My first trip to Green Turtle Cay took place in March of
1975.
Without any Internet available to provide easy access to
lots of information about this remote destination, my father found the rental
cottage called CAVU via a small advertisement in the back of Yachting Magazine.
My family drove for two days in a large, brown Oldsmobile
from Madison, Wisconsin to Fort Lauderdale, FL.
After an overnight in a local hotel, we boarded a Mackey Airlines DC-3
for the flight to Treasure Cay. This plane
was a tail-dragger and it was a steep climb up the aisle to find your
seats. Flying was a lot more casual
than it is today and I remember that a many of the passengers, and possibly
some of the crew, were loud and excited to be traveling while enjoying the
carry-on beverages that were apparently allowed on international flights.
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| Mackey Airlines DC-3 |
The TCB airport and customs and Bolo ferry to GTC has not
changed considerably since this first trip.
When we arrived on GTC, we were dropped-off at the
Government Dock in White Sound where our caretaker, Kevin McIntosh, greeted us
along with the wheelbarrow-like pushcart that we would use for our luggage and
groceries for this trip. It was several
years later that golf carts found their way to the island, so transportation
was limited to walking or riding in a small Boston Whaler that was rented from
the Sawyer brothers. Going to town
required a real commitment!
CAVU is just up the path from Coco Bay and still stands
today. In 1975 the properties on the
north end of the island had no electric power (unless equipped with a
generator) so the appliances ran on propane.
Seeing a pilot light under the refrigerator at night was a complete and
total mystery to me at my young age.
Without electric power, we used oil lamps in the evening and a hand pump
was used to pump water from the cistern to the gravity tank on the roof. The shower was outside and the toilet was
some strange contraption that involved the use of foot pedals and a plunger.
New Plymouth had electrical power that was provided via a
large generator in the quarry area behind the cemetery. This may have been more reliable than the
current BEC?
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| My Mother & I |
