Turning Back West. Green Turtle Cay to Crab Cay

Day 21:  Mon March 16, 2015

Today was our day to turn back west.  It was a great day.  We had planned to join Bruce and Bonnie Willliams for breakfast at McIntosh Restaurant and Bakery so at about 8:30, we climbed into their tender and rode around to the public dock in New Plymouth, walked to the restaurant and enjoyed another interesting

breakfast.

On the special board was listed chicken souse.  Now I have had souse made with pork and had a pretty good idea what it would be like, I was surprised to find that this was 2 or 3 chicken wings cooked in a watery broth with potatoes carrots onions and what the waitress called goat pepper.  It was quite spicy and interesting.    



"Ye Ole Geol" in New Plymouth

After breakfast, we slowly ambled down Parliament Street, stopping at various shops along the way.  We bought a few items as did Bonnie and Bruce.  We again visited the Memorial Park that I described several postings back and finally ended up back at the boat at about 11:00.

Back at the dock, we paid our fee and prepared the boat for departure. At this marina, whenever a boat leaves, a number of folks appear to help with the launch.  Our slip had the boat somewhat tucked in a corner and I had stewed a bit about how I was going to get out.  One fellow suggested that we take a long rope and go to another dock and pull the bow around pointing out while another fellow got into

Second Wind Sailing with a reefed main dragging the dink

his dinghy and offered to pull the bow around with it.  That is what we finally did but as he was pulling me out, He also pulled us along into the davits of another boat moored there.  I ran forward and untangled our shrouds from the davits and fended us off from a second boat before we were in clear water and motoring on our own. 

We motored out of the sound and when we got into open water, we raised the sails for a wonderful ride back northwest toward Crab Cay. The mild breeze allowed us to shake out the reef and move along at over 5 knots and at one point I saw 6.2 knots.  Along the way, Bruce and Bonnie came up alongside on their tender and took some pictures before they headed on north in search for a beach on which to go swimming. 

We pulled into a large cove formed by Crab and Manjack Cays where we were in the company of probably 15 other boats.  It is a wide open bay so we were not close to other boats.  Also, since we can pull up our keel, we usually head into shallower waters than the bigger boats.

We made lunch and relaxed in the boat reading and doing various chores that seem to always be in waiting.  Later in the afternoon, Bruce and Linda pulled up alongside and offered that they would return in a couple of hours and take us to this wonderful beach to roast hot dogs for dinner.  We happily agreed.

Beach bonfire with Bruce and Bonnie

At about 6:30, we climbed aboard their tender and headed for Manjack Beach where we collected a bunch of fire wood, built a roaring fire, and relaxed to  watch the sunset.  It was a really pleasant setting.  After leaving us in the late afternoon, they had traveled back to New Plymouth, bought a lot of groceries and prepared a true beach picnic feast.  They had potatoes and other vegetables wrapped in foil that we buried in the coals to bake and little cans of beans with pop tops that we cracked open and placed in the coals. They had cheeses and




A bit too hot for the hotdogs yet

crackers with celery for appetizers. 

When the vegetables were done, we roasted hotdogs on our “stick” made by taping a barbeque fork to barbeque tongs to a barbeque spatula.  The fire was quite hot and this makeshift fork was needed to keep from baking the hair off of the cook’s arms as the hot dogs cooked.

The food was really great.  We spent then hour or so continuing our discussions of days past and episodes that had shaped our lives. Bonnie presented Janine with a very interesting-looking book, Out-Island Doctor, and they blessed me with a can of Spam! Life is good!! We finally doused the fire at about 9:30 and headed back the two miles or so to our anchorage.  We said our goodbyes, crawled back across onto Second Wind and crawled into bed.  What a great day.