Green Turtle Cay!!

Leaving West End in the early hours

While at the helm, I used the rear camera to watch Ron and Nathan

checking out the tender under tow with the new towing bridle

We cruised all day yesterday from West End, with our friend Nathan aboard (getting him "off-island" for a few days for the holidays). He and the girls brought the Sea Fox tender on the inside route from Indian Cay onto the Little Bahama Bank, while Ron and I ran Equinox up to the Memory Rock to enter onto the bank there in deeper water. Once they caught up with us, we towed the Sea Fox with the new bridle (works great!!) and made our way to Green Turtle. It wasn't a fabulously warm day, so we put it to good use cruising across the Bank. We decided to go all the way to GTC in one day, rather than anchoring at Great Sale Cay or one of the other smaller out islands and make a bit better use of our time. . Nathan made us a gourmet dinner along the way, with fresh creek shrimp with cheese ravioli, and venison tenderloins that were absolutely delicious!! The benefits of having a good galley aboard, calm seas -- and a chef!!

We arrived at Green Turtle about 9:00 p.m., and Nathan and Ally piloted the tender through the entrance cut into White Sound. Being familiar with the entrance is a must, as it has a wicked dogleg to port as you enter, and the small floating buoys aren't lit at night. We also knew that that we would need mid-tide or higher to get past the entrance, and it was just a couple hours shy of high tide, which was a factor in favor of entering tonight. It was a bit tricky threading our way through sailboats in the mooring field at night, but Ron handled it with ease. We'd called ahead for a slip assignment, so knew all we had to do was just pull up to the fuel dock, and tie off for the night. Once tied up and secure, we hit the Tipsy Turtle at the Green Turtle Club to say hello to Debbie, and indulge in a couple of Bahamaian Sands beers to celebrate our arrival.

Ally and Ron at the helm heading out to the reef

Ally and Kayleigh in the tender and ready to head out diving

Today we moved the boat around the t-head to the interior slip, and got ourselves situated there before going out on the reef beyond Manjack Cay for a quick check-out dive with Kayleigh. We let the girls walk along the beach for a bit before diving, and then made our way out to the reef where we anchored in the sand just inside the reefs. We got Kayleigh suited up, and then off we went! She did very well, equalizing her ears right from the start and had good control of her buoyancy; she seemed very comfortable. We didn't go far, just along the inside of the reef until we found the cut into the deeper waters before returning to the boat, but that was fine with me as I was a tad bit cold. The waters are definitely colder here (75 degrees vs 79 degrees) than at West End, but that may be due to the nasty cold front that just went through. We're all waiting for it to warm up!!

Right now Captain Ron is filling our scuba tanks, and the girls are showering to warm up. When all the chores are done, we're heading over to New Plymouth for a bite to eat and some fun in town. Pineapple's, anyone?