Little Ragged Cut, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

 We decided to have a change in scenery - so up with the anchor and sailing away just about an hour to the south.

 

Approaching Little Ragged Cut - only 2 other boats there - Mokacat and Mimi.

 

It's been a while since we've been in the water - so nice to be back!

 

Water was just a bit cloudy with the high winds lately.

 

Spotted a large ray.

 

If you look close you can see a wave churning towards me.  A few seconds later it was a white-out for me as the wave passed over me.

 Back to the boat.....the 3 boats got together at sunset - a much calmer vibe with just 3 couples!

 

Debbie and Michele chatting.

 

And back to the boat again- surf and turf for dinner! 

Hog Cay, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

 Another trail work day!  

This time we were joined by just a few others.  Dee with her mini-chainsaw and Burger on the trail.

 

Burger forgot his gloves but worked anyway!

 

Karen from Persephone is the champion "grass clump puller!"

 

Dee making quick work with the chainsaw.

 

We did end up getting the trail blazed all the way to the other beach - so now the "Creepy Baby Doll Trail" is connected.  We ran out of battery power for all the tools and frankly, we all ran out of "steam"....warm day so we hiked the trail backwards and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing.  Others can do some additional clearing to make it a clear trail!

Hog Cay, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

 Another busy day!

A bunch of the cruisers headed to the beach to blaze a new trail....luckily, it was a bit overcast so not too hot.

 

Everyone got right to work, clearing the trail of debris.

 

Was good fun - not too terribly hard work.

 There was a bit of bloodshed on a few exposed arms...

 Lots of action shots!

 

A great "fleet" of trailblazers!

 

 

We rode the dinghy around the cliffside to get a view of folks still working on the trail.

 I didn't even notice that I had bloodshed also until we got back to the dinghy!

Later in the day, we were treated to Deb and Ali practicing on the "manual" foil board.

And ended the evening with a nice walk on an extended trail that Keith from Kookaburra just cleared.  Ran into Goshia and Chris doing the same walk!

Hog Cay, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

 We seem to vacillate between busy and not so busy days......now for a busy one.  First we were out of bread....

 

I'm still experimenting with the bread maker.  This loaf turned out pretty good - I substituted 1 cup of wheat flour for one of the 4 cups of plain flour called for in the recipe. 

Then a bit of repair work.  One of the sun shades has developed a substantial rip from flapping in the 25 knot breeze lately.

 Rather than take the whole contraption down and sew it on the machine, I decided to hand sew it in place.  Duane helped hold it steady (it's still very breezy).  This should do for the season - I need to take all the shades down and do some major patching as they get a lot of abuse out in the wind.  I'll do that back in Oriental as these shades have a 10' PVC pipe embedded in them and are difficult to work with.

Next up, one of the cushions in the salon was beginning to bust a seam.  

 

First we separated the leather covering from the interior cushion and tried to sew the seam on the sewing machine.  Unfortunately, it kept snarling the thread.  Not sure what the problem is, but I didn't want to keep attempting to sew the leather on the machine because, unlike cloth, leather is not very forgiving of needle holes and pulling out mistakes!  So we decided it was best just to sew it by hand as well.  Duane did the honors and it turned out perfectly!! 

In the afternoon, we went for a dinghy ride and exploration.  Just beautiful here.

 

We left the dinghy on a small beach and headed into the brambles to scout out a possible future trail.

 

Views from the cliff.

We hope to have several cruisers help us "blaze" a new trail along the cliff to connect one trail to the other about 1 mile long!  

 

A lot of the path will follow existing "goat paths" so maybe it won't be so hard to blaze....

A group of cruisers will get together in the next few days to do the work.

In the evening, we were invited over to Charm for the last "Taco Tuesday" for a while.  They're leaving in the morning to head north to Georgetown to meet their son for a nice long visit.  We'll miss them but will likely cross paths again in the coming months!