March 17, 2015 St. Patrick's Day in Marsh Harbour

Modaki at anchor in Marsh Harbour

Finola and Harry, from Escape Velosity  

Ellen and Eric Haynes, from Nova Scota

Tina, and husband Lane, from Nova Scotia

Finola and Harry again

the parade is on

fist stop, about 100 yards from start line .. free cans of Sands Beer

yes that's me

2nd stop another 100 yards away, at Walley's … Joe in line for our Vodka lemonade

last stop across the road at Snappas,  for rum punch …. Joe talking to Janis and Cam,  Nova Scotia

lots of Canadians celebrating

March 16, 2014

 Treasure Cay

In the Bahamas, January and February, don't count on collecting water to fill tanks or clean the deck.  It is not going to happen.  The clouds threaten and maybe it rains for 5 minutes, but not enough to clean the boat, deck and canvas to then collect salt free water.

Terry and Kim, CLARITY, invited us to tag along to hunt "bugs" lobster and then go sea glass hunting.  We headed out to the Sea of Abaco in our dinghies, Terry located a lobster and Joe got his gear on and in position, but the lobster backed into a crevasse. So no lobster for supper tonight. The season for lobster ends April 1.

Then off we went to catch up with Kim, for some beach combing.  We didn't find too much except for a nice piece of coral.  It was nice to walk on another beach. The wind was picking up and we had 1 1/2 - 2 miles back to the boat, and the wind for sure was on the nose.  Joe and I got completely soaked, with every wave over the dinghy bow.

Back in Treasure Cay we saw a Nonsuch, and yes it was Keltic Kat, Pat and Tutti, (Bill and Ann Taylors niece), from Nova Scotia.  We had happy hour aboard, and it was the first time Joe and I have ever seen below deck of a NonSuch.  For a 30 ft boat there is so much room, more than our 30 foot Grampian.

March 17, St. Patricks Day

Anchor up and said our good byes to CLARITY and KELTIC KAT.

There was no wind so we motored for the first 2 hours, then a west wind allowed us to put the foresail out for the last hour run to Mermaid Reef.

Our old auto helm is broken again, so we had to fiddle with the new, too fancy and took many buttons Auto Helm.

I went below and made pasta sauce and black bean hummus.

A few other boats where anchored off Mermaid. You take your dinghy near the reef to mooring balls.  We met PaperBird there and they brought some fish food, liquid oatmeal. We understand cheerios and canned peas are also the fishes favourite.

We only got 12 underwater pictures with our camera, but took about 50.  When we thought the camera was on it was off. So we where  taking pictures with the camera off.  We will just have to go back again and do it all over again.

In Marsh Harbour to anchor and headed to town for the shortest St. Partick Parade ever, about 150 cruisers paraded with noise makers and all dressed in many shades of green.  We walked about 300 yards and had 3 Bars handing out free drinks.  The first was a can of Sands  beer, the next was Vodka Lemonade and the last was at Snappas, Rum Punch.  Most cruisers partied the night away at Snappas.

We finally got to meet Ellen and Eric Haynes, from Deep Cove, Nova Scotia.  We spent a night on their mooring ball last July 2014, and then was invited to their sons place for supper.  Nova Scotia hospitality for sure.

Thanks to Ron Ball, and my sisters for informing us that our blog, was removed from cyber space … we are heading into town now to find wifi and see what happened to it ..  hopefully we will have it up and running soon

March 16, 2015 Treasure Cay

some books that we have read on this years travels …

Whale Island is in Nova Scotia

Out Island Doctor, true story of a Dr.s story in the Abaco's …  and the castle that he build in Marsh Harbour in the 1950's

Kim from Clarity heading out to her secret sea glass spot

an old barge that has been sunk .. a good place to see fish and lobster

Terry has spotted a lobster and Joe going in for the kill …

this Canadian just could not leave his MC back at home … a good project for Jamie Nicol

Tutti and Pat, Keltic Kat ….

Terry is the best conch blower that we have heard in the Abaco's

March 14-15, 2015 Treasure Cay

Treasure Cay, man made harbour

from Nova Scotia, Canada

not too sure if this is Bird of Paradise flower

my new ATV … ha ha

immature coconut vase

First Chapter dinghy for

mother ship,, Next Chapter

Charlie and Chris, from Wingspread, he is a good friend of the original owner/builder of Modaki

Bruce and Betty Mitchell

heading out on a dinghy ride up a river

mangroves on both sides

it winds for about one mile, shallow in some spots and probably 12 ft in others …

this shows the water colours and shallows … green shallow, 3 ft at low tide

Joe trying to make me a coconut vase

and this one for the meat and water

the end of a great day

March 14-15, 2015

to Treasure Cay

The winds over night where 10-15 knots, more out of the south than SE, which made the anchorage a bit lumpy. Boats started leaving around 8am, at 9:30 we hauled anchor and motored by Ta Amor and Walkabout to say good bye.  After 1/2 hour of pounding into south winds and waves coming over the bow and rolling down the decks, and only managing 4 knots, and wasting diesel. We turned around, put out the foresail, motor off, quiet again, and headed north to Treasure Cay.  We are learning to go to where the wind blows, not where we want to go. Today was an art show with local artists, and a lady we met at Annapolis Royal, N.S. last August, Marlee, sea glass jeweller. The show was on Elbow Cay at the Abaco Inn.  Next year we will make sure we attend.

We always like getting to an anchorage around noon, because the boaters that are leaving for the next harbour have already left, and most boats don't arrive until about 3pm or later. So we got to Treasure Cay just before 1pm, Paperbird was here and it was great to catch up on whats happening here … NO WIFI ..it has been out for a few days on this end of the island. Lucky for us it was restored the next day.

Another boat FELIX the cat,was also at anchor,their big powerful dinghy was

 our transportation a few weeks ago, when Modaki's push button ignition, caused the starter to fry. We didn't have a chance to thank Dave and Chris properly for their assistance at that time. We found out that the skipper likes dark rum, so a quick trip to the store and problem solved.

We took the dinghy up a river that was close by, you have to do this at high tide, mangroves line the sides, we did see sea turtles, and a prehistoric fish.

When we got back to the boat, Clarity was anchored right behind us, Terry and Kim, had guests on board and we had a short visit with them.

We had mahi mahi for supper, with wild rice.  quiet night in the anchorage.

March 13, 2015 Barefoot Man Concert

trying to stay cool, amongst 500 partiers

Joe, Janis and Cam

2 pools here too

Lots of College students here on Winter Break

Nippers view from the beach

Janis table dancing … you would not know she just got a new hip in Cuba, the end of January ..

good for her .. go Jan go

Baarefoot Man and his band

guess which foot is Barefoot Man's

some 51 boats out at anchor

the beach at Grabbers, where we all walk from there to Nippers

March 10-13, 2015

Elephant Foot tree

we bought  4 conch 

all cleaned 

even got it tenderized

anchored off Great Guana Cay

Janis heading out for lobster hunting

and came back with 2 beauties

making california rolls for dinner on WALKABOUT

Walkabout has arrived in Fisher Bay

Carmens daughter, Brandy and BF Will here for winter break

Carman and Randy

some pictures from the Junkanoo

note those steel drums

Janis and Cam from Te Amor

Randy and Carmen, Walkabout

March 10, 2015  Marsh Harbour

We arrived around 9 am at Mango Marina so we had a whole day for laundry, grocery and hardware shopping, showers, fill the water tanks and clean Modaki.  All or most of these tasks got completed.  We even had happy hour and conch blowing with Terry and Kim, Clarity on Mango's deck.

Barefoot Man Concert

Wednesday, we left Marsh Harbour by 11am and had a good sail the 10 km to Fisher Bay on Great Guana Cay.  Anchored just behind Ta Amor, Janis and Cam Albright, we first met in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, last July/August.

The wind was gusting +20 knots and we are still a bit cautious about leaving the boat during these times. The next day we snorkelled over the anchor and found that it was not that well set, so after a few tries to reset it, we hauled and moved over to another area with less turtle grass and more sand.  Once again snorkelled, and it was set, well dug in and mostly buried. Just in time for the predicted 25 knot winds.

Walkabout, Randy, Carmen and daughter Brandy and bf Will arrived and anchored near Te Amor, we all got together for drinks and some good laughs.  Joe and I stayed on for supper of freshly caught by Randy and Will, Mahi Mahi.  We made California Rolls and Rum Sweet Potatoes.  Then it was to shore by 8 pm for our first ever Junkanoo, at Grabbers Bar and Grill.  It was fantastic, but hard to get a good picture will all that dancing going on, and it was dark.

Friday the 13th, we spent about 4 hours at Nippers, listening to music by "The Barefoot Man". There was a lot of dancing and many rum punches drank by the 500 or so Cruisers and College students, (March Break).

There was 51 boats anchored in Fisher Bay.  The 2 marinas close by where full and all mooring balls used and boat ferries brought more people from the other Cays.  This for sure is a popular event.

Joe picked up some more conch shells, he has one horn that works well, but he is still looking for that perfect one.

Tomorrow we are moving to Elbow Cay for a few days.