March 29-Great Sale Cay to Crab Cay
Monday morning was purposely a late start. We left at 9, as we both have felt like we’ve had factory jobs for the last week, rising early, and making long days on the boat. It is officially time to start that vacation we’ve been prepping for since November! Today was a 40-mile day with plenty of deep water. We arrived at 2:30 in the afternoon. This anchorage was well protected from the East/SE winds. Amanda took a nap and I caught up on the writing. Steve and Susie jumped in their dinghy and offered to take us sightseeing, but we declined today.
March 30-Crab Cay to Manjack
Tuesday Steve’s suggestion yesterday to make it a little shorter sounded good enough to make us all happy. We drove to Manjack (pronounced down here as munjack) Cay, a nice island with an accommodating anchorage, protecting us from the ESE winds that continue through Wednesday. The 20-mile trip was ideal. Leaving at 9:30 and driving till 1:00 pm is a nice boat day. We did (what I hope is) our new routine: short drive, drop the hook, have a bite of lunch, splash the dink, and go exploring). We’ve seen virtually no wildlife or fish in these beautiful waters, but today things changed a little. We puttered around the byte and saw parrot fish, a bunch of sea turtles, and even a big sow on the beach.
This little piggy will never go to market.
This is the 4 legged kind that typically provides us with bacon, not the other kind that we see in swim suits on crowded beaches. She waded out toward our dinghies. We weren’t sure if she was looking for food or if she was protecting nearby young piglets. We decided not to investigate too thoroughly, knowing how vicious wild hogs can be. Turned out that she was pretty friendly, as we saw her later visiting other folks on the beach.
The crystal clear waters of Crab Cay 
A sea turtle surfaced and quickly disappeared. We hear there are hundreds of these wild hogs on islands in the Exumas. 
Steve and Susie explored along our side today as we watched for turtles and sharks. 
Our friends leaving the mother ship in the Dinghy Small Talk.
After making our way around a little further, we met a Canadian couple on a nice trawler. They gave us lots of good pointers for things to see over the next few days. Tomorrow, we will ride 4 miles to Green Turtle Cay for a tourist trip. We will see for ourselves how the community has recovered from the devastation of Dorian in September of 2019. The Canadians, Duncan and Patty, told us we will hear lots of saws and hammers going as they continue to rebuild. We were told there’s a special emotion you sense in the town. People are working so hard to restore things to better than they were. Many, on a global scale, have come to assist the Bahamians rebuild. Apparently, this portion of the Abacos was more damaged by tornadoes that followed than the hurricane itself. The most vicious part of Dorian came south of here, lagging for 2-3 days at wind speeds not seen for many years. But these folks are still recovering from the tornadoes. Many places are still closed, but not as many as there were. We will enjoy our day and do our part to help stimulate the economy.