Green Turtle Cay was our closest port of entry and just a few miles away. We sailed in 3 meters of water using just the genoa and anchored behind Lady Rebel and next to Ocean Blue. We deployed the dingy, attached the outboard and I headed into town to clear Customs. It’s a cute, clean and colourfully painted town. It was a short walk to the Customs office however they were closed and re-opening at 1pm. Not to worry, I’ll shoot back in after lunch. On my return, they were closed again and now re-opening at 3pm. I passed the time wondering the deserted streets with full knowledge that I was back in the islands, everything is on island time.

We reacquainted our white bodies with the warm sunshine and took time to catch up with friends on neighbouring yachts. We had heard that Tourterelle had also enjoyed a safe passage, found some new sailing friends, entered via a different cut and they were clearing in on the mainland at Treasure Cay.

English History

English Loyalist History

Before leaving the States, I thought we’d completed all our maintenance work however this was not the case. Our generator battery died so I was on a mission to find a reasonably priced replacement. Only if I had replaced it in the US, it would have been a $50 buy at Walmart (or similar) not the +$200….oh well next job. On route, our port navigation light stopped working. I knew it was the exposed connectors as Steve and I had made the fix back in the Balearics. Derek kindly gave me a few connectors. I cleaned and cut back the wires and re-crimped. Another job complete. Our autopilot and the depth and speed transducer is now playing up! Gee why now? After a day of fault finding and searching for the autopilot computer (one day I will find it), the culprit was a $25 t-piece connector that was unfortunately hidden out of site but close enough to be splashed with water when removing the deep/speed transducer. I was unable to find a Raymarine technician in the Abaco as this isn’t a common spare part. It was looking like another air freight and import job however Ken just so happened to have one for a future upgrade he is planning. Thanks Ken, it two clicks the job was done. .Oh what now! The water maker isn’t happy……the sensor indicates poor water quality. There is only one way to find out, taste it….yuk that’s not right. Ken (Lady Rebel) kindly tested the water sample that came back with a TDS of 826. In a desert or drought you may drink it but it’s not recommended. Time for new membranes (filters). With a little research I found the original manufacture of the membranes (USA) so we didn’t have to import from France. Let’s park this until they arrive.

To continue our move south we needed to exit back into the Atlantic and then through another cut into the Abaco Sea. In an informal procession our little flotilla set sail and we anchored at Grand Guana Cay. Guess what! We have a beach bar (Grabbers). We explored the small village, technically it could be called a town but other than a few restaurant beach bars and a lumber yard we didn’t see much. Clean and quite with a few retired Americans zipping around in golf carts… very relaxing. The Atlantic Beach bar (Nippers) was worth a look but we didn’t return for the regular Sunday roast pig dinner.

It was time to inflate the new toys, my birthday present paddle board and Kim’s early Christmas present paddle board. Tourterelle had also made similar purchases in the States. Lady Rebel broke out their inflatable kayak. Our inflatable flotilla made it ways to the beach bar for Sunday drinks (we were also joined by Elsie and Lynall (Ruby Tuesday).

New scenery was required so we soon moved a few miles to the northern anchorage of Man-O-War Cay. Kim and I wondered our way to town, a dirt road then a little tarmac for the golf carts. We returned on the Atlantic beach side that was adorned with holiday homes. The beach sand was equal to Noosa and Perth. We had a few rocks to navigate and the only people we passed were a small group of Americans.

After a few days, and another wind change, this time from the south, we moved across the sound to John Cash Point. How could we not anchor at a place with such a name? The point was another strip of uninhabited grand holiday homes. At low tide we found a sandy beach for the dingy and walked 2 miles to the town of Marsh Harbour for a few supplies. This is the largest of the mainland (Abaco) towns, most roads deserted. The town does have one set of traffic lights, maybe they are just needed for Saturday morning’s shopping traffic?

On a still and perfect no wind day, Tourterelle was scheduled to haul out for a sail drive service. I offered to help and that morning on the back of Kim’s paddle board I was taxied to their yacht. Kim is becoming quite competent with her new board. Everything went to plan and I took advantage of short walk to town and topped up the outboard fuel. Tick another job done.

With a strong wind forecast we moved to the other side. It was all about timing the wind change (South to North West). On one of my many trips to town to the freight company that we used to ship the new water-maker membranes I ran into La Perle Noir (Steve & Vicky from Bisvages who I’d first met in USVIs but more recently we had a brief catch-up at the Annapolis Boat Show). They had recently arrived and also planned to move to the “other side” to shelter from the forecast cold front). Anyway, our timing of the move was out by 30 minutes, the temperature dropped from 28 to 21 degrees as we got hit by the Arctic blast that had brought snow to the southern parts of the US. On a positive, it was easy to set the anchor in the rain and we retired for a quite night at home, swinging safely on the hook.

Artic Blast

The Return of the Su

So back to the water-maker, the manufactures instructions noted how to change the membrane. It sounded so simple, just put it in a bench top vice and pull. Aura doesn’t have a workshop or a bench top vice so my plan was to visit the local marine yard. Steve then told me that a few years ago he had completed the same job and he had a bench and vice on board, as you do when you have a large Lagoon 450 cat. We worked on this simple task for hours and I thought we’d break his bench or the vessel (tube). With great disappointment we gave up and I resolved to visit the boat yard the following day. Steve wasn’t going to give in and did a little more research. The next morning he suggested that I re-connect it to the pump and use the water pressure to blow off the end caps. Perfect and so simple! I had the two endcaps off in no time at all. A little more work was required to get the correct endcap off but with a little brute force we got there. All ready for the new membrane, except it hadn’t arrived…..its now being sent sea freight….. Kim is not happy. Her schedule has us in the Exuma’s for Christmas. After a “not impressed with the service” email to the freight company that included CCing the Ops Manger and a VP (thank you LinkedIn) our membrane promptly arrived in Marsh Harbour the following day.

Prior to our freight arriving we did enjoy a paddle board around the sandy mangroves at Snake Cay. With water production back in check, we sailed south towards Lynards Cay and found Tourterelle anchored close by. The next day we moved to Tom Curry Point and set out on a dingy expedition to find deep pools known as the Blue Holes. We didn’t find them but we still had fun rowing around the mangroves disturbing high speed turtles and the odd Nurse shark. I should have taken a GPS and noted the coordinates.

Anchor is dug in

Tom Curry Point

He following day we went in to Little Harbour with Ian and Ann on Hatch, A natural and extremely well sheltered harbour with a few holiday homes, the iconic Pete’s Pub and Gallery. The resident artist sculptures in bronze. After a walk through the town, we decided to head back to our boats and move to Lynanrds Cay for Friday after work drinks and a little dancing. Tomorrow night we will be sailing to the Exumas, For now, there are a few self-inflicted sore heads..

Little Harbour

Lynards Cay