We met several people at the marina. Our next door neighbors John and Barbara were long time cruisers with their dog Annie. They had mistakenly left a faucet on at some point during their passage and thought they had drained their whole tank. Luckily, they did not lose too much. It is difficult to hear the water pump or a faucet when you are motoring. They headed out for Bird Cay in the morning even though it was still quite windy.
We met Brenda and Ted who are avid kite boarders.They ride bikes to the beach towing a trailer with their kites and boards.
We considered renting a car for the day but there were no cars. We thought about bikes as the marina had bikes but all but one had at least one flat tire. We were going to ask for a recommendation for New Year’s eve when the marina announced that they were organizing a pot luck dinner in the picnic areas. We signed up.
We packed a lunch and set out on foot for Shark Creek Beach which is at one end of Sugar Beach that runs along the whole island. We walked a weathered road to a brand new road that leads to the airport. We crossed over to the beach and we could see people kite boarding near the entrance to Shark Creek. We headed down to watch.
It was just past low tide when we arrived and sandbars were exposed. We ate our lunch in the shade of a casaurina tree and watched the kite boarders for awhile.
We spoke with a woman who was kite boarding who was on a catamaran anchored off the beach. It was a lovely anchorage. We walked the beach and I went swimming. We decided to stay another day to explore more at low tide.
We returned to the marina and I remembered the bread i had ordered at Coolie Mae’s Sunset restaurant. It was another mile walk to town and I called the restaurant to see if the bread was ready before setting out. There was no answer so I asked the marina staff if she knew how to reach them. She was able to contact them by cell phone and they had our bread.
We set out for town and the fishermen were once again cleaning fish at the dock. They were very friendly. Herbert is the boss of the operation and has an assistant who goes by “Go Sleep:” He says he got the name because his mother was always telling him to go sleep and he never would. She told him to “go sleep” so often that it became his name. He was loud and boisterous and still seemed to have a lot of energy.
They gave us a ride to town to pick up the bread. I rode in the front of the truck with Herbert and David was in the back. We got the bread and mentioned that we had tried to call. They informed us that the number was disconnected. We walked back to the boat. We saw a group of people near our boat looking in the water. A manatee was cruising down the dock!
We made jambalaya for the pot luck dinner and gathered with the other boaters. Everyone was very nice and there were many dishes. My favorites were a lobster pasta and a lemon cake. There was also pork roast with stuffing. Everyone was out of green vegetables as the food boat had not delivered to the groceries this week.
We liked Great Harbour Cay and decided to stay a bit longer. We wanted to return to the beach at low tide to explore the outer islands. There is another cold front expected on Sunday and it looks like some calm days over the next few days and then again after sunday,