Our route plan was to head to Crab Cay and anchor overnight at Angelfish Point, in a protected bay. Winds predicted out of the east would provide a calm night. As we passed Green Turtle Cay, we noticed tents on the shore and many boats anchored in the harbor. We discussed cutting short our planned route, and ultimately reversed course and headed for the anchorage to see what all the activity was.
We dropped the hook and launched the dink, headed to shore with just Molly aboard, Sammy seemed less interested in going ashore than snoozing, so we left him to nap. The activity was the Green Turtle Cay Island Roots Heritage Festival. Lots of activity, and we decided to take a pass through the exibits and visit the settlement. The Festival was complete with marching band, lots of display tents, and some interesting background on the heritage of the black population. A Junkanoo display showed the history and background of this Bahamian tradition, and lots of the costumes. It could be likened to Mardi Gras, although this was traditionally around Christmas or Boxing Day, a day when slaves at the time were permitted to participate in a native tribal celebration of music, dance and costume.
We returned to the boat, pulled the anchor and continued on our way to Angelfish Point, arriving with enough daylight to find our way into the bight, where we spent a very quiet night on the hook, the only boat in sight! We planned to head to Great Sale Cay in the morning, a run of about 38 nm, overnight at Great Sale, then leave the late the following morning to cross the Bahamas Bank to the US.