Green Turtle to Umbrella Cay UPDATED!

Lynn & Mike ..around the world
Mike Drinkrow & Lynn v/d Hoven
Mon 13 Jul 2009 22:01
27:00.18N 077:42.88W  Umbrella Cay
 
We have now sailed from the relatively busy part of the Abacos, north east, to the outer islands en route to Walker Cay. That will be our "check out" point in about 10 days time before we cross the Gulf Stream to central Florida.
Our first stop after Guana Cay, was Green Turtle Cay, where we anchored off the town of New Plymouth, another very pretty and colourful Bahamian town. New Plymouth is the (baby) sister town to Key West in Florida.  The accent up here in the Abocos is very interesting with some elements of British pronunciation remaining. We bought a few provisions at the local store, where the shopkeeper was delighted to hear that we say "Banaaanahs" as they do, rather than "Bannannas" as the Americans do.
 
   
 
A typical house in New Plymouth                                                                          House on the shore of Black Sound 
 
Our next stop was the north side of Manjack Cay which is uninhabited and has gorgeous white beaches. Until now, the water in the Abacos has been green, as opposed to the Exumas, where it is blue. But now we are starting to see more blue water again. We have no idea why there is this colour difference, as the bottom is very similar and the water is clean. The wind is also peculiar here - unlike the Caribbean where the wind is always from the east (sometimes a bit north east, sometimes a bit south east.. but always east) In the Bahamas the wind seems to come from any and every direction. We arrived at Manjack Cay with a very light South wind, but in the night it swung round to a strong North, with fairly big swells. Luckily we have Chucky (our anchor) and there were no problems with dragging.
 
 
 
Allans Pensacola Cay was our next anchorage - this was apparently two islands in living memory but some severe storms and hurricanes moved sandbanks and it became one. We took out dinghy around the south end to check out the very protected, mangrove surrounded, hurricane hole. It would be a squeeze for us to get in, and we would be eaten alive by mosquitoes, but if we had to take cover, this would be a good spot.  On the way back we did some snorkelling off the cliffs and with me as the official "spotter", Mike was very successful with his Hawaiian sling. What a delicious diner we had!
Today we crossed the cut to an even smaller cay, Umbrella, where a couple we met Doug and Teri are anchored, we are joining them tomorrow, for a  dive off the outer reef.