Green Turtle Cay and Across the Atlantic

From the Captain

3/11/13 Great Guana Cay to Black Sound, Green Turtle Cay, Abaco, Bahamas 15 nm.

Green Turtle Cay and beyond to the north are separated from the rest of the Abacos by a shallow sandy bar extending from Great Abaco Island on the west to Whale Cay at the eastern edge. To travel north requires a short passage at the edge of the Atlantic. This passage is known to those who listen to the Abaco cruisers' net as, "The Whale." The Whale can be problematic when there is an incoming ocean swell and an outgoing tide. If the swell is strong enough, choppy seas and breaking waves, called a "rage," pose a danger to passing vessels. The morning cruisers' net always includes reports, when available, on conditions at the Whale and other passages among the barrier islands.

Today, after two days of light winds and a mild northwest wind at present, we could have traversed the Whale in our dinghy. It was that calm. Once back in the Sea of Abaco, we sailed the short distance from the northern tip of Whale Cay to the harbor at Green Turtle Cay.

Our friends on Amarone II and Mar-a-Lago stayed on the south side of the Whale. They have more time to spend in the Abacos and are off to Treasure Cay. We made the rounds in our dinghy and said goodbye to them for the last time in the Bahamas. We have been together since No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne. In the two-and-a-half months, we have become good friends.

The Whale marks a boundary of sorts. South of here is the hub of the Abacos, where all the cruisers tend to congregate. North of the Whale, beyond Green Turtle, there are few settlements and lots of empty cays. North of the Whale, sailors are either coming to or leaving the Bahamas. Not without regret are we joining the latter group. As if to emphasize that point, our VHF radio cannot pick up the Abaco cruisers' net from Green Turtle Cay.

On the way out of Great Guana, we could see the new development and large homes on the northern tip of the island. It was as Maria Albury at Dive Guana had said: newly constructed homes seem two or three times larger than others. A fancy new marina and resort are going in at the tip of the island.

I reflected on this scale of development as we sailed by. We saw the same pattern in Hope Town, in Man-O-War, in Guana, and we will see it on Green Turtle. The native settlements around the protected harbors have remained intact. Vacation homes seem limited to the ends of the islands, along the ocean shore, beyond the settlements. This seems OK to me. Development in this case brings the demands for more goods and services, which help the local economy.

Of course, with development might also come demands for better and wider roads, more reliable electric power, police and fire protection, upgraded water and sewer services. Taxes to support these could drive the native Bahamians from their homes, as they do in America when neighborhoods become gentrified. So far, the Bahamians seem smarter than this and don't seem inclined to raise taxes. Someone in Spanish Wells told me that foreigners can't buy houses worth less than $250,000. This policy would keep the second homes out of town.

There are two very well-protected harbors on the west side of Green Turtle Cay. White Sound, to the north, is home to two upscale marinas, the Green Turtle Club and the Bluff House. Moorings and dockage are available here, and the fee can be deducted from your bar and restaurant tab.

New Plymouth Settlement, Green Turtle Cay

To the south, by the original settlement, New Plymouth, is Black Sound. There are several small marinas and boatyards lining the shores. People leave their boats here on the off season. Moorings are inexpensive, and the settlement is within walking distance. We steered toward Black Sound.

There are moorings at the bottom of the harbor, and we picked up an available one belonging to Donnie. Donnie has a few slips at his dock, and boats can stay on a mooring or in one of the slips for $10.00 per night. Internet access, which we can get intermittently from the mooring, is an extra dollar a night.

We get a better wifi connection by taking the dinghy to the dock. This is important because we are keeping track of the weather. We can't hear the cruisers' net. We are no longer sailing with Amarone, though Bruce, in radio contact from Treasure Cay across the way, continues to email us updates from Chris Parker. With the internet, we can get daily Abaco forecasts from barometerbob.net. He gives information on the Gulf Stream crossings as well. We can also get the NOAA forecasts for the Gulf Stream and for Florida from a smart phone app called Marine Weather Pro. And we have another app for wind conditions called Wind Finder.

All our weather sources are in agreement.  After the cold front passes, the north wind moderates and swings toward the east and south. Gulf Stream conditions for 3/16 look perfect, but then another cold front approaches 3/17. Our plan is holding: we'll set out from Green Turtle on 3/15. Stop to rest at Great Sale Cay, about 60 miles and eight hours to the west. Then we'll leave there at 10 pm, sail across the banks, and arrive at the deep ocean and the Gulf Stream by dawn for the nine-hour sail to Ft. Pierce, FL.

Miss Emily's Blue Bee Bar

In the meantime, we have a few days to explore the island. Gilliam Sound is a long beach across the road from us. We had a nice long walk and a brief swim. We walked through the New Plymouth settlement. A little larger than the ones after Marsh Harbour, the town has several restaurants, two hardware stores, three or four groceries. Miss Emily's Blue Bee Bar, with bragging rights to the original Goombay Smash, is here.

The fancier places at the other end of the island at White Sound are beyond dinghy range for us. There are lots of places to rent golf carts, but we have enough to see right here.

We visited an interesting sculpture garden featuring busts of prominent citizens. In the center is a monument to the colonial Loyalists, who with their slaves were the first immigrants to settle here. Busts of more recent residents memorialize contributions to farming, teaching, boat-building and boat-piloting, politics, law, and the merchant trade. There are a few black faces, including Sir Lyndon Pindling's wife, Lady Marguerite Pindling, who raised money for the Red Cross and was active in the political movement which led to majority rule and later independence from Britain. Names on the busts in the sculpture garden are mirrored in the nearby cemetery--Roberts, Curry, Albury, and Lowe most common among them. A student of the American Revolution might find the same names among prominent Tory families in Charleston, Savannah, and possibly New York City.

3/14/14 Green Turtle Cay to Great Sale Cay to Fort Pierce, FL 180 nm.

As we see so often, weather forecasts change. No matter how much jargon the weatherman uses, his is an inexact science at best. As we close in on our planned departure, Sunday's perfect window for the Gulf Stream looks like it is collapsing: Monday's cold front is approaching faster than predicted.

We talked to several other boats who were thinking of taking advantage of the same opportunity. All are going to put off their leaving until the weather is forecast to improve next Wednesday and Thursday (really??). The commander and I discuss our situation. The best course seems to leave today. Winds across the Sea of Abaco are 15-20 from the northeast, moderating and turning east in the afternoon. Gulf Stream conditions tomorrow look like light southerly winds and a moderate sea. The advantage to us is being back in Florida and on our way. We would rather take the certain window now than count on a forecast, uncertain at best, for five days out. The disadvantage is having to make the trip without a buddy boat or two. And, significantly, we will miss the happy hour Goombay Smash at Miss Emily's and the special lobster dinner we had planned for our last night here.

It took just a little time to get ready to leave. We paid Donnie for the mooring. We lifted the outboard motor off the dinghy and fastened it to the bracket on Luna's stern rail. We lifted the dinghy onto the foredeck and lashed it down. We stowed things in the cabin, expecting an exciting passage out of Green Turtle. We untied the mooring lines and left the harbor two hours after high tide, a little later than we would have liked, at 10:30 am.

The passage across the Sea of Abaco under jib and reefed main did not disappoint. Reluctantly, when the wind turned east, we dropped the mainsail, then added the motor to keep our speed over 6 kts. We had calculated our passage times based on a 6-kt speed to arrive at our destination, the Ft. Pierce inlet, in late afternoon, when the current is slack.

The northern part of the Abacos is sparsely populated. Small cays might have a large vacation house, but there are only two small settlements toward the tip of Great Abaco and Little Abaco islands: Cooperstown and Fox Town. Beyond that, we are mostly out of sight of land until Great Sale Cay. Though the island is uninhabited, there is a protected anchorage and a popular stopping-off place for cruisers crossing the Bahamas banks. There are three boats in the anchorage when we arrived.

We stopped for dinner, took showers, rested. We watched the sunset and the nearly full moon rising. At 10 pm, we pulled up the anchor and motored out past the other boats.

The moderate east wind continued, and we motor-sailed across the banks in the moonlight. We had the sea to ourselves--not another boat came into sight. The experience was serene. The commander and I changed places at the helm every 90 minutes and rested in between.

By 7 am we were at the Little Bahama Bank GPS waypoint and ready to enter the Florida Straits and the Gulf Stream. The south wind we had expected never materialized, and we motored across the pond. The ocean swells, still fairly high from the frontal winds, created a moderately rough passage, but we enjoyed surfing off the backs of the waves as they passed. Luna handled the situation easily of course.

Ft. Pierce inlet is wide and used by large freighters taking goods back and forth from, it turns out, the Bahamas. The inlet has a reputation for swift currents, and slowly moving boats are advised to arrive at slack current. On our chart, slack current is at 4:11 pm. We arrived at the inlet at 4:17pm. Our plan had worked out perfectly.

Of course, we didn't plan for the culture shock--the large buildings, condos, bridges, cars, motor boats rushing in and out of the inlet, brown water. After the clear turquoise of the Bahamas, it's the water we noticed first. We headed back to the ICW, turned south, turned east beyond the high Ft. Pierce bridge, and found an anchorage for the night. All is not lost, of course. Off the anchorage, the sun set, the moon rose. And, by sailing into Ft. Pierce, we had missed all the drawbridges and the monstrous yachts and houses of south Florida.

But, suddenly, here we are, back in the USA. It may take awhile to process all this. I think of some remarkable jazz tunes I've heard. They start off with a melody, the head. After a while, the soloist takes off. The solo takes you to some other place entirely, dives and soars, twists and turns. The excitement builds, then resolves as the band returns to the head. Lose yourself in the music, and the best of these solos can leave you breathless. And at the end, back in the familiar melody, you are left wondering, "Did that really just happen?"

Sun rises over the anchorage, Ft. Pierce, FL