Monday, 12 January 2015

Dec 24th to Jan 11th 2015

From the time we arrived in the Bahamas, we have been docked at Leeward marina on Green Turtle Cay, then moved to and anchored at Great Guana Cay, then, Marsh Harbour to provision and now we are docked at Hope Town Inn in Hope Town.  We are managing well despite losing our electronics from the lightening strike.  Our paper charts got some good use as did our Handheld Map GPS and VHF.
We stayed on Green Turtle Cay till after New Years to share the holidays with some of our cruising friends from last year and some new ones.

Stopping at a seafood store to get lobsters for our Xmas eve dinner. 6 good size tails for $39!
Even though we are basically vegetarians we can't resist the lobster tails with melted garlic butter and fresh lime.
Louise made a salad and 'smashed baked potatoes'. 
We could hardly breath we ate so much but OMG what a feast!
After my errands were done, I met up with Guy and friends at Pineapples for Happy Hour
This is the main Street of New Plymouth on Green Turtle Cay decorated for the holidays
Happy Hour at the Tranquil Turtle Bar on sea of Abaco
This is a pic of the Lizzard Club before the New Year's Eve celebration.
New Years day, many cruisers met up here at the Green Turtle Club in white sound for a pot luck dinner. 
The Lizzard Club in Leeward Marina, in Black sound where Miss Ellie was docked became a favorite as was the staff and management.
New year's Day....we dinghy-ed over to New Plymouth for the annual Junkanoo parade with Tom and Bonnie. We started with beer then quickly switched over to "Goombay Smashes". They are a fabulous concoction of a few different rums and fruit juices. The original Blue Bee Bar on Green Turtle is the originator of the Goombay Smash. After 3 of those we figured we were well lubricated for the rest of the Junkanoo festivities. As long as you have enough to make those hips fluid you are ready for the beat of the Junkanoo drums.
One of the many dressed up residents participating in the parade
It did not take Guy long to seek out other musicians....they have been crowd pleasers for many holiday events!
Guy snapped this pic of our dock from the spreaders while getting photos of some damage from the lightening strike for our insurance company.
 On the side deck you can see the yellow electrical cord we have plugged in to the dock with a 30 amp to 15 amp adapter. We pull the end of the cord into a hatch to plug in our computers etc. to charge them up. Boy do I ever miss our inverter!!!!I will never take plugging into an outlet for granted! LOL!
This yacht was just down the dock from us....they usually had two scooters....then 2 more appeared when their company arrived. They must have had a garage in there!
After we left Green Turtle Cay, we motor sailed through the very calm Whale cut with friends John and Marlene on 'Four Aces' and anchored in Fisher's Bay off Guana Cay.
The Atlantic view from the well know restaurant called Nipper's on Guana Cay
Here we are in company of Marlene and John of S/V Four Aces and our friends Bonnie and Tom from Point Edward Canada staying with us on Miss Ellie  for a few weeks
Guy and John sitting under a shade tree to escape the very hot sun! It helped that we had just bought some cold Kalik beer to help cool us off.

Our view from the cockpit of S/V Four Aces in Marsh Harbour.

After provisioning at Maxwell's in Marsh Harbour, we motored to Hope Town where we will likely stay till the end of March.

A walk on Tahiti Beach
The day before we arrived in Hope Town there was a shark attack in Tahiti Beach. The 30 some year old woman was snorkeling off the end of her parents catamaran in eight feet of water. The fire and rescue department as well as some first responder cruisers in the area were quick to respond to their plea for help on the VHF.  Their help is credited to have saved her life! She was ferried to Marsh Harbour and later air lifted to Florida and although she will have a long recovery she is reported to be doing well.
A cart is necessary to go from one end of the island to the other.
Guy was eyeing this little electric car named 'GEM' for me! LOL!
Thanks for visiting my blog. Happy New Year and Best Wishes for a great 2015 to all! 

                                                             Guy and Louise  xox