Buena Vista Cay, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

 We had a wonderful day!

The day started with a rude awakening with a small rainstorm at 4:13AM, causing us to scramble sleepily to close all the hatches.  

Kindof a blustery morning, but it calmed down.  Reach is in the harbour now - you can see them to the right.

 

Later in the morning there was a beautiful rainbow.

And then the weather cleared and it was wonderful again.

Went for a nice walk on Buena Vista - we saw that Edward's house is in about the same shape of disrepair as we saw it a few years ago.  (He is the most recent resident of the island who is elderly and had to move to Nassau after some health issues).  The house was mostly destroyed in a hurricane but he continued to live there for quite some time, a couple of years I believe.   

 

He had many animals that he took care of - the local islanders and some cruisers took care of them for a couple of years and eventually took some of them off the island.  (There is no direct fresh water source).

 

We wandered along Edward's path to the ocean side of the island (with our clippers to clear some brush that was growing into the path).  

Huge aloe plants.

 

 

And here is a huge aloe plant that's getting ready to "flower" (I assume).  The spear is maybe 10-15' tall!

 The trail as it approaches the ocean side.

 

  

Going back along the trail you can see the large salt pond in the distnace.

 

 

 Beautiful beach at Buena Vista Cay.

 

 

We took our snorkel gear with us and put it on in the dinghy after the walk.  Found some pretty fish.

And a school of what I believe is some type of snapper.

Back at the boat, Mark and Michele from Reach had invited us over for the evening - but first we all decided that the anchorage we were in was a bit too rolly - so we moved over to the large bay on the other side of the island where it was much calmer.  We had a visit from this large shark!!

I volunteered to bring a dessert to dinner - but I am running a bit low on eggs.  I remembered that my sis makes cakes all the time with no eggs - substituting vinegar in the recipe.  I looked one up and it's known as a "Depression Cake" from when supplies were limited. 

Here's the link to the recipe.  Super easy.  Next time I think I'd sprinkle some rum or simple syrup over the warm cake for a bit more moisture.  But it was good and just the right size.

Eggless Small Cake 

 

We got a tour of their lovely Dolphin 46 boat (they are former Manta owners!)    

After chatting a while, Michele whipped up a fabulous Pad Thai.  What a wonderful treat! 

 

 

And we chatted away into the night, solving all the world's problems!!  (If the world would only listen!!)