Tuesday February 14th, 2017
Today is Valentine’s Day. Happy Valentine’s Day to my crew ML.
We left Allan Cay on Sunday morning. Our destination, Green Turtle Cay. Green Turtle Cay is one of the barrier islands generally to the north and east of the Island of Abaco. It is a popular stop on its own but also a waiting or arrival point after transiting the Whale Cay cut. This cut like most of the barrier cuts can be treacherous when conditions are not ideal.
The island has a population of about 450 with the town of New Plymouth as the main settlement. The houses in New Plymouth are unique for the Bahamas, with high roofs, clapboards and the typical bright colours. New Plymouth was originally settled in the 18th century by folks from New England.
Green Turtle Cay has many marinas of various size and service capabilities. Lots of boats are based here but there are still lots of opportunities for transients. There is also a yard for off season storage on the hard. Significant shopping is available for booze and some groceries. The bank is open on Thursdays as is the BTC phone office. We will go on Thursday to get our Bahamas phones going again.
We arrived in the open anchorage off New Plymouth on Sunday at about 13:00 hrs. Everyone and everything we looked at suggested that the customs office would be open… but alas this Sunday was not one of those Sundays. This is not an unusual occurrence… it is the Bahamas.
I took SM Mango with me on a tour of White Sound before we made it back to the boat. We went by Bluff House Marina and they had a couple of opens slips visible. I dropped Karen’s stud muffin off to go ashore and check out the availability. We needed a few days ashore and there is a potential violent bit of weather on Wednesday/Thursday.
The folks at Bluff House Marina they called customs and the official told us to go ashore get our dock and come in on Monday morning to check in. The wind was quite calm and our arrival was without incident.
Monday morning we went in to New Plymouth by dinghy. I love this little community. Sorry I have not done the typical pics yet. I will do so when we go in by golf cart on Thursday. We have rented a golf cart from the marina office who arranges these things with the local rental place. We will do the full tour of the island.
Our check in went smoothly. Fracas is approved for a year and we are good for 90 days.
We did go over to the beach yesterday:
After the beach, we went to the pool. I tried my new full face mask and snorkel. I am happy to report that the full face mask works on my face. No more goop in my cheesy moustache and leaking mask. I can keep my ‘stache and snorkel.
We played a few games of dominos and had a few turtle tranquilizers. In bed by boater midnight.