Green Turtle Cay

We spent a quiet week in Green Turtle.  Just what we needed to recharge batteries:  both the boat's and ours!  Green Turtle Cay is just a great place to be.  There is a small quaint town, Old Plymouth, and tons of deserted beaches and bays to explore.  It is even close enough to neighbouring cays that we can pack a cooler and visit them for the afternoon.

The great hunter....  of sea glass!

Our time was mostly spent doing just that:  dinghy 'sploring and beach combing.  We found a fair bit of sea glass, hung out by the pool a bit (not heated so pretty cold, but I managed to get a few good swims in), and visited with friends.  Just more "living life large" (by our terms) on Gran Vida.

Look at all we found!

We connected with Anne and Pete, good friends of friends
Grant and Cindy for a night out at Sundowners

But after our week was up, we set our sights on new ground.  South of Green Turtle there are many other Cays in this archipelago that we had yet to explore.

The issue:  As we explained last year, between us and the Southern Abaco Cays, there is a shallow, rocky ridge just below the surface that most boats avoid by heading out into the Atlantic and going around Whale Cay on the outside.  This requires just the right weather which boaters call a "whale day".  You hear much discussion around the marina and on the vhf:  "Is anyone out in the whale?" "What's the whale like today?"  And lots of good sailor stories about "crossing the whale".  By all means a "rage day" must be avoided, which becomes pretty evident when you look out from shore and see one!!  That ocean does get feisty sometimes!

But there is an alternative.  For very shallow draft boats there is a way through that shallow, rocky ledge known as the "Don't Rock Pass".  With Gran Vida's draft at less than three feet, we are "Don't Rock People".  We followed our buddy boat through last year so we have a track on our chart plotter to follow.  The sand does shift somewhat year to year but slow and steady on the top end of a rising tide with a close eye on the bottom, it is quite doable for us.  All the way through (which is about a mile) we saw nothing less than five feet.  Lickity-split we were through and were able to safely lead the way for a fellow Canadian boat that we had met and who asked to follow us through.  So now they have a track as well.

Onward to new places to explore.

Passing the "Don't Rock".  The end of Don't Rock Channel.

A fellow Canadian boat, Jay and Barb (M/V Blessings)
followed us through so now they have a track on their chart plotter too.