Last stops

out sailing

Manjack Paradise

We got to explore a bit of a couples self made paradise. A beautiful self designed house with all the creature comforts, all water is collected from roofs and stored in cisterns, power from solar and grounds  with gardens full of every eatable plant and tree that will possible grow in this environment with a few that shouldn't, but do. Plus they have chickens and bees, and trails cut thru the island to the ocean beaches, along which I spotted native wild orchids, and bromalids  blooming. Plus they have to make all their own soil,  as the island is mostly limestone. We probably outstayed our welcome asking questions and taking it all in. Absolutely lovely, and inspiring. What a lucky accident we had to stay in one spot long enough to get to know them.

path to beach (notice the poison wood trees!)

Leslie's Garden, complete with asparagus

signs leading to beach path

Back at Green Turtle

We back tracked to Green Turtle, Our visit was laundry, grocieries, fuel & water as we get final supplies and looking at the weather settling down enough to continue toward home.  Another pretty loyalist town, our last settlement stop in the Bahamas. And have stopped running into people we know along the way. Its time for all the winter visitors to head home.  Lately we have seen quite a few families traveling with young children. Toddlers even. And lots of chartered sailboats. Summertime visitors. And I can see why. We hear temps in Florida are in the high 80's and 90's, the weather here stays high 80, low 78 with a constant breeze. Its very pleasant.

The Crossing

We are back in the US! Our trip across was over 110+ miles from Sale Cay to Ft. Pierce miles and took over 24 hours. The first leg across the Bahama banks was in daylight and very pleasant sail. We threw out a fishing line and within 5 minutes had a bite, only to reel in a huge barracuda with fierce looking teeth. Threw him back and tried again and again, with the same results, big barracudas. We lost our favorite lure and another hook in the process, so we gave up.

Our final Bahamian sunset

After dark we left the protected banks waters and hit the ocean, with no moon and bigger seas. Not as bad as the first crossing, but in the dark everything seems a little more ominous. The wind died and the gulf stream was rougher and tough to get across, so the motor ran for the last 12 hours of the trip. Neither of us could sleep during our time off watch, so by the time we pulled in to Ft. Pierce we were not fit for anything.

The phosphoresence in the water was mesmerizing. As water pealed off the hull it was as full of sparkles as a starry night. At one point I flushed the toilet,  and it was full of the same sparkles. As I was sitting in the cockpit, a flying fish landed beside me!

Sail Cay waters