We made the simple motor to Great Guana Cay where we anchored next to a 36 foot Pearson. A father and two young daughters pulled over on their dinghy and we chatted about our shared bondage to a Pearson sailing vessel. Turns out they are a family of four vacationing through the Abacos for two weeks. We made loose plans to meet up on land for a drink.

We took the dinghy to shore and entered the famous bar Grabbers. I immediately loved it; palm trees, hammocks, the ring game, and other beach games scattered about the premise. We decided to continue onward to the infamous Nippers bar and to see the sights of the island. The island was simple and beautiful, streets and dirt paths were mainly ran by golf carts. Along a dirt path, we passed a rusting tractor, where it appeared a bunch of 8 year olds had taken it upon themselves to beautify. At Nippers we had the infamous ‘Frozen Nipper’. It was good and packed an equally potent punch. The view of the beach was astounding but the bar … well it had an odd funk to it…so we returned to the polished bar of Grabbers and had overpriced drinks that knocked my socks off (if I had socks).

 

On our return to Grabbers we bumped into the vacationing family on the sister Pearson. We ended up having a round of drinks with the couple while the two young kids played on the beach. They were a fun couple and we planned the next few anchorages together.

The following day we anchored on the northern point of Great Guana where we snorkeled some amazing coral beds and hunted for our nassau grouper… we had no luck in hunting. At least the motor over was beautiful.

From Great Guana we passed Whales Tail Cay and ‘Don’t Rock‘ as in literally, do not rock the rock….. at low tide you can see how precariously balanced the rock appears to boaters.

Green Turtle Cay has two harbors Black and White. White Sound Harbor is home to New Providence, a loyalist town, and scattered stores along old narrow streets. We anchored in Black Sound Harbor which really only has two places to visit via dinghy, a marina in the SW side, and another marina on the NE each with their own respective bars. The first night we went out for drinks with the family on the Pearson at the NE Green Turtle Marina. The bar inside the marina restaurant made me step back a little when I first entered. Every square inch is covered in US & Bahamian 1 dollar bills, signed or drawn on by a black sharpie. The patriotic economist in me cringed. I know it’s not illegal to write on a US dollar bill but it is illegal to deface or destroy it…. and … aren’t you destroying it by purposefully taking legal tender out of circulation and scribbling ‘I rule’ all over it in block letters….shouldn’t the only signature on that dollar be the Secretary of Treasury? Okay, okay, I’m done being a kill joy…. aside from those complaints, I thought it was really cool inside. Outside of the bar a Bahamian band played that had been practicing together for 30 years. We all danced and met other cruisers. It was a beautiful night.

The next day was a bit rainy so we stayed locked up on Gaia, I did make a dinghy ride over to our friends on the Pearson. It was their daughters birthday and I had vanilla frosting on board and some left over wedding bubbles. I decided to put them to better use and gave them to the Birthday girl and her Mom. Later that day we also had cake. Yum!

The First Time We Dragged

The weather wasn’t terribly great to move onward so we stayed in Black Sound harbor for another day. It was that day a great storm front passed. In the afternoon we watched as the dark clouds moved over, then the strengthening wind and downpour of rain. As conditions worsened we watched under the dodger as other boats dragged, picked up anchor and tried anchoring again and again in the strong winds. One by one we saw the boats retreat to mooring balls. We, thankfully stayed put through their ordeal and even opened a couple of beers, commenting on the fact that we haven’t dragged EVER – we should have knocked on wood, our hubris got the last laugh. We were down below when we heard a loud whistle. Curious we both poked our heads up…. Gaia was jack-knifing … moving parallel to the wind instead of nose first, a key trait of dragging. Mike moved quick to turn on the engine and got behind the helm as I moved forward, glancing at the wind indicator, which read 34 knots. We tried 3-4 times to anchor each time more difficult than the last. I began shaking uncontrollably from exposure to the wind and rain so I ran back and took care of the helm and put a jacket on. Mike took his luck in getting the anchor stuck in the mud as I found out how difficult it was to keep the boats nose into the wind. I saw the wind peak at 38 knots and thankfully the storm broke soon after. We were able to anchor in 15 knots and rest for the afternoon. What we believe to have happened was the mud and weeds will hold but only up to a certain point. It was a difficult anchorage to be in for a storm that’s for sure.