Allaure/16 Abacos and maybe Exumas?????

[frank]

Allure was launched again 2 weeks ago but between boat work, weather and helping other cruisers.....just finally getting "underway" today. Heading to Marsh Harbour from Green Turtle Cay.....will see if The Whale has settled down enough to pass S

Not many pics as only really starting out today

http://sailfar.net/forum/index.php?topic=4593.0

[Craig Weis]

Really like that cream colored hull with white top side.
Have a safe passage.

skip.

[frank]

Thanks Skip.   Get a lot of compliments....the cream and burgandy seem to go well together.

Finally more "on the move" cruising.  The "Jib Room" here in Marsh Harbour has weds night ribs and Sat. night steaks.  Awesome food, "rake and scrape" music after complete with limbo.  Fun night....lots of cruisers and best of all....I'm only slightly hung over  :-)


Pics and updates        http://sailfar.net/forum/index.php?topic=4593.0

[frank]

Left Marsh Harbour and sailed to Hope Town Elbow Cay. Favourable wind to anchor out front and save mooring ball fees "inside". I love this place!!  A group of us split on golf cart rentals and did a "teenie tiny tavern tour" yesterday. Doubt any of us have laughed as much in a while. Big night tonight.....bingo at "Capt. Jack's"  :-)

pics :

http://sailfar.net/forum/index.php?topic=4593.0

[crazycarl]

Thanks for the update/pics Frank!

Looks like you know how to live!

C.C.

[frank]

Nice sail to Lynyard Cay yesterday

Off to Little harbour shortly

BEAUTIFUL water!!!

pics        http://sailfar.net/forum/index.php?topic=4593.0

[frank]

High winds the last few days and looks like right through to Sunday so I took a mooring ball in Black Sound, Green Turtle Cay. Black sound is a short walk to the funky lil hamlet of New Plymouth.
Posted a few picture updates as well as a battery/solar system update at

http://sailfar.net/forum/index.php?topic=4593.msg51180#new

Hoping to get back moving next week

[frank]

The winds finally settled, sun came out and temps went up so a few boats took a slow sail up to manjack to walk the beachs .
Simply beautiful day!!!   Made the cool n windy ones worthwhile.
A couple of the girls even got to play with a stingray
Later...we all gathered for a pork chop grill and drinks at sundown

pics:

http://sailfar.net/forum/index.php?topic=4593.0

[frank]

This winter has been multiple fronts that have made the passage S difficult with very short weather windows.
We've put the Exumas on "hold"
After leaving Little Harbour at the S end of the Abacos, we've been working our way N.
Currently at Allens Pensacola Cay and will sail to Grand Cay tomorrow.
I haven't been to Double Breated Cays or Walkers Cay since 2004 so it will be fun to visit again.
The stop at Grand Cay will be a 1st for me so I'm looking forward to checking it out.
Should be a nice broad reach all the way tomorrow and sun!! 

Updates:     http://sailfar.net/forum/index.php?topic=4593.0

[frank]

The girls found this beach combing today
Basket ball sized....thick "skin"....leather like...the IPad actually co operated
Once peeled back...inside is a pinkish, flesh like 'thing'
Looks and feels like an "organ" of sorts.... too wierd...

anyone ever seen one or know what it is?

Several of us have been cruising for many years and are stumped

PS...the IPad actually co-operated and let me attach the pic!

[HenryC]

http://www.spongeguide.org/index.php

Its hard to tell from just the photo and brief description, but the website above has a key to Caribbean sponges (Phylum Porifera), and that's my guess.  Click on the button on the right. Keep in mind, it may be a decayed specimen of a deep-water species, washed up on the beach, so it may have little resemblance to the living animal, and it may not be familiar to beachcombers or snorkelers.  Good luck.

It also might be a colonial ascidian, a form of tiny sea squirt that comes in clumps of many individuals.  Does it have a holdfast or attachment?  Is it grainy or gritty in internal  structure, or does it have a multicellular appearance to it? Does it have internal channels and passages, or is it a solid mass of tissue.  Does it have anything that looks like differentiated internal organs? Or is it a solid mass of tissue?  Did it appear fresh, or decomposed?  Some of these critters look very different when they start to rot, compared to the appearance when fresh or alive. 

It reminds me a bit of the N. Pacific Gumboot Chiton, although that is a mollusc (even if it certainly doesn't look like one).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumboot_chiton

[Ted]

I know what it is... it's a gumball. It probably came off of one of those container ships bound for Texas where things tend to be larger.

[HenryC]

Yeah.  But remember the old bumper sticker:

"Once you've seen California, every place else looks like Texas."

[crazycarl]

Saw something like it in an old Steve McQueen movie.

C.C.

[Flysailfish49]

That is so KooL!  We just purchased a Com Pac 19 and are moving from Texas to Florida and can't wait to start sailing the Keys and Bahamas.  We will be following your adventure and taking notes.  All the very best.