Hog Cay, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

 Merry Christmas!  

Yesterday was another boat day with continued high winds. 

The youngsters from Kailua wind surfing for a couple of hours provided some entertainment.

We are invited over to Duncan Town for the island Christmas party - they say not to bring anything but I made some white chocolate coated cookies to share.  My mom has been making these for years and everyone loves them.

Packed up and ready to take over to town.  With the continued high winds, it will likely be a wet dinghy ride or possibly we'll move Sojourn closer to town....we'll decide later today.

 

Meanwhile, Duane was doing some engine maintenance.....he'd noticed that the port engine didn't seem like it was exhausting enough water....and here is the culprit.  This impeller is supposed to have 6 fins!  He retrieved all the broken pieces and replaced this with a spare one.

We'll have a busy day today.....the cruisers are going to gather at the hut at 4pm for  pot-luck appetizers.   So we'll leave the Duncan Town festivities and try to be back to the cruiser hut by then.

I made some sushi to share and it is chilling in the fridge - I'll cut it fresh for the gathering and keep it on ice.  I made two kinds - one with the tuna we caught several weeks ago (which was immediately frozen, of course!) and another that is vegan to accommodate a cruiser that is vegan.   I used Violife vegan feta cheese as one of the fillings - a good combination.

Hog Cay, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

 Really nothing to report today!! Just windy (30+ knots) and rainy all day and night. I believe we’ve had worse weather this year than normal….i saw no one in the anchorage leave their boat all day….

Hog Cay, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

 It was mostly a boat day with winds building ahead of a large, windy cold front. (Cold is relative, haha. Temps have dropped from 80 to 78 °F)

I got an email alerting me to a new Amazon credit card in my name.  The only problem with that was that I haven’t applied for a new card!  So I spent a couple of hours on the phone getting that closed down.  And then I went to the three credit reporting sites and put a “freeze” on my reports.  I understand this will prevent anyone from getting new accounts in my name.  I don’t believe this was an actual “hack”.  I think it was just Amazon giving me an account that I didn’t want.  Anyway, a lot of wasted time….

I did at least do something productive!  Several batches of cookies - I figured I might as well stock up while I had the oven hot!  (My Walmart lemon cookie stock is getting fairly low at this point….)  Some of these were bagged and put in the freezer for later consumption.

We did put the dinghy down and went to the cruiser hut for sundown.  Probably won’t do that again for a day or so while the winds are howling.  Dinner was a bunch of leftovers so the fridge is a little more organized now.

Hog Cay, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

 After another evening battling mosquitos in the Little Ragged cut anchorage, we decided to leave our little private retreat behind.  Maybe in a week or two the island will dry out a bit and get back to the normal non-buggy paradise!

We got underway at high tide in the morning, saw 8' as the lowest depth.

After we got the sails up and on course, I made some yummy pancakes....nothing like pure carbohydrates, coffee and a lovely sail! 

 

 

We had a great engines-off sail all the way to the anchorage.  I tacked once, avoiding a couple of very active wind-surfers on hydro-foils.

Several boats still here that we know, plus 360 with Louie and Deb has returned.

Bill and Marjane stopped by on their dinghy to welcome us back.  They were going to shore to burn their trash.  Since we had accumulated a bit of trash, we later joined them to "share" their roaring fire.  Had a nice long visit in the shade of the cruiser hut.  The cruisers have been working on putting more sand back inside the hut in our absence!  It's just about level inside now - looks great! 

Just lovely here - we'll probably be here for a week as the trade winds are going to be blowing out of the east!

We joined the others later in the evening for sundown - a tentative plan was made for 4pm on Christmas day to gather at the hut to share a potluck snack and fellowship.

Little Ragged Cut, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

We took another nice shore walk.

And out for another nice sorkel.  This time over to the inside Cocoa Reef.

Not a lot of pretty coral but lots of fish.  A grouper swimming freely because he knows he's off limits until grouper season begins March 1. 

A pretty queen angelfish.

And a menacing barracuda.

A few lobsters.

And sweet looking little  bluehead wrasse. 

And the ever present queen triggerfish.

A little fishy video

Back to the boat.  Still the only boat around!

 

While I was tidying up the snorkel gear, I noticed shimmering in the water beside the boat.  I took the underwater camera down the steps and took these photos.   A school of bar jacks....

And what appears to be a nurse shark.

A beautiful sunset - and there really was an emerald green flash at the very point of sundown.  I've never been able to capture it on the camera....even in video mode.

L ittle Ragged Cut, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

 Out in the morning for a snorkel.  We're still the only boat in the anchorage.  We're a tiny white dot in the center of the photo.

Winds had died down but the surf was still pretty high.  

Good to be back in the water but the visibility was poor due to churned up sand and froth from the breaking waves.

Zoom in and you can see a small-ish lobster.  Oddly, a lot of the lobster we are seeing are perched at the opening of their lair.  Like in an aggressive stance.  They are usually hunkered back in their "hole" in the coral.  

With the churning waves and less than ideal visibility, we decided to cut the snorkel shorter than usual and head back to the boat.

Overdue for some laundry....

The deck was full with laundry and drying snorkel gear.  I'm sure to a passer-by we look like vagabonds.

After lunch at low tide we decided to try again for a more pleasant snorkel since the winds are going to fill back in tomorrow and keep us from having another snorkel opportunity for about a week.

Much better! 

Nice visibility

Coral still not terribly healthy but not horrible.

After having passed on a dozen or more small-to-medium lobsters, Duane did spear this nice one.

Pretty sunset but no green flash.  

I made some lobster bisque for my supper - it was fabulous.  (Substituted evaporated milk for the heavy cream).

Little Ragged Cut, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

 We took the dinghy ashore for a bit of a walk....were pleased to see that the table the cruisers built several years ago is still standing!!!

Since we're the only boat in the anchorage, no need for the "meeting area" yet....I'm sure we'll do some cleanup at some point.  

A side note - there are a lot more bugs here than we were expecting.  Even with strong breezes, we are getting mosquitos and biting flies in the evening.  Of course, we put the screens up but hate to do that as it impedes air flow in the boat.  I believe the surrounding marsh/mangrove area is a bit wetter than we're used to.  This will probably abate in the coming weeks as we head into a drier season. 

Walking and beachcoming on the ocean side.  

 

Beautiful as always!

Of note, there is a subtle difference in the shoreline - lots of sand is missing, I'm assuming from Hurricane Michelle's surf.

Back to the boat.....

My "haul" for the hour or so walk....was pleased that Duane found a "purse" bean - fairly rare for me.  It's the bean at the bottom of the photo.  One of these years I'll get around to polishing one of these for a necklace!