Little Ragged Cut, Bahamas

The winds did not materialize overnight like forecast - we had a pleasant but fairly chilly night.  It was 70°F!!!  

Very cloudy skies all thru the day.

The dreary skies got me in the mood for some more cinnamon rolls.  The usual - although I did end up heating up the oven to 120°F, turning it off and letting the rolls rise inside since I don't have my warm sunny cockpit as usual!

 

 Meshugga invited us over for afternoon games and a late lunch.  Note the long sleeve shirts we dug out - still chilly at 75°F and windy.  Fun afternoon, Nicholas won the game handily (and I believe he also cheated - seems like the Meshugga crew are the only ones that can win the game on Meshugga!!!)

 Dee served up wonderful edibles - yummy pickled fish they had bought from Maxine and what looked like great meatballs.  Afternoon snack was a variety of cheeses with honey, nuts and chutneys.  I can't say enough kind words for their hospitality!

Back to our boat, no dinner as we were stuffed to the gils....settled in and watched No Time To Die, the latest Bond movie.  No spoilers, but I was shocked!!!

 

 

Little Ragged Cut, Bahamas

 Started the day with some cheese grits and, strangely, fried "greenish" tomatoes.  I say "greenish" since they were green tomatoes when we got them from Maxine about 2 weeks ago.  I'd hoped they would ripen - but they didn't really. They turned a bit striped pink, but one of them was starting to have a soft spot so I decided it was time to use them, or lose them....

Good combination, actually!

The long-awaited mailboat was in port at Ragged Island!   The winds were already getting strong from the north, so taking a dinghy all the way to the government dock on Ragged Island would have been wet and awful.  So Dee arranged with Ty, Maxine's son, to retrieve all our boxes from the mailboat and bring them about 3 miles to shore near us.

We landed near the "airplane restaurant" (remember, it was damaged years ago in a hurricane and has never been repaired).

Ty chatting with Dee - such a nice young man and so helpful, just like his mom Maxine!

 

Kris and Dean from Charm had placed an order as well.

 

Toting all the boxes to the dinghies.

 

My "personal shopper" Ms. Archer, had placed all of my groceries in one large box.  (I guess she did that to save shipping - it's $6 a box no matter the size).

 

Loading the boxes in the dinghies for the ride back to the boats.

 

But Kris and Dean had an issue with their outboard.  No problem, Dee and Nicholas just tied them to the back of their dinghy and away we all went.  Amazing that Meshugga's 60HP engine will plane both dinghies!

 

Back to the boat, unloaded and stored all the goodies.  The only thing that I didn't receive was a cantaloupe as my shopper had called me and said that there were no good ones for her to send.  Nice to have the fridge re-stocked with such nice fresh veggies!

A little mishap - 6 of the 3 dozen eggs were cracked - so I simply put them in baggies and froze them.  They'll be fine for baking so none lost.

 

And by early evening the skies had gone grey - everyone is safe on the boats waiting for the strong winds from the frontal system to pass by in the night.

Little Ragged Cut, Bahamas

 Wow, the sunrises have been more spectacular than the sunsets!!

 

On our way out to go snorkeling we crossed paths with Jerry and Donna - stopped for a quick chat.

 Almost immediately after we got in the water I spotted this pretty green turtle.

Fortunately, he was not afraid of me and swam pleasantly while I filmed (rather than darting away like many of them do).

 

 Lovely blue tangs.

Along with Nicholas and Jenny from Meshugga, we moved to the ocean side of the island where it was amazingly calm.

 The oceanside reef we explored for the first time - wasn't particularly good for lobster or large fish - but beautiful coral and nursery fish!

 

 

 

 Duane had a sucessful hunting day - a nice hog fish and lobster!

A smaller gathering at sundown...everyone getting ready for windy weather tomorrow.

 

 Pretty sunset, as usual!

Little Ragged Cut, Bahamas

 The day started with another spectacular sunrise.

 

 Beautiful day follows!

 

After I made the potato salad and cookies for our potluck later in the day, we went for a nice snorkel.

 

A small school of jacks.

 

We moved to a different more shallow reef.

 

Do you see Mr. Lobster?

 

Back to the boat.

 Before long it was time to go ashore and get the fire started for the cookout.

 

My goodness there are a lot of folks!!!  Jerry and Donna chatting.

 

And Gosha & Chris  from Aldebaran.

 

Deb and Louis chatting with Jenny.

 

Too many new faces for me to be able to name them - by far the biggest crowd we've seen here.  I think there are 15 boats now.  As soon as the wind subsides this weekend we will likely go for a change in scenery.

As usual, the food was wonderful and a great variety.  All of it nicely vegetarian so I didn't have to skip any of it. 

 

The sun melted into a lovely afterglow.

 

And a beautiful calm evening.   One more calm day before a weather system dips to the south and causes some high winds.