Elbow Cay to Green Turtle (again)

We spent 3 nights in Elbow Cay which allowed us to visit the famous (for the area) Tahiti Beach, for an afternoon.  We, like always, brought our chairs, umbrella, and Sydney. 

The next day we spent the afternoon in Hopetown visiting their famous lighthouse, one of the only kerosene powdered lighthouses remaining in the world. (as you can see, Dan is thrilled) 

This quaint settlement has cute brightly colored houses on the sound side and beautiful beaches on the other.

Our final day was spent again at Tahiti Beach after a quick trip to Fire Fly’s, an awesome bar situated in the middle of Elbow Cay that has fantastic water and is perfectly situated for sunsets.

The next morning we moved on the Green Turtle Cay.  We fished all of the way up to the our marina (4 hours) – which resulted in a slow ride enjoying the Atlantic ocean – meaning– no hits, no catches, only fishing.

We arrived at the Leeward Yacht Club, dropped the dingy in the water and went to find the Abaco pigs.  Just like in the Exumas from a couple of years ago, the Abaco has their own swimming pigs.  This better organized area had 20 or 30 baby piglets and probably 10-15 full grown females. 

We returned back to the resort to enjoy happy hour by the pool.

The next morning we hired a charter and went fishing with local experience.  

We attempted to troll with no success, then went deep reef fishing.  Ron, the captain, explained that the waters are warming and the larger game fish are going deeper and deeper to cooler waters (also explains why our trolling efforts haven't been successful).  A bit too far for our liking on this day. Instead we spent several hours on the deep reef catching Strawberry Grouper, Triggerfish, and Yellowtail snappers.   We all caught fish with less than average tackle.  I lucked out and grabbed the best of the broken rods with the strongest test.  Greg and Dan had partially broken rods and only 10 lbs test which proved to be too small for a lot of the fish that were lurking on the edge of the reef. 

The captain didn’t have plotted way points (specific fishing spots).  He picked spots by his experience and the colors of the water.  He knew when the fishing hole was dried up which prompted us to moved 200 yards in either direction to start catching again.  Finally, a couple of sharks found us and ended our day of fishing, so we headed in.  It was GREAT not to clean fish for once.  I observed and learned a couple new techniques along the way.  Overall, it was a great day of fishing.

Green Turtle Cay each year as an event to help fund the local schools and volunteer fire department, Cheeseburger in Paradise.  One of the reasons we tried to situate ourselves in Green Turtle Cay in early July was to attend this party.  It definitely didn’t disappoint.  There were probably close to 400-500 boats with well over 3k people on this small uninhabited island.  The larger boats formed a semi-circle around a large sandbar on Fowler's Cay, while the smaller boats tied up to each other on the perimeter. 

Since we came to the party on the dingy, we were able to maneuver ourselves close to shore in the middle of the action. We improvised and strapped an umbrella to the dingy for more shade.

The event offered “free” hot dogs and hamburgers along with beer.  The wait for food/drinks was well over an hour.  We were happy someone told us to bring our own.  Folks from all over the islands, including tourists came.  We didn’t realize what a big event this was going to be until we were there. (picture is of the line for a free hot dog)

We spent the 4^th of July on yet another beautiful beach and finished our day by the pool of the marina.

The next morning we headed to Powell Cay.