March 17th, 2018
Happy St. Patrick's Day.
Life goes on here in our little world of sailing the Abacos. We did cross back through the Whale pass with no issues, and we have been in Man Jack since then except for three trips to GTC (Green Turtle Cay). Our first sail down was to renew our visa’s on the 6th, for another 90 day. We are good until June 6th, then they will kick us out. Just kidding, we will be back state side by then. The weather that day was very calm, we anchored outside New Plymouth settlement and took the ferry to Treasure Cay and then a taxi to the immigration office and back again. We were tempted to just dinghy over, but didn’t know if the winds would hold till we returned. So this was my first ferry ride, very uneventful. After immigration we did some shopping and then headed back to Man Jack, after checking on Tom’s boat. While in Man Jack this past two week we have seen many beautiful and odd sights. I have to say the oddest was a large catamaran (Place to Be) coming back from GTC towing two very large black drums. Then once anchored two dinghy’s came out and retrieved the drums and towed them to the beach. One of the dinghy companions, decided it would be fun to ride on top of the drums. Both drums were black plastic for water storage, one was 1,000 gallons and the other was 500 gallons. It was quite entertaining for about an hour. No one fell in. Since then we have been snorkeling and finding new reefs that are just starting to develop. The first trip out the water was to murky for photos. We hope this afternoon or tomorrow we can go back and get some photos. On Man Jack there are six homes and two new ones being build. We have met most of the owners and what a bunch of characters they are. Several from Canada, one from Africa, England and two are natives. Life here is much simpler and basically off the grid. There is WiFi but all power and water is self made. Lots of solar power and solar hot water sources, water is collected from the rains. So this time of year is very dry, and we have been trading water (that we make) for things like using a table saw to cut wood. Everyone helps everyone. No backstabbing, complaining or negative gossip. We even have movie night. We load into Bill and Leslie’s center console and go to GTC, where one of the locals has a big projector screen outside and everyone comes by dinghy with chairs to sit on or golf carts. We all bring our own drinks and popcorn and watch a movie.
The down side is the high pressure systems that blow through about once a week and everyone scatters to there little holes and marina’s , then they all come back when its calm. One of the locals here is taking Kevin diving/snorkeling after this next front passes and they are going out on the reef to show him how to spear fish and lobster.
Life is grand here and we will hate to leave at the end of April. But we have definitely made this our second home. Until next time. Fair winds and happy sailing my friends
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