Tuesday 12 January 2016

January 8-11, 2016 Happy Birthday Sue Allison …. we did not cross


we headed over to Tahiti Beach on Elbow Cay for the night. We had always wanted to anchor
here and this was the day, with the right winds.  We had to motor about 2 hours into the wind, as usual.
You have to find a sandy patch area to drop the hook, cause there is so much turtle grass.  Every time we hooked we settled back on top of a underwater hydro or phone lines.  Anchor up and move to another sandy patch.  We did this at least 4 times, finally we anchored a way out from shore in the channel.  We walked the beach and got a few shells, and went to the ocean cut to see the rage going on, no one is moving today thru these openings.


Modaki at anchor


lots of these Toothed Snails in the holes in the rocks


Wingspread, Charlie and Chris, Victoria Harbour, Ontario, had us over for happy hour, I made the veggie spring rolls and Chris made a really good cheesy oven baked dip
Charlie is a friend of the original owner and builder of MODAKI, Bruce and Betty Mitchell.  It for sure is a small world.
 They keep their boat at Abaco Yacht Services for the summer, so we have been getting some much needed advise from them, just incase we are accepted there this summer. 


a collection of what we found today at the beach, very old piece of conch shell in the shape of an L, sea glass, brain coral, and snake skin shell .. (a few days later I could not find the snake skin shell, I left it on the table, but later found it on the floor, little did we know but this shell was home to a Hermit Crab)


We woke to rain showers and collected much needed water.  Last year we only had 2 days of rain in the Abacos, this year it has been raining just about every other day.  We motored again, into the wind, past Tilloo Cut and 1 1/2 hours later we are in Bucaroon Bay and Armstrong Cay.  The motoring is okay because with no sun the solar panels are not producing energy, and the wind generator can't keep up.  We arranged to meet Snowbird and Moonlight Maid here, we arrived first and they came a few hours later.  We are still planning on staging for crossing to the Eleutheras.  Joe and I dinghy to see the
red and yellow starfish, but the water was too choppy to see them clearly.



we are seeing a lot of shore birds, but it is hard to get a good picture, one of them is the
American Oyster Catcher, they are chunky shorebirds and have laterally flattened, heavy bills that can reach into mollusks and pry the shells open, and also probe sand for worms and crabs.  Very beautiful birds in flight.


the Snake Skin Snail and Peanut Snail… we are learning a lot …lol


it is amazing how fast a squall appears 


with very heavy rain, but good for our fresh water supply


Moonlight Maid headed out on Sunday just before dark and got thru North Bar Cut to the ocean, 
but returned 3 hours later, it was not a good day for heading south.  They anchored this time just north
of Little Harbour … Snowbird and Modaki joined them later that day, by the end of the day 10 boats
where here all waiting to cross the next day …


Joe and I put out our Jack Lines for the crossing, and hoped not to have to use them … later we found out Snowbird had to use theirs


we got the dinghy deflated, tied down and hoped that the repairs would not break open.
we continued to follow the weather reports and Joe and I decided to not do the crossing, all the other boats are 35 feet and larger and go faster than us … with the 6 ft following seas, we did not feel comfortable .. it was hard to radio our friends to say we are not leaving …  but my day break all the boats headed south and MODAKI headed north, into the wind again


we headed to Hope Town, and arrived on a holiday day … Majority Rule Day, everything closed from schools to grocery stores and only a few souvenir stores open 


this is a live aboard boat


this one is washed a shore, the keel is on the right hand side


Joe is doing some varnishing inside.  Just before we head to bed, he does a certain area and by morning 
everything is dry.


I keep my collection of shells, glass etc. in a old coffee container … Joe kept hearing scratching
inside .. and what did we find but a hermit crab  .. we brought him/her to shore and released it to find a new home

we are still following the weather reports, from Chris Parker on the SSB, and Windfinder etc.
there might be a weather window in a few days, Thursday and if that does not work the next one will be a week away …  so today we will top up the fuel tank and buy more diesel and buy water.

We got an email from Snowbird and they said we made the right decision to not go, it got quite rough 
for a few hours and the wind changed direction.  They made it by 4:30 to a safe anchorage.

we will see …..

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