Manjack Cay
Bahamas
26.49.202N
77.22.139W

17.2NM
5.5 Kt Avg
6.2 Kt Max
3.07 Hrs.

Current Odom: 7953.0

This morning looked promising for a transit of “the Whale,” so Annabelle II and we lifted our anchors about 7:30am and headed out. It was a quiet trip with only a 1-2’ swell making its way onto the bank. We exited off the bank along Loggerhead Channel north of Great Guana and made our way north for about 15 minutes before turning back onto the bank again south of Noname Cay. Annabelle II took advantage of their shallower draft by taking the short cut across the bank when we got back into the protected waters. We were on an outgoing tide and decided that our extra weight warranted the more cautious deeper route.

Both crews stopped in Green Turtle. Annabelle II went into White Sound for fuel, while we anchored outside of Settlement Harbor to make a quick run in for groceries. Dale was even lucky enough to finally find a small coffee maker that didn’t require a second mortgage on the boat and fits into the space that we had allotted for the old one.

We stopped and knocked on Island Flyer a catamaran that we thought was the boat our friends, John & Cherry had e-mailed us about. Although it wasn’t the same boat, we had a nice visit with Mike the single handler who was on board.

We had made our way back to the Palace and had secured the dink when Annabelle II hailed us From their trip to Settlement Harbor and asked if we wanted to have lunch in town. Oops, a little miscommunication, so we ended up taking a rain check on the offer.

We hoisted anchors again and made the short hop up to Manjack. We selected a sandy spot near Toucan Dream to drop our hook and Annabelle II found another on the opposite side of the harbor. (Maybe it was something we said. We’re going to have to watch those smart aleck remarks.)

Bob and Caron from Toucan Dream dropped by shortly after we anchored. They told us about the gathering on the beach at sundown to offer a last toast to Marty, a single handler who favored the harbor we were in and who, they learned, had died today, succumbing to lung cancer.

At the appointed hour, crews from several of the boats in the harbor gathered under the little tiki hut in Marty’s memory though nothing was mentioned of his passing. I’m not sure if it was an oversight or if that was the plan from the beginning. In any event, I brought bug spray for the mosquitoes and Karen from Annabelle II brought a Thermacell to repel the little bloodsuckers but in the end, it was the incoming tide forced us all back to our respective boats.

RIP Marty.

Photo: Bob & Karen from Annabelle II in "Tink"

Baker’s Bay
Great Guana Cay
Bahamas
26.41.390N
77.09.611W



What a rude awakening we had this morning. The wind picked up about 5 am this morning and by 5:30, Dale was up collecting our various handheld electronic instruments and laptops to put into the oven with the first clap of thunder. (The thought is that by placing the instruments into the oven, they’ll somehow be protected from being fried should we be hit by lightening. The black cloud was enormous and the boats were swinging through complete 360s by the time the storm passed through.

Our big excitement came when a large steel power yacht guesstimated to be about 85’ long started dragging down on a catamaran about 35’ long. Dale tried hailing them on the VHF on a couple of different channels but with no response. Finally the catamaran owner awoke to the problem and somehow got the attention of the power yacht’s captain. The family of 5 came up and lifted their anchor and moved upwind of Toucan Dream. Bob was delighted that the 3 teenaged daughters in their bikinis were going to be closer but not so thrilled to be downwind of Daddy’s big metal boat with an incredible amount of windage. Luckily no collision ensued. This couldn’t be said of the boats anchored in Marsh Harbor. Via the radio, we heard that several boats had dragged anchor there and that a few had ended up making contact. Toucan Dream Bob likes to call it Smash Harbor.

I sat in the cockpit with Dale through the boat shuffle and listened to the “cruiser’s net” which was comprised of not only the weather but the effort made to reconnect those who had lost items with those who had found items. My favorite was the red SeaRay cockpit cushions found making an escape from Marsh Harbor that had found their way out into the Abaco Sea. Obviously it was going to be a dark and nasty day so I went back to bed.

About noon, Toucan Dream and Aye Doc decided to make the run through “the Whale” while they still could and head to Green Turtle. Dale had just finished reading the weather report we get over the satellite phone when they radioed their plans. The next nasty storm wasn’t supposed to arrive until Sunday, so we figure we have a day or two yet.

Once the storm passed, it was actually a pretty nice day. I spent some time floating around in my inner tube which is securely attached to the Palace with a rope. We watched another large power boat spend a couple of hours detangling their 2 anchors; the captain was not a happy camper. With the 360's we all were doing this morning, their anchors twisted together. We were really surprised when after they had separated the anchors, they turned around and set the two of them again.

We called Bob & Karen on Annabelle II to see if they wanted to learn how to play Mexican Train Dominos. About 5pm we settled into an evening of counting spots. Now we’ll all be ready when we run into Toucan Dream again.