Green Turtle Cay N26 45.611 W77 19.496

Trip Start Mar 09, 2009

Trip End Ongoing

Loading Map

Map your own trip!

Show trip route

Hide lines

Flag of Bahamas GREEN TURTLE CAY, Bahamas
Wednesday, May 13, 2009

May 13, 2009 - No Name Cay to Green Turtle Cay N26 45.611 W77 19.496

Off to Green Turtle Cay. Dave is becoming obsessive about the charging systems on the boat - fussing around the meters with his handy yellow box with the red and black wires attached. Winds are not in the 20+ kt category so charging is somewhat minimal. So, we decided to take a slip at Blacksound Marina for $1/ft plus $20/day electric & metered water (.30/gallon) to charge the boat, take on water, take on fuel, take a real shower, do some laundry and..........find some cracked conch! The order of importance was - conch first!

GETTING RID OF EMPTY BEER BOTTLES

Still have about three cases of beer left!

BLACKSOUND MARINA

WALKING TO TOWN

Blacksound Marina is about a three minute walk into New Plymouth Village.

NEW PLYMOUTH HARBOR

We headed out of the marina and down the hill to The Wrecking Tree.

NEW PLYMOUTH HARBOR

. As on most of the islands, the chickens and banty roosters roam the yards and streets strutting their stuff.

BANTY ROOSTER

WRECKING TREE

Now, we'd never know about The Wrecking Tree if it hadn't been for Debbie & Steve who raved about this restaurant several years ago. Our first time to The Wrecking Tree was with Sassy and their cracked conch is just as good now as it was then!
So, we feasted on cracked conch, Dave's proverbial French fries and my ever favorite Bahamian Mac & Cheese. From here we decided to rent a golf cart and tool around the island some. We picked up a cart for $25 for half day and set out to learn how to drive on the left side of the street. Fortunately there are not many actual cars on the island, mostly golf carts so we were in fairly decent shape for this.

HOW DO YOU DRIVE THIS?

DRIVING AROUND GTC

We headed out to the "other side" and followed the coast down to White Sound.

ATLANTIC BEACHE

The Atlantic looked beautiful breaking against the reefs on this side of the island. Outside of the "village", the homes are new but built to look quaint. The Abacos are much more developed than the Exumas and I'm sure Green Turtle Cay is pretty much like Man O War and Elbow had we rented golf carts there and tooled around. Oh....by the way.... I want one of these golf carts for NSB - I'd give up the car if I could get around town in one of these little carts.

It took about an hour to drive the perimeter of the island. Lots of lots for sale and the homes for sale start at around $900K and many are vacation places you can rent.

NEW HOMES ON GTC

GTC HOME

WELCOME TO NEW PLYMOUTH

Coming back into NP at the top of the hill, after I took the welcome picture, a young boy around 10, dressed in hunter green shorts and yellow shirt with backpack, came scrambling down the hill from school. He asked if he could get a ride and hopped on the back of the golf cart - said he was going to the Ferry Dock. But he saw his mom at a local restaurant and decided to get off early. His mother thanked us, but I suspect she had a few choice words for him later.

Dropped him off and made our way over to the Library which is open from 2-5PM. There I exchanged three paperbacks that I had finished for three I hadn't read and then we were off again!

REMEMBER THESE SHORES

The village of New Plymouth is very old - 1765 - and some of these homes look like they are that old.

LOYALIST SALTBOX

YE OLE GOAL (JAIL)

- This jail complex is one of the oldest sets of buildings on GTC built in the early 1800's it housed the jail, post office and commissioner's office. It was the seat of Government for North Abaco.

Streets are very narrow - one way - which makes it easier to pull over to stop or look around.

NEW PLYMOUTH STREET

Most of the 500 or so residents of New Plymouth can trace their roots back to the Loyalists that first settled here over 200 years ago. They were skilled seamen and boat builders at this end of the Bahamas. They built vessels that were used as gun-runners during the Civil War (US) and later as rum-runners in the Prohibition years.

SCULTPURE GARDEN

We came to the Memorial Sculpture Garden featuring bronze busts of persons who played important roles in Bahamian history and the centerpiece sculpture depicts the arrival of loyalists from the United States.

BUSTS OF IMPORTANCE

The plaque gives an entirely different perspective to the American Revolutionary War.

LOYALIST MONUMENT

Went to the liquor store to stock up on rum. Prices here are not any better than the US. Even in Marsh Harbor there are no bargains. The best liquor prices we saw were in Nassau down by the cruise liner docks. So, if you're in Nassau on a cruise, those stores are the best prices around. I asked the burning question that I've had on my mind.....why is beer so expensive in the Bahamas. Even the Bahamian beer Kalik is cheaper in the US than in the Bahamas. The Liquor Store owner said that the Bahamian government levies a very high tax, around 70%, on beer, a much higher tax than on liquor. He said, they consider beer a luxury, rum is a necessity! I'll drink to that!!!

We returned the cart around 6PM and settled in for the evening. We had 10-15 kts of breeze coming into the stern of the boat which was a nice change. Cooled the saloon very nicely.

We conched out for the night. Life is good

May 14, 2009 - Green Turtle Cay

Sometimes you plan your trip, sometimes, it's planned for you. Winds are up around 15 kts and they are right on our stern. We can't leave until 11AM because we need the tide to get out of Black Sound. I asked Dave what his plan was ... we will have to back into the wind and clear the docks and back out into the sound before we can turn the bow around. We cannot back out turning the bow into the wind because it is too shallow to our port side. We didn't think we'd be able to back into the wind successfully for the distance we needed to go, since the stern would have to go starboard versus the port tendency of the prop walk and wind. We might be able to make it, but there's no fall back position......so the plan is .....stay put! The winds are going to stay up for the next couple of days and then it's going to rain with thunderstorms - so we'll just stay put. Being "stuck" in New Plymouth, Green Turtle Cay isn't necessarily a bad thing!

ST PETER ANGLICAN CHURCH

Saturday night the local Episcopal church, St Peters, is having a cookout. So at least we're stuck in a pretty little town with activity.

Dave walked down to the village to get a golf cart for the day. We need diesel fuel. There is no availability in Black Sound so we need to empty the cans into the boat and drive over to Green Turtle Marina to buy diesel fuel (other side of the island in White Sound).

GREEN TURTLE CLUB

INTERISLAND FERRY

- These ferries connect the various islands in the Abacos. It becomes a school bus in the morning and in the afternoon bringing the high school kids to Great Abaco Island to school.

FRESH CONCH SHELLS

- Just brought in on the boat.

SMASHING THE CONCH

- With a wedge on a hammer, the conch is cracked to open it up.

CUTTING THE MUSCLE

- Knife is inserted to cut the muscle holding it to the shell.

DIGGING OUT THE CONCH

- The conch is then removed out of the shell, membrane cleaned off . Of course - if it was you or I, it would be an hour's worth of a mess! It looks easy but I understand unless you know how to do this - it can be a bear!

FRESH CONCH

- It doesn't get any fresher than this! The bucket is taken to the fritter side or the conch salad side and we wait for our order!!!!!

CONCH SALAD - YUMMM

- Fresh as fresh can be - conch salad.

First, we went down to the Ferry Dock where the town was holding a fundraiser for Christmas lights. We had two orders of conch fritters (absolutely delicious) and one order of conch salad made fresh. There was a boat parked at the dock where they were busting open the conch shells, removing the meat, cleaning it, and passing it to the cooks. You can't get conch any fresher than this!

To sooth our burning lips from the conch salad (Betsy's order was for extra mild conch salad, but it was switched with one of the local lady's order), we had homemade coconut (for me) and fruit salad (for Dave) ice cream! Yum, yum, yum!!!!!

With full bellies we headed back to the boat to pick up the diesel cans and drove over to Green Turtle Marina to get them filled. Back to the boat, empty the cans and then back over to Green Turtle Marina for another fill. Our last fuel stop was Nassau. We used 26 gallons of diesel from Nassau through Eleuthera thru the Abacos to GTC. Not bad!!!

Since we figure we're going to be here for a while, Dave negotiated a half day rate ($25/day vs $40/day) for the next four (at least) days, so we've got island transportation.