Another trail maintenance day....Karen from Persephone and Cindy from Booke End attacking a clump of grass along the path.
Lots of hands make relatively quick work.
Thanks, Jerry, for the nice photo of the group.
That's about all we did of note during the day....otherwise just relaxed with a good book. I've got a touch of a lower back ache that I can't seem to shake so I'm taking it a bit easy (at least part of the day!)
Even though it was blowing 25 knots, the crews from Bookend and C Language went over to Duncantown to pick up grocery items from Maxine's store.
They had very nicely announced ahead of time on the VHF and took orders!
Everyone who placed orders met them at the cruiser hut.
Food distribution. Very nice of them!!
And after all the excitement, we had to relax a while.
I came prepared with a Sharpie....our sign in the rafters needed updating.
Retracing the faded characters and adding 2024 - year #6 for Ragged Island visiting!
Not that a cat on board a boat is all that unusual....but they aren't often brought ashore. This one belongs to Stu from Oriental.
After relaxing and some lunch, we went on a hike. Trimming the trail as we walked. View from behind the cruiser hut.
View back over the salt flat - hard to make our in the photo but there is a pretty ridgeline.
Over on the ocean side, the waves are pretty large due to the high winds..
Duane and his pruners that he used in high school when his job was pruning acres of apple trees. Works wonderfully on the scrub bushes along the trails too.
Beautiful shore!
Still windy and cloudy....this year has been particularly stormy.
We went for a nice walk --
Interesting to see someone is trying to grow more coconut palms. Not sure who is doing this. Looks like a few are successfully rooted. A couple have not survived.
The trail takes us to the ridge and there is an old stone fence line running the length of the tip of the island.
The plants are very lush this year with all the rainfall.
The view back towards the anchorage. From what the locals tell us, this used to be a coconut palm plantation. Only those few remain pictured above.
The baby goat hidden in the center of this photo seemed a little lost. He apparently was not old enough to know to run away like all the adults do.
Near the end of the loop there is an old house on the peak of the ridge that would have had a beautiful view.
Back to the dinghy for a wet ride back to the boat as we were motoring into 25 knot winds and chop! Time for a shower and dinner prep.
A "work" party had been organized for the morning - to cut/trim "Bernie's Trail". With all the rain over the past several months, the trails are all a bit overgrown. Everyone met at the cruiser hut. Many had brought hand and battery powered tools for just this purpose.
Trailhead marker someone made out of heart beans.
I can't resist taking a few moments to view the lovely anchorage from the top of the cliff on the trail. Wow that's a lot of boats (and the photo doesn't capture all of them in the anchorage!)
We all got busy with trimming the bushes and trees.
Karen from Persephone stops her work for just a moment.
Sam and Cindy from Bookend. Many hands make light work!
We worked at it for about 2 hours before coming out on the ocean side. (Thanks, Karen from Persephone for the photos!)
Very windy!!! Gusts were at least 30 knots - blowing me a bit off balance at times.
Back at the cruiser hut to relax for a few minutes before heading back to the boat.
Just relaxed the rest of the windy day....
I did hear a US Coast Guard helicopter pass by - the first I've seen this year for some reason as they're usually flying over every few days.
Out for one last snorkel from Little Ragged Cut before we move over to Hog Cay later in the day. The wind and waves had calmed and it was just a lovely snorkel. We were able to spend a couple of hours in the water outside of the cut exploring up against the rocky shoreline where the waves are normally crashing!
We heard a motor off in the distance offshore. I pulled the dinghy close to us to make sure the fisherman saw us and didn't run over us!! We waved a cheerful hello.
And then after lunch it was time to leave the sweet little anchorage and head over to Hog Cay just an hour motoring away (winds continued to be dead calm...) The winds will increase to a steady 25+ knots and remain that strong thru this coming Saturday!! At least at Hog Cay we can get off the boat and go for a different trail hike every day. If we stay in the cut, we'll sortof be trapped on the boat with nothing much to do....
Ralph and Leslie were still out snorkeling when we pulled anchor.
The lovely view back towards the airport as we go out the narrow channel.
Just love that beautiful water!
Leslie and Ralph invited us over for dinner....mention was made that we looked like twins.
Barbara and John from Sam the Skull stopped in for happy hour. Leslie made a wonderful lobster in creamy tomato sauce over pasta....(I brought a plate of leftover steak and fixin's for Duane).
And I must comment that we are not particularly happy at Hog Cay! There are 30+ boats here!!! We have been enjoying our solitude in the cut for almost a month....noisy dogs, noisy children.....we will ride out the worst of the winds and boogie out of here at the first opportunity! We probably won't even go to the cruiser hut for happy hour - last night we could hear that it was chaos over there with loud multiple voices, squeals from children and barking dogs that we could hear from the anchorage.....sigh.
