Manjack Cay
Bahamas
26.49.202N
77.22.139W

We’ve had some nice weather the last couple of days. I’ve taken to checking my e-mails, swimming a few laps around the boat, then surfing the internet to my heart’s content. Dale has been tasking himself with little odd jobs here and there, swimming around the boat a few times, reading and getting a few more CME classes done.

Today, we gave up waiting and called the insurance companies again. We’ve learned that once again, we’re at their mercy. It’s going to cost us considerably more to stay put in a river 20 miles from the ocean than it has been to travel from island to island throughout the Caribbean. It cost us more to go sailing when we left and now its costing us more to come home again. Go figure!

With our business accomplished, I have no reason to linger longer except that once again, the internet has become my umbilical to the rest of the world. Tomorrow, I’ll check my e-mails, then disconnect until we’re back in Florida. We’ve been told that there are no more connections between here and there.

So . . . We’ll catch up with ya’ll on the other side of the Gulf Stream.

Photo: Curly tailed lizard watching us, watching him.

Manjack Cay
Bahamas
26.49.202N
77.22.139W





Happy Father’s Day to all of you Dads out there! For the first time in days, its actually pretty sunny outside.








We took advantage of the nice weather and went for a hike along the nature trail on Manjack. Although the island has taken a beating during the past couple of hurricanes, the nature trail’s paths have been widened and new palm trees have been planted here and there along the trail. We saw one of the huge land crabs walking through the underbrush along the trail. It’s not something you’d ever want to have an encounter with.





With the nice weather, Toucan Dream moved north to Powell Cay today. Also with the reasonably nice weather forecast for the next couple of days, Annabelle II decided to head home while the seas were down. Business and family matters were starting to encroach upon their vacation time and when their toilet broke, it was the last straw.









We’re sticking around for the internet until I’m positive we’ve got insurance coverage on the Palace taken care of.

Manjack Cay
Bahamas
26.49.202N
77.22.139W


Once again, the radar shows a huge swath of nasty weather heading our way first thing this morning but we’re determined to get a little exploring in before we’re trapped on the boat for another day.

Bob & Karen from Annabelle II and Dale & I dinked around to the ocean side of Manjack and beach combed for sea glass for Karen, sea shells for me, and whatever flotsam and jetsam the guys couldn’t possibly live without.

We saw what looked like a couple of little sharks playing in the shallow waters as we headed back to our dinks and kept our distance from them as we waded out into deeper water. The tide had gone out and once again, we did the African Queen reenactment of walking through the shallows towing the dink by hand.

The rest of the day was spent reading, uploading pictures on the blog from 5/29/2007 forward, playing computer games and watching movies. Since I had a pretty good internet connection at one point, I tried to get some insurance business completed using voice over internet protocol. The long and short of it was: call back on Monday.



Photo 1: Kenny's Tree
Photo 2: X marks the spot

Manjack Cay
Bahamas
26.49.202N
77.22.139W

It was terribly overcast this morning and the radar showed some nasty weather heading in our direction but we were determined to do something before being holed up on the boat again. We radioed Annabelle II and asked if they wanted to join us in exploring the mangrove channels. A short time later we were putt putting our way through the shallows among the mangrove trees looking at bonefish, sting rays and lots of little conch and upside down jellyfish.

A couple of hours later, we were rushing back to our respective boats trying to out run the squall bearing down on us.

Back on the Palace we hunkered down and waited for the big blow. We had heard a report of 52 kts in Tahiti Beach. We did get some wind and rain but nothing like those to the south of us.
The Junkanoo Parade that had been rained out last Friday in Marsh Harbor was on schedule again for this today according to our radio. However, once again, Marsh Harbor was getting hit with the full force of the rain storm. I have no idea if the Junkanoo went on as scheduled or not.

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"