Green Turtle Cay, Abacos, Bahamas

 The strong east winds finally subsided and allowed us to go north through the Whale Cay cut.   We parted ways with Kohina for now as Phyllis has a flight to catch in Marsh Harbour.  We'll likely see Ross again in the next week as he makes his way north solo.

Kohina sailing towards Marsh Harbour.....my cellphone camera just doesn't take good photos at a distance.....

 

 

 Ross sent me this much better focused photo of Sojourn at about the same time.

 Sailing with one engine on low rpm in fairly light winds (8-12 knots).   Always fun to see progress on the island just north of the ritzy Baker's Bay resort.  What I can gather, this private island in part of Baker's Bay - and hosts the normal amenities that you would expect plus a single golf hole....strange.  When we first came thru here in 2018 the construction had just begun.

 

Very uneventful passage through the Whale Cay cut.  Just a gentle ocean swell and no breaking waves.  

Approaching Green Turtle Cay, busy on the water with small craft enjoying the Easter Monday holiday. 

We will be here for an extended amount of time, waiting for a weather window to cross to the US. 

Hope Town, Elbow Cay, Abacos, Bahamas

 In keeping with the theory "when it rains, it pours"....Duane spent a good while in the starboard engine compartment changing out the alternator.  There was some corrosion on some wires that rendered it toast.  Glad we were able to do it while in calm water and not on passage, and glad we had the new spare as well!

That done, we went ashore for a final walk.  This time about a 2 mile loop to the northern end of the island.

Coming into the harbour, one of the ferries.

It's Easter Sunday and the town is very quiet.

Just a lovely day for a walk!  Enjoying the sweet houses and pretty flowers.

 

View from the cart path/road.

There are some "estates" on this tip of the island.

 

The ocean side on this one..it has some beautiful views.

 

Something you don't see much.... next door is a vacant sandy lot......

And it's for sale - I've included a phone number - if you buy it and build a house, we'll be happy to come visit!!

 

Back to the boat for a few hours - we went over to Kohina for another relaxing sundown with Ross and Phyllis.

 Tomorrow we'll be moving on north, thru the Whale Cut and probably anchoring at Green Turtle Cay for some nasty winds in the next few days.

 

Hope Town, Elbow Cay, Abacos, Bahamas

 We've got some tentative plans now for the next few weeks.  On Monday the winds/waves will allow us to transit the Whale Cay cut northbound.  But then a really strong weather system will blow thru keeping us anchored in the northern Bahamas until it passes us hopefully sometime early next week.....

So we decided to got back into Hope Town and pick up a few groceries and top off the jerry cans with diesel. 

 

Being close to Easter, we were glad to see Vernon's little grocery store open.  We got another $50 of groceries and tossed them in the dinghy so we could take another little walk.

 Fun to see some of the small vehicles on the island in addition to golf carts.  Since they have a lot of "cart paths" instead of roads, most of the vehicles are really small.   I don't think this vehicle would pass US safety requirements.....

 A very blustery beach walk compared to yesterday.

 

 And I couldn't pass up a photo of these cats - they're lounging at the public school playground.  I sent this photo to Robert as they are spitting images of Robert's cats Cheshire and Alice.

 

And to finish off the day, Duane had noticed a small drip from the starboard engine water pump....luckily we had a spare on board so he spend the afternoon with his head down in the engine compartment!  All done.  But when he cranked the engine for a leak check, he noticed the alternator was making a good whiny noise.....that will be a problem for tomorrow.....

Hope Town, Elbow Cay, Abacos, Bahamas

 We went back on shore for another walk-about.  What's a visit to Hope Town without a climb to the top....

 

 The entrance to the lighthouse.

 

 Climbing up the spiral stairs.

 

Ladder to the very top.

 

 

The view from the top ledge.

View back towards Marsh Harbour showing Sojourn and Kohina.

 

 After the lighthouse climb we just walked around town and enjoyed the pretty flowers in all the yards.

Ross and Phyllis from Kohina came over for another relaxing sundown.  

We will probably move to another anchorage today and get set to possibly transit the Whale cut on Monday when the waves settle in the 3-4' range.  Will likely be bumpy but safe.  After that, we are going to have to get to a protected anchorage to wait out about 10 days of really strong easterly winds and enormous seas before making the jump back to the US.   

 

 

Hope Town, Elbow Cay, Abacos, Bahamas

 Pretty anchorage - view from the bow.

 

And the view from the stern.

 

We took the dinghy into the harbour.  The lighthouse from inside the harbour.

 

Busy inside with all the mooring balls occupied.

 

We took a nice leisurely walk around town.

 

We took side streets over to the ocean side a few times and had a nice stroll on the beach.

 

Instead of car parking lots, there is a golf cart parking lot near the ferry dock.

 

Walking back toward the dinghy dock.

 

 Stopped for a few groceries. 

Groceries are a bit more pricey in Hope Town.  This is $50....but happy to have the fresh stuff!

 And there was a fresh loaf of warm bread waiting in the bread machine....yum!

 

Elbow Cay, Abacos, Bahamas

 We finally escaped Lynyard Cay for a short sail north a couple of hours to the Tahiti Beach area of southern Elbow Cay.   Ross and Phyllis pulled anchor earlier and sailed away as well.

 

We did have to turn an engine on to make progress a couple of times when the wind was not in our favor.   The winds are still strong from the east so there were a few areas with a bit of a swell but nothing unmanageable.  The worst of it was this sport-fisher boat that powered at full blast by us unnecessarily close to us throwing up a 4' wake directly on our side.  

Pretty little island house....this was damaged heavily during Hurricane Dorian but looks like it's back in good repair now.

Anchored at Tahiti beach - there is a sandbar at low tide and a swim-up restaurant and bar called the Thirsty Cuda.

And we were treated to a couple of brave wind-surfers. 

Not the smoothest anchorage as the swell from passing boats and the ocean swell wrapped around a bit in the night.  Nothing dangerous....strong east winds are going to "trap" us here for a while before we can head north towards the US.