Green Turtle to Umbrella Cay UPDATED!
Lynn & Mike ..around the world
Mike Drinkrow & Lynn v/d Hoven
Mon 13 Jul 2009 22:01
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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.
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