Man O War to Green Turtle

I am writing this post from Stuart, Florida.  We crossed the Gulf Stream, from West End, Grand Bahama Island to St. Lucie Inlet, Florida on Saturday, April 22.  Our last two weeks, in the Bahamas, were spent exploring some of the small outer islands along the northern part of the Abaco chain.  These islands are secluded, uninhabited, and with very poor cell signal…so, I have been unable to upload pictures, and am (once again) behind in my posts.  This entry will take you from Man-O-War Cay to Green Turtle Cay.

On September 1, 2019, Man-O-War Cay was devastated by hurricane Dorian.  Many people came to help rebuild, and before they left they added their hometown to this post.  Happy to see representation from Folly Beach!

This island is very lush (compared to most Bahamian islands), and we were happy to see many large trees survived the hurricane.

There are many examples of ‘old’ and ‘new’, with rebuilding and repair ongoing.

This island actually has a hill, which definitely helped with storm surge.

We have seen hundreds of coconuts on the ground, but rarely do we see one sprouting/growing into a tree.

We haven’t seen very many baseball diamonds in the Bahamas.  Have you ever watched a ball game with this kind of view?

Tiny house before it was cool!

This island is known for boat building.

From here, we planned to visit Great Guana Cay, but we had to cut that island short due to incoming high winds.  Between Great Guana Cay and Green Turtle Cay is an island called Whale Cay. There is a huge shoal between Whale Cay and Great Abaco, which precludes large boats from taking that route.  Large boats must pass outside of Whale to continue north, and northeast winds can create treacherous conditions. The forecast was for NE winds of 30+ mph for 4 consecutive days.  Predictions were for waves to build to 12-14 feet😬.  Our choices were to stay at Great Guana for a week, or take the opportunity to pass around Whale before the winds arrived.  

We anchored at Great Guana for one night, but didn’t go ashore at all.

Also, we have been having some issues with our inReach freezing up at times.  We did NOT pass Whale Cay on the southwest side!  The light blue line shows a more accurate route.

However, when Keith dove the anchore (to make sure it was set securely in the sand) he happened upon this…

Do you see a sea urchin in this picture?

They like to use debris from the bottom to camouflage themselves. Keith was going to dispose of the bottle, but the urchin would not let it go!

Keith was able to relocate this starfish away from our anchor chain👍

We made it around Whale, and got safely anchored behind Green Turtle before the winds arrived.

And in between traveling, boat projects happen. Here, Keith is sitting in the bilge working on a pump.

After a few days of bad weather we were ready to explore the island.

Fun times with Gail and Eddie!

Ohhhh, the ocean side is ROUGH!

The town has a one way loop road.

This is a typical Bahamian cemetery. Graves are enclosed in concrete to ensure hurricanes/storm surge does not float caskets.

Loyalist Memorial Sculpture Garden - The plaque reads…”Divided by Civil War, defeated in battle, stripped of property and possessions, persecuted and exiled by their neighbors, American Loyalists abandoned their homeland to seek their King’s protection in the Bahama Islands.”

‘The Old Jail’ was built in the mid 19th century, and was destroyed by a category 5 hurricane in 1932.

The wind is still blowing strong, but the water is calm on the west side of the island!