Green Turtle Cay - Abacos Islands

We got all sandy and had to go back home for shower and dinner. Believe it or not we wanted to catch the end of American Idol and promptly fell asleep during the last acts. Hey it's not for me, but I'm glad they saved that guy with the beard. More from paradise later.

Nary a soul on another lovely beach.

I know what Jenée's thinking - gosh, does Jim look good.

She's a keepah.

And wouldn't you know, we found another beach!

We find it's 2 for 1 rum punches at Pineapple's and - they have a swing. We drank and swang, drank and swang ....

We now go off the beaten path to find a quaint little restaurant called the Pineapple. Of course we blew right past it and ended up is someones yard. "The Americans are coming! The American are coming!" I think I saw someone duck. Oh, we laughed and laughed.

That's enough history. Hey look, here's Jimmy the maintenance boy now with some new hose. Isn't that nice.

Their town is pristine and what you would expect of a Bahamas town in color and beauty.

A large group came to the Bahamas and settled in the Abacos Islands and settlements like New Plymouth on Green Turtle Cay. As a matter of fact the majority population of the Abacos is white and still holds allegiance to the Queen. Very nice folks, who were OK with me being from Boston.

What is the significance of the date? It was right after the American Revolutionary War, and all the Americans who were English loyalists fled there homes in the 13 states and headed to British East Florida. What is sometimes forgotten is that there were large blocs of Americans who had no intention of seceding from England, many of them vocal, and/or took up arms with the Brits. To the victors go the spoils and after the war was over, the vocal loyalists were harassed and run out of their towns. The quiet ones (many) were left alone and stayed - in Boston, they're called "Blue Bloods". East Florida was a safe haven until it was turned over to Spain and all the Brits and American Loyalists were thrown out once more.

Now for some history. We are in the town of New Plymouth on Green Turtle Cay. New Plymouth was founded in 1786!

It is quite something to pull over to an incredible beach and not see anyone.

The way I look at it, I could just keep shooting pictures of beautiful, untouched beaches, or we can add a little color of our own. I'm happy to receive your comments on what works best.

And see it we did. I'll get to the history of this place, but let's go to the beach!

So we arrive Turtle Cay - I need to explain a few things. First of all, our generator quit 3 days ago, soon after arriving in the Bahamas. Secondly, I scrambled to fix the problem, diagnosed what was happening and got the generator restarted - for 30 minutes. I won't boor you with details (oh, yes I will), but it soon appeared to have 3 problems. That quickly becomes a jumble of possible remedy's, dead end paths, you name it. I felt it was a DC wiring problem, one wire that knocked out the engine control. I pored over schematics and lived with the thing for 2.5 days. My boat neighbors offered help and suggestions too, great guys, no avail. I got a local expert in, but he took all of the 2.5 days to isolate the problem - one wire! I just had this problem last week with a water pump - wiggle the wire it works. There is an old saying: Cruising on a sailboat is spending time in some of the most exotic places of the world, while you fix your boat.

Problem solved, your friendly grease monkey here was ready to get out and see Green Turtle Cay and the Bahamas!