Bahamas – Abacos: New Plymouth

Day 289

April 25, 2016

NM Today: 12

NM Total: 4437

Today we traveled to our last marina before leaving the Bahamas. Instead of going through the Whale channel which would cause us to backtrack and go out in the ocean, we took Dont Rock passage. This is a shallow draft passage requiring visual piloting skills and high tides. 

Clark got good local knowledge from the bakery owner at Treasure Cay to assist with navigating this short cut. One interesting fact about the baker was that he was from Monmouth Beach, New Jersey and worked at Mihm's Boat Works where Clark used to keep his boat. Small world!! Clark could tell by talking to him that he was an experienced boater whereas the marina staff simply said "don't do it" and left it at that. They were afraid to give bad advice. The way that Clark got talking to the baker was that he said to Clark, "You're from New York, aren't you? I can tell by how fast you are walking!"

Dont Rock

We stayed at Donny’s Marina as a least-cost alternative with the added advantage of being close to town. The owner, Donny, is "quirky" to quote Active Captain. As we later learned from David on Five Flip Flops, given more than two simultaneous tasks Donny simply melts down and walks away. The accommodations were quite acceptable, and our neighbors even more so. Five Flip Flops hails from the United Kingdom and has been navigating the seas for the past 13 years. They provided a wealth of local knowledge to Clark to assist us with our trip back to Florida.

Coming into New Plymouth

New Plymouth as seen from Sea Moss

The town of New Plymouth is located at Green Turtle Cay. We walked to town and were surprised by what a lovely little place it turned out to be with colorful homes, many shops, and a memorial park honoring the Loyalists that came here. 

Historic New Plymouth

Walking down the hill into town

Memorial Sculpture Garden
Honoring the Loyalists who came here from America

Colorful Houses are popular all over the Bahamas like
these in New Plymouth, Green Turtle Cay

I started getting sick today. By the time I had made the hike up the hill back to the boat from the town of New Plymouth I was done in! Clark made dinner. I ate and then I went to bed.

Bahamas – Abacos: Treasure Cay

Day 288

April 24, 2016

NM Today: 18

NM Total: 4425

Today was Sunday and yet again we found ourselves in port with everything closed for the day. Fortunately we had seen everything yesterday that held our interest, so I took advantage of the free time and shore power to do some baking. Clark ate the last of his blueberry cake I made him last night, so he had nothing for his midnight snack tonight. 

I made him his all-time favorite applesauce cake. Using the toaster oven and small-sized loaf tins that fit inside, I make two for him and freeze one. Since they have to be cooked in series, it takes about two hours. While the 'oven' was going, I finished reading my latest novel. While I kept busy with the baking and my book, Clark talked to Rocky on Carina about short-wave radios and then listened to the cruiser's network on the VHF radio.

As soon as the second cake came out of the oven, we left Man-O-War, just minutes before 11:00, on our way to Treasure Cay on Great Abaco Island.

Farewell to Man-O-War Marina
(S/V Carina at fuel dock)

We ate lunch on the boat on the way to Treasure Cay. Clark said that if we ate as we went along, we'd have more time to 'play' when we got there! As we motored along Clark spoke to some of our boater friends on the VHF radio (Sum Escape and Carina) and heard others calling each other (Sum Escape to Job Site). Early this morning, we heard Putzin' Around on the Cruiser's Net.

When Clark talked to Rocky on Carina about plans for crossing from the Bahamas to Florida soon, Rocky had a very interesting answer that I liked and will quote here.

   "Our plans were written in the sand at low tide."

That about sums up the plans that Clark and I have made all along the Great Loop and in the Bahamas. By the time high tide has come in (six hours later - give or take) the plans are gone and new ones need to be made.

Entrance to Treasure Cay to Marina

The sign says keep left (towards Green) for deeper water.

The tan area is sand.
Talk about shalllow waters on the red (right) side!

Treasure Cay Marina & Mooring Field

As soon as we got ourselves hooked up to the mooring ball, we headed over to the marina to check in and check out the facilities. The mooring ball cost $30 for one night allowed us access to all marina amenities including WiFi! Yay!

Clark checking out the hammock

My turn
I found it quite comfortable where Clark did not.

View from the Hammock

Good-sized Pool

Besides the pool, bar & grill, and showers, we were told that we could visit the beach directly across the street from the marina as well as the bakery which opened at 3:00 on Sundays. Since we wanted to see everything we could, we headed over to the beach before taking advantage of the pool or showers. 

As we walked towards the beach, we noted this vehicle
in the parking lot ... some sort of all-terrain golf cart pickup truck.
Way too cool!

Sea of Abaco
Turn Right --> Populated Beach Area

Sea of Abaco
Turn left --> deserted beach area

We headed for the empty beach area!

The sand was so fine it was softer than refined sugar. It reminded me of the sand used in craft projects. Truly amazing! As we walked we wondered where that bakery was located that we had been told existed. Clark asked someone on the beach and got directions. We walked along the water's edge for a ways until we found a path off the beach and back up to the streets where we found full-sized streets and even a traffic circle / roundabout. 

Metal Sailboat Sculpture in Middle of Traffic Circle / Roundabout

The town is smaller than small. Blink and you will miss it in its entirety! We could tell that we would not find a bakery where we came off the beach, so we headed back along the road to the area of the marina. We found the police station, the BTC telephone company (open once a week), a food market that actually stayed open on Sunday until 1:00 (it was 3:00), and a bank all co-located in a strip mall. I thought the bakery might be located with that bunch but no success. 

Clark did spy another store and went over and stuck his head in to ask about the bakery. Ah-ha, he found the bakery's back door. They directed us around front where we found a closed hardware store and a closed laundry facility. I did not expect to find anything of interest in the bakery, but I do like to look. 

We ended up buying ice cream as they had three whole flavors and cones to go with it. The smell of cinnamon was pretty powerful for the taste buds, and so we ended up buying a loaf of cinnamon raisin home-baked bread. Yum!

Having walked along the beach and through town and had our before-dinner dessert, we were ready for the pool. We had to collect the dinghy, drive it back to the boat to get our swimsuits and towels, and then bring the dinghy back to the dock so we could swim. 

Climbing up the ladder from the dinghy to the dock was more than a little unnerving. Clark said it was because the ladder sloped in at the bottom. Regardless of why it sloped or felt weird to climb, it made me very happy to step up onto the dock!

We enjoyed a late afternoon swim in very cool water and then took showers before returning to the boat for dinner and a sunset. Although I listened carefully around sunset time, I did not hear any conch-shell horns tonight.  In several places we have stayed here in the Bahamas, conch shells were blown like horns to announce sunset.

Clark took a number of excellent sunset pictures tonight. It was hard to decide among them for the blog.

Bahamas - Abacos: Man-O-War

Day 287
NM today: 7
NM to Date: 4408

We only traveled seven nautical miles today, but before we left Baker's Rock anchorage, Clark had me enter a bunch of waypoints. I settled back expecting a long ride and next thing I knew Clark was calling the Man-O-War Marina to see if they could accommodate us for the night.

Busy Harbour of Man-O-War in the Abacos, Bahamas

As we secured our boat in port another boat, a sailboat, pulled into a nearby slip. The owners of this vessel, Carina, are extremely friendly boaters from Maryland. We exchanged boat cards in between hooking up boat power, etc.

We ate a quick lunch on board and then headed off to explore town. The marina had a map posted on the property showing the town's places of interest, so Clark snapped a picture on his cell phone to take with us as a reference guide.

Town Map

We tried to find Lola's Bakery, but Lola is old and stopped baking about a year ago. Although we were unsuccessful in finding baked goods, we found some pretty beautiful places as we looked for her now-nonexistent place of business.

House for Sale in Man-O-War
$375,000

A View of Paradise 

Lovely Flower Gardens

After viewing the ocean, we walked into the main section of town and saw some pretty buildings.

Peach-Colored Post Office

Blue-Green School

Town Library

The High School

Methodist Church

As we walked back towards the boat, Clark found a place for us to buy frozen treats. I could not find a flavor of ice cream that appealed to me, so like Clark, I had a red raspberry sorbet that hit the spot. Surprisingly, we saw the folks from Job Site just down the street. They had rented a golf cart earlier in the day and had just returned from their explorations. They highly recommended that we rent one as well as the island was well worth the cost.

Given their input that the streets start out paved and rapidly go downhill upon leaving the main section of town, we decided we would forego the bike option and rent a golf cart. Two hours cost $30.

Path out of Town

Became a Sandy Path

and Eventually very rough terrain like this natural bridge
separating the Atlantic Ocean from the Sea of Abaco

The path was too narrow for two golf carts to
pass each other in some sections of the road

 As we motored along we caught little glimpses of paradise.

 

We found a pretty spot to take a selfie picture.

Clark and Ev in Paradise

The road dead-ended into someone's private driveway, so we turned around for the return trip to town. Just after we passed over the natural bridge (shown above), we saw a man snorkeling in the ocean waters. Right after that we found Ann from Carina sitting at a covered picnic table. The man we had just seen snorkeling was her husband, Rocky. We talked to Ann briefly before continuing on our way.

Rocky Snorkeling

Covered Picnic Table at Natural Bridge

Ann Enjoying the Sea Breeze
while waiting for Rocky to return

As we reentered town, Clark snapped a picture of one-of-many Abacos "doorbells".

Bell on Post is the Abacos Doorbell

Back in Town

Since we still had time left on our two-hour rental of the golf cart, we went through town and out the other side to see what sights we could find there. The path was somewhat worse here which made the ride all the more interesting. We had stone walls to avoid while skimming under low hanging tree branches.

narrow path, rough terrain
fortunately no other golf carts came along

"Head of the Harbour" sign meant end of the road for us

We were very fortunate in our timing. Just as we pulled into the marina parking lot at the end of our ride, it started to sprinkle and by the time we were on the boat, it started to pour down rain. Our friends Ann and Rocky were not quite so lucky. As we watched the rain coming down in torrents, they walked by soaked to the skin. Ann said as she went by, "We didn't get the timing quite right."

Even though the sun came out in full force afterwards, the rain ended our day's activities. We had supper on board tonight after eating out two nights in a row. Just for fun Clark tried the television and we were both extremely surprised to find a choice of six television stations to watch. It has been weeks since I have seen any television whatsoever. 

Tomorrow being Sunday everything in any of the towns will be closed, so it looks like we'll be back to an anchorage again tomorrow night.