Gale

Gale winds the past few days!

Up to 35 knots! It is HOWLING outside, and the wind kicks up the waves even in our harbor, which SLAM against our aft cabin all night. It's hard to sleep.



The rain feels cold, and it gets down to 39 to 40 degrees at night...



If interested, here is a link to a site describing the "Beaufort Scale" of wind and seas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaufort_scale

We are happy to be in a protected harbor.

Hopefully this will pass through soon.

Gillam Bay

Gillam Bay on Green Turtle Cay is at the southeastern shore of the island. We visited with our friends and we were looking forward to watching Mark set up his kiteboard. He likes to go kiteboarding on Cape Hatteras in the Carolinas...

Here is Lisa lending a hand...






The winds were not consistent enough this day to make it work... Hopefully Mark can enjoy some boarding later this trip...

























Delaney and Lisa painted Madelyn & Katja's toes pink! They love it!

Atlantic beach -- Green Turtle Cay

Last week before yet another cold front moved through, we had a nice day at Atlantic beach at Green Turtle Cay. In the map below you can see the beach on the eastern side. Our anchorage was in Black Sound at the southwestern side. We took the dinghy over and then walked quite a distance, but it was worth it! The locals thought we were crazy because it was "so cold", about 65 to 70 degrees.









Brian was able to snorkel safely because of the distant reefs which formed a barrier.








Here you can see Madelyn under our umbrella. Brian and Katja are exploring the rocky shore.








Here you can see the trademark Bahamaian aquamarine water. Someone described it as if there was a bright light shining from under the water straight up.

Pineapples

An accurate description of Green Turtle would not be complete without mention of "PINEAPPLES", a local bar restaurant.

Pinapples happened to be immediately adjacent to our dinghy dock, and also happened to have hammocks, a finicky but available WiFi connection, a swimming pool, little beachside bar, and even a swing for the kids! The newly established MacLean/Hromadka clan enjoyed many happy times here...









Lisa and Mark MacLean


Katja with Delaney MacLean


The bar next to the Saltwater Pool:


The beachside chairs:






Conch shells are used here on the island as decoration. Every restaurant has "conch fritters", conch chowder, conch stew, etc... Conch tastes chewy like calamari.




Golf carts are used on the island for transportation. Here is one parked outside of Pineapples.


New Year's Eve night at Pineapples:

History lessons

New Plymouth is home to some historical sites in the Abaco chain of islands in the Bahamas.

One day we walked to the Memorial Sculpture Garden in town. It was fun to visit with the MacLeans, as the kids were playing "tag" amongst the statues and the adults were learning more about the history of the area.





Most of the towns on the Abaco islands were founded by American "Loyalists" who fled North America during the Revolution wanting to remain loyal to the British Crown. Others were freed slaves mostly from New York City. All arrived in the British owned islands here and tried to make a life for themselves. Many of the settlements failed because of lack of growth of crops, illness, or skirmishes amongst the settlers. There are both white and black Bahamians today whose families have lived here for a few hundred years.

I find it interesting that I do not remember hearing much about the "Loyalists" in school history classes. Mostly the US history books seemed to take pride in the minutemen "rebels" who founded the USA as we know it now.










Here is one of the typical New Plymouth houses on the same street as the Sculpture Park.