After a week or so in White Sound, we edged our way out and backtracked north to the next set of Islands above Green Turtle – Manjack and Crab Cays.
We anchored between the two Islands and set out exploring. Manjack has no towns and only a few people live on the island. They’re wonderful folks who encourage people to stop and visit and walk around the trails that they maintain.
We walked through the island down a wonderful path marked with tiny signs that read “Ocean Beach.” The path was lined with mangroves and fan palms, and the whole island seems to have a faint aroma of really good coffee.
But then, almost without warning, we found ourselves on a beautiful, deserted beach, with reefs marching in brown and turquoise lines out to the ragged Atlantic in the distance.
It was one of those moments where you can’t quite figure out how you find yourself in such a stunningly beautiful place.
While at Manjack we also took the dinghy up to the north side of the island to a reefy bay. As we beached the dinghy and walked over the bar, some big fat stingrays came right up to us in the shallow water and let us pet them. Then their friends, some little yellow sharks, came up, too.
We all snorkeled around the bay a bit. Schuyler and Chris tried to spear a lionfish – which are a tasty invasive species the locals encourage people to take whenever possible – but the fish ducked back under his rock and lived to be invasive for a while longer. A big lobster also managed to keep us from eating him.
This spear-fishing thing is gonna take some time to work out.
Sailing Perseverance 