Of note - I got a Vita Malt drink - I've never had one and I see folks drinking them here all the time. I'll let you know how it is....and looking closely at those little cookie packages - one of them says Chocolate Creams and one of them says Digestive Creams. Wonder what is the difference??? An English mystery I believe!
Back to the boat - the fuel tanker appeared to be waiting on high tide to go into White Sound (we had asked at Green Turtle Club yesterday about getting diesel and they informed us that their tanks were empty waiting on the tanker). We were amazed that this large ship actually goes into White Sound!
Uneventful evening - we watched an episode of Resident Alien. Rather silly series that Pat & Diane suggested, telling us to watch a few episodes before judging. They were correct. Silly but fun.
