Happy 2020!

Today we had a slow lazy morning, just taking it easy and enjoying our first coffee in the Bahamas.

Every morning at 8:15am, there is a cruisers net broadcast on the VHF here at Green Turtle Cay.

The weather is read out, birthdays and anniversaries are mentioned, announcements about events are made, volunteer opportunities are publicized, and a Thought Of The Day is shared.

When it was time for the newly arrived cruisers to introduce themselves, Tai took the handheld radio and spoke on behalf of the Anjulia Sue crew. So proud of him!

In the afternoon we dinghy'd to New Plymouth town, tried some conch in a bag, walked around town and saw the yearly Junkanoo parade.

Basically, Junkanoo is this fantastic parade with drums, dancers, and costumes. Normally thousands of people come out for this special New Year's day celebrating but due to the hurricane several months ago, many residents are still not back from wherever they evacuated to.

However those that were here wanted Junkanoo to happen in order to keep the tradition alive and to bring people together.

What an incredible display of happiness, strength, hope and determination. The people of Green Turtle Cay were affected by hurricane Dorian in every way imagineable but they are rebuilding their homes and their lives, piece by piece.

I spoke to a man who makes jewellery on the island and he told us about his experience of surviving the hurricane. Imagine being trapped in your home for two solid days, not knowing when it would end, while winds of 200+ mph blasted down, bringing unprecedented rainfall and destruction.

It is incredible nobody in Green Turtle Cay died. Other places in the Abacos weren't that fortunate.

Gratitude. That is something that kept cropping up as we spoke to other residents and how they feel about surviving the hurricane.

New Year's is always a time to be reflective and grateful.

I feel truly humbled and privileged to witness a community that has survived a horrendous natural disaster, lost almost every sense of normalcy they have ever known, but are now coming together to rebuild and become better than ever before.

There may be crumbling homes, roofless buildings, fallen trees and crushed cars everywhere, but GRATITUDE permeates the air. It is the common denominator everywhere you look as life moves on.

Community bulletin board full of announcements, etc.

Junkanoo dancers in the parade. SO beautiful to see this
yearly tradition happening despite the devastation of Dorian. 

Some places looked like a massive bomb exploded :(

One of a couple restaurants open for business again.

The old jail.

Drew, Jessica and Marleigh taking us on a walking tour of the town. Nice to finally meet them in person after communicating so much on FB.

Conch in a bag, with a touch of hot sauce. So yummy.

Happiness is sharing a cold Coke. It's the small things :)

 A popular watering hole, this is what's left of it .

Fresh veggies makes my heart sing!

Tai checking on our anchor. Looks like a good hold!

Sunset paddle. This anchorage is honestly too good to be true.

First sunset of 2020. I wonder what this year will bring?