Back and Forth, Here and There

3/12-3/13 - After 3 days on a mooring ball in very tight quarters we were getting antsy to move on. Hope Town is beautiful, but we seldom stay in one place more than 3 or 4 days (unless weather dictates that we do) or we get a fabulous rate at a marina. The weather forecast was kind of a “mixed bag” but nothing worse than partly cloudy skies with winds at 10-12/mph. We had a few chores to do and Second Star had to fill up with fuel and water so they headed out first so they could have everything accomplished before noon (remember our scenario of our arrival when we had to wait for the dockmaster to come back from lunch before we could pay.)

By the time we caught up with Second Star they’d set the hook at Tilloo Cay. However, before we even got ready for anchoring, both boats had decided that Snake Cay, on the other side of the Sea of Abaco, looked more promising. We figured we could tuck in far enough to get out of any northeast winds. The area over there had lots of small cays that provided good kayaking/dinghy exploration. As it was already late in the afternoon and high tide had passed by the time we were anchored, we decided to save exploring for the next day. This area was quite scenic and the water was a different color from any we’d seen in the Bahamas – more of an emerald green.

The better part of the next day we explored by dinghy and tried fishing (no luck). By the time we returned to the boats, where was a bit of chop in the anchorage as the winds had shifted to east instead of northeast. We decided that might make for an uncomfortable night and raised anchor and headed back up to Lynyard Cay, where we anchored in the lee of the Cay out of the wind.

After a bit of indecision, we finallly decided to leave Hope Town

We cruised to Tiloo Cay and thought about spending
the night, but decided no and cruised across to the other side
to Snake Cay. 

Decided this looked good and set the hook in a little
cove where we thought we'd be good from
any wind out of the forecast northeast

Our view from the anchorage

Reverse view -- looking from the other direction at the boats



The water here was a different color - emerald green



The next day we took the dinghy on the "suggested"
dinghy/kayak route.  It was quite pretty, but lots of
shallow spots.  We went at high tide.



The water was very clear and we saw hundreds
of star fish -- here is one of them



We saw lots of tiny islands dotted throughout the channel

We went over several small reefs with water clear
enough to take pictures of the bottom

Here's Michael and Jana trying out their luck at fishing



Another island with an interesting reflection of the sky



The shoreline showing the variety of foliage (cactus, palms, etc.)

Anoher rock formation with plants growing out of the rock



A lone tall tree on the point



Heading back to Lynyard Cay.  You can just
barely make out Second Star on the left.



Sunset at Lynyard