Powell Cay 2017

We have had a mass exodus from Donny’s Dock! This morning, Escape, FFF, Rocking B, and SeaSalt left the dock and headed to Powell Cay. Won’t Donny be surprised when he sees his empty dock!

We left the dock at 8:40. There were several boats anchored in the harbor when we came out. There is a good weather window to head back to the states now and several boats left the mooring field yesterday staging for the crossing. Good luck to Seeker and any other boats that are crossing now. Hope your waters are as smooth as ours.

We had very calm seas and a very smooth trip and got to Powell Cay at 10:45. Kokomo had left their dock and was waiting to follow us to Powell, since they’ve not been there before. We traveled about 2 hrs, at 6.4kts, and went 13.25nm.

Heading to Powell Cay

FFF and Kokomo

FFF

Kokomo

Rocking B

SeaSalt

Powell is a beautiful deserted island with white sandy beaches and clear, clear water. We got in our dinghy to check our anchor and I told Shay it felt weird. I know we are floating in this clear water, but it feels like we are suspended in air. The water is that clear. You can see everything on the bottom. And pictures can’t capture it.  We had dropped our anchor in sand so we had a clean view of it. We got some great shots of our chain and anchor. We got pictures of some others in the anchorage too.

Our shackle

Our chain just laying around

Our stabilizer

Our anchor

It’s a good thing we checked Kokomo’s, since they had not dug in at all. They dragged their anchor a long way until it had a big ball of grass and sand in it. It would have probably been ok, since the weather is so calm, but they took it up, cleaned it off and reset it. Shay’s motto is set the anchor for a really bad blow.

Not dug in at all!

Jim when I told him to do his captain pose.

Rocking B is good

Ken in his "bitch hips" pose

Shay and I went to shore for a quick tour. We walked across to the other ocean side. The beach was covered with dead sea grass and we decided its not as pretty as Gillium Bay. Got some good pictures of rays swimming around the boats. 

 

 

Stan and Debbie, on Watercolor, a 44’ DeFever, dropped anchor here too. We met them yesterday when they came by in the dinghy. We didn’t get to visit long since we had planned on a big meal on Escape, but hope they come back to see us.  We visited them for a while and had a tour of Watercolor.  They only spend one night at the anchorage since they had maintenance scheduled on the boat. Hope to see them soon.

The next day the guys went exploring at Cooperstown and were they disappointed. They said it was really run down and not much to see or do at all. I think they wanted to find a place for lunch, but all came back hungry. Shay said the houses were newer looking than at New Plymouth, but they were very run down. The stores didn’t have any fresh fruit or veggies, but had plenty of chips and snack stuff.  Been there, done Cooperstown.

We are the only 5 boats in the anchorage now and we all went over to Rocking B for appetizers, drinks and boat tales. The guys can’t get together without a few stories. And of course, they have to talk boat stuff-batteries, solar, and toilets. Anyway, we had great food, fun and Ken even played a little music for us.

We got some great sunset pictures of Escape and a few of FFF. Back to our boats and ready for bed. I think the plan is to head back to the marina tomorrow, but we are not in a rush.  We just need to be back before 2pm to miss low tide.  It won’t be a problem since it’s only a 2 hour trip.

Who are these silly people?

 

 

 

I waited for the green flash, but not tonight. But I have seen it!

FFF was sneaky again and left about 7:30. They wanted to sail all the way back and since there wasn’t much wind, they thought they’d better leave early. Rocking B sailed out of the anchorage and had a good sail back to the dock.

 

 

Shallow water heading into Black Sound

You definitely want to stay away from the red side,

  

But the green has its issues too. You can see where they cut out the channel going in.

We left at 11:20 and got back to the dock at 1:40. We had a 2hr and 18 minute trip at 5.7kts and traveled 13kts. We had a good trip with a light wind.  It took us about an hour to get settled back in with the lines, fenders, boards and power. All is well.

Manjack Cay

Escape and Rocking B decided to visit Manjack Cay. We left the dock at 8:45. It takes a lot of work to leave the dock, even if you are coming back in a few days. We had to unplug the dock power, take the lines off the dock, take the fenders off the boat and leave the fender boards on the dock. It's not like getting in a car, cranking up and taking off. But we did it.

The weather was great, the water calm, and we had a good trip. We passed a boat with a big orange sail, that I thought was pretty, so I took some pictures. Shay noticed they were waving and wondered if they needed help, but they seemed ok, so we went on. Even though there were a lot of boats, we had no problems getting anchored and settled down to enjoy the scenery. Rocking B came in behind us and settled in too. We got anchored at 9:45. We traveled 5.28nm at 5.3kts for 1hr. A very short trip.

Mentaka

Looking toward Manjack

Our boat from Ken's drone. Thanks so much for the great pictures and videos Ken! They are priceless!

We noticed a small sailboat anchoring near by that put his dinghy in the water and sailed toward us. It was Mike and Lorraine on Mentaka from MCYB, our home port.  We did not recognize them, but they did us.

 We decided to take our dinghies into the mangroves to look for rays, starfish and turtles that afternoon at high tide. It can get very shallow, so you have to pay attention to when you go and how long you stay. Mentaka's dinghy is sail or row, they rode with Shay and I went with Margaret and Ken. We had a great time exploring and saw turtles and rays. It's a beautiful place and we are glad we were able to see it again. Escape had dinner on Rocking B and it was very good.

Boats docked way back in the mangroves.

Ken and Margaret from Rocking B

Shay, Mike and Lorraine exploring

We checked out Mike and Lorraine's solar oven

The next morning. we dinghied to the other end of the island to see Penny, the turtle and left so we could be there at high tide, since Donny said that was the best time to see her. He has her trained to come to his boat and eat out of your hand. He takes lots of tourists there to feed her. There are usually rays and shark swimming around too.

We saw lots of turtles and rays, but no Penny. We had bought some squid from Donny to feed her, so we fed the rays instead. They are really beautiful, they look like they are flying. If you stand still, they will try to suck on your toes.

Lorraine feeding the rays.

 

That's me feeding the ray. I didn't like when they got close to my toes!

The shadow of the bubbles made stars!

...Gilligan, the Skipper, too....

...the millionaire and his wife... 

  

We all ate smoked sausage on the grill on Escape then went to Rocking B for music. Of course, Ken was fantastic as always. Mike brought his guitar and played and sang. We had a good time listening to the music and enjoying the scenery.

We spent two nights then needed to get back to the dock because of weather coming in. Today is the day that SeaSalt finally gets here and we are eating on Escape. I've got to get back and cook my beans!

We planned our trip back so we could get in without any depth problems and had a good ride back. It was a great visit to a great island.