Our social life in the Abacos

On April 3, 2017, we anchored in Allens-Pensacola Cay, right next to Mike on his trawler Sheena II and Jeff on his 32 foot sailboat.  We went over to Mike's boat to share some fish that those two guys had caught, and we brought a squash and turnip dish.   And Jenny's guitar, and those three jammed up the night.  Jeff is a professional musician from Charleston, SC, and Mike is from Ottawa and very good, too.  Jeff left for his trip back to Florida the next morning.  

They are both friends of Bill and Betty Sue on a sport fishing boat Teamwork from Folly Beach, SC, also in the anchorage.  We first met Bill and Betty Sue the first time we came in here in early December, and Mike was here then, too.  They told us about Bill and Lesley on Manjack Cay, and invited us to the Christmas party there.  Of course we went, and met all kinds of interesting people at the party and during our several visits there.  The afternoon Christmas party was outrageous, and so were the jams on the beach and other events.

Ed and Elizabeth from Maine on their self-built boat

Bill and Lesley are fans of Scott and Helen Nearing (RIP) from Maine, so they built plenty of rock walls, and there is a lovely path for about a mile to the Atlantic Ocean side.  Organic gardens, all solar power, cisterns to catch water.  There are about 6 houses on the island.  Darned nice.  Jenny helped them with a feeding/ training issue with their goats.  Lots of interesting people, including guys who had built their own boats-- mostly steel.

We met Randall from Bath, Maine, sailing his Choey Lee ketch towards the Caribbean, with a varying complement of friends and crew; his girlfriend came down while he was in the Manjack area for a week or two.  A couple of days ago, he was in Luperon, DR, heading towards Samana Bay and Puerto Rico. Albert went spear fishing with him and didn't do so well, but we still got some fish to eat-- thank you, Randall.  He also gave us some fish later in Hope Town.

We met Theresa and Brian on their nice Krogen trawler.  They take it back to North Carolina in the early Spring and go to their 100 acre farm in western Virginia.  We plan to visit them in May.
We got to know Jeff in Green Turtle Cay.  He plays on some Wednesdays and Fridays with Kevin and the Gully Rosters band.  Kevin is the dockmaster at the Othet Shore Club/ Pineapples Resort, where we stayed a few times.  When our inflatable dinghy had serious bottom detachment issues and was essentially un-repairable in Marsh Harbor a few weeks ago, we heard that Kevin had a dinghy for sale.  We called him and got back to Green Turtle the next day to see it; we got a super good deal on an old but very sound hard bottom inflatable "RIB".  Any dinghy of this sort is very hard to find down here, so we are very fortunate.

We met plenty of others in Green Turtle, including Marion and Jonathan, Bill and Maureen, and Mark and Joelle.  We played Pickleball with the last two couples both at Green Turtle and Hope Town.  We went to several Friday night socials at Dave's, aka Plymouth Rock-- liquor store and restaurant; they have t-shirts with "I had breakfast at the liquor store."  We enjoyed conch fritters at seveal of the restaurants.  We attended the Women's March that was mostly the regular winter residents; some boaters, some locals.  We went between Manjack Cay and Green turtle quite a few times, and really liked this area.

Jenny did her first school event about behavior science with the dogs and her guitar on Green Turtle.  We then got involved with the school's gardening club, and helped with an environmental science program.  We did a similar program at the schools on Great Guana, Man-o-war, Hope Town, and the Every Child Counts school at Marsh Harbor.  These were primary schools except ECC.  We just went to the High School at Cooper's Town with just the dogs; it was too hot to lug the guitar.  See Jenny's website and Facebook posts.

We spent some time at Great Guana Cay at the Orchid Bay Resort because they had a super good deal at the dock before March 15.  Many of us would gather on the dock for drinks at sunset, including Jim and Louise from Cumberland, Maine.

In Hope Town, Jenny did a few jam music nights.  We met David Wright who plays guitar and sings, and he is in the process of restoring the William H. Albury schooner that was built many years ago at Man-o-war.  We saw him and other friends (and school kids) at the big school fund-raiser Flea Market event on Man-o-war.  While our friends Bill and Katie were visiting and staying at a cottage on Elbow Cay (Hope Town,) we had the good fortune to meet their landlord, Steve Dodge, Abaco historian and author of the best cruising guide for the area.  So many more interesting people and stories, but not enough time or words.

Now, we are working our way back to the west, getting ready to make a big jump to the good ole USA.  If we get a good weather window, we want to go all the way to Beaufort, NC in about 3.5 days of ocean sailing, taking advantage of the strong Gulf Stream.  It'll still be over a week before we leave, so it will be interesting to see who we run into as we travel.  We plan to go to Grand Cay for a few days to discover that out-of-the-way place, and leave from there.  And that will be the beginning of the rest of the voyage to Maine.