Manjack Cay, Abacos, Bahamas

Scary little story, then on to fun stuff.  One of the most tense times we've had in recent memory.

Overnight, there was a really, really strong thunderstorm that woke us up at 2AM.  The boat was tossing wildly in the small crowded anchorage.  And we rushed to the cockpit to find that our anchor was dragging.  Duane cranked the engines and for the next 20-30 minutes we powered forward and steered around to avoid all the other boats that were on moorings.  I admit, we knew that the holding in this anchorage was not ideal, but the moorings looked a little suspect (many were damaged) so we decided yesterday to anchor instead of picking up a mooring.   I backed down hard (full power) on the anchor and I thought we were good.  But with the wildly shifting winds, the anchor got fouled with debris from the bottom and no longer held.  Definitely a poor decision on our part.  Lessons learned.  Duane did a great job at the controls, I was running from side-to-side telling him where the boats were.  We had NO visibility forward, the rain was pounding.  My face stung every time I stuck it outside the cockpit enclosure.   And a complicating factor was that one large power boat did not have any light - no anchor light at all.  So they were only visible during lightening flashes.  But we made it thru unscathed with a few close calls as the wind pushed us around.  When the storm finally passed, we pulled up the fouled anchor up.  Duane removed a bunch of sand/grass and a piece of plastic siding!   Here's what was wrapped around the anchor.

 After getting the anchor up, we decided that we would just go back out of the anchorage, down the narrow channel and anchor in the wide open (but unprotected) bay near New Plymouth.  Not any fun at 3AM!  But I had the previous track on the chart plotter and it was no problem.  Everything calm now....others must have had problems as well because there were 2 other boats in the bay with running lights on, maneuvering and re-anchoring at the same time as us.  We got settled and had a very peaceful sleep the rest of the night.  That which does not kill us makes us stronger.....

Now on to more fun things!

We woke to a pleasant sky, back into the anchorage because we need fuel for our return trip and we need to clear out of the Bahamas with customs.   There were several calls on the VHF and before long this fairly large fuel tanker comes in.  A surprisingly large vessel for this small anchorage!  

 

Really starting to sink in that our Bahamas exit is underway....we had been in contact with the customs agent from Treasure Cay.  She came over to Green Turtle on the ferry - and this is her office!  She's at the picnic table with her forms.  Duane is handling the paperwork with her here.  Several other folks are leaving so they are using her services as well.   A couple of signatures and we're checked out of the Bahamas!

 

After getting our fuel tanks topped off and disposing of the week's garbage we headed a few miles north to Manjack Cay.  (I wasn't spending another night at anchor in White Bay!)  Very nice sail with just the main sail up.

 

After getting settled, we went ashore for a little exercise.

 

The couple that owns this part of the island keep a couple of trails maintained for the cruisers.  So nice of them.

 

A nice boardwalk into the mangroves.

 

You could arrive at this point via dinghy if you prefer to start the walk this way.

 

Very nicely maintained trail - someone has been busy clearing.  Pretty long trail - I'd say close to a mile.

 

We kept hearing rustling in the woods alongside the trail.  Then we spied many of these little land crabs.  Fast little boogers!

 

And out to the pretty ocean beach!

 

A left-over sisal plant from a plantation many years ago, I assume.

 

As we got back near the owner's barns we kept hearing clucking and a rooster.  She's apparently not afraid of being eaten like most Bahamian chickens!

 

Back to the boat - we watched an oddly uplifting movie - In and Of Itself.

We'll move a little more north tomorrow and then it will be positioning for the run to the US!