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DESTINATION: Man-O-War Cay, Abacos
The sun finally began to peek out of the clouds. The clouds still looked full but are starting break up. We have some wind at the dock but we both sense it’s a good time to go. We are going to wait until 10:45 AM so we can leave on a rising tide. We only have 6 miles to go today but want to make sure we arrive on high tide at Man-O-War. We’ve got a tricky entrance to deal with over there and want to make sure we have enough water and hopefully enough sun to see the water depths. Larry tells Tony, the black dock master, that we’re leaving at 10:45 AM. He’s such a nice guy and is always helping everyone with a smile. Larry wanted to pay the bill but Tony said he’d have to wait until we disconnect the power to get the final reading. It was 8:00 AM so Larry decided to wait until 10:00 AM to pull the power and still give them enough time to get the bill totaled. It’s different here in the Bahamas because instead of just charging you dock fee, they add electrical fee and water use fee, so checking out is a bit more complicated than it is in the states. We listened to the Boater’s Net that comes on everyday at 8:15 AM. People called in reporting weather and sea conditions from their different locations throughout the Abacos. Today sounded like a good day inside the reef but still pretty rough out on the Atlantic and the cuts to the Atlantic. Larry pulled the power at 10:00 and went to find Tony to check out. He told me to start everything up at 10:30 and be ready to go if he wasn’t back by then. At 10:30, I got the engines running and the electronics up, etc. and waited for Larry to come. Soon I saw Larry and Tony coming to help with the lines. The old man, in the boat across the dock, was just coming back from his little walk and Tony stopped to help him into his boat, so we waited for the old man and his dog to get in the boat. I’m so glad that Tony looks after him. He doesn’t even mind if the old man’s dog goes to the bathroom on the dock as the dog hardly gets out. The poor dog usually has been holding it so long that he can’t keep from doing a huge long pee the second his paws reach the dock, poor thing and still he seems such a happy dog. Guess that’s proof he’s holding it in the little boat. He’s so happy to go on the itsy little walk that the old man can manage. I was on the Portuguese bridge
and holding the boat in position at the dock with the bow thrusters while they
got all the lines off and thrown onto the boat. When they were done, Larry
and Tony both told me to slowly back her out. I had two huge pillars to
miss in back of the stern so I took it nice and easy and listened to them both
telling me where the pilings were and to keep going back and that I was doing
“just fine.” Once through, Larry said to quickly turn the boat and hug the
docks as I took her down to the end by the fuel dock and then make a quick turn
to head out of the harbor through the moored boats all the while keeping her
lined up with the fuel dock sign directly behind us. As I came in from the
Portuguese station to the pilot house, probably too fast, I slipped on a mat we
had by the door and hit my leg on the door threshold. It was a bad hit but
I was too busy with the boat to take notice at the time.
I made the turn at the Texaco sign and headed out. I looked through the binoculars to check everyone’s anchor line ahead of us to see if there were any that might be stretched out across our path that we might snag again but the wind was in our favor this time and all the boats were pointed towards us leaving a clear unobstructed path, so we just drove through them today with no problem. We had just a little less than two feet below us today on the high tide (that means 8 feet overall not the 10 feet that the marina had told us on the phone when we came in, even at low tide). Once past the anchored boats, I looked down to see where I hit my leg as it was starting to hurt now. I saw blood running down my leg to a puddle of blood on the carpet. Larry immediately got a dish towel and wrapped my leg and then got another rag and tried to clean up the pool of blood. After mopping up what he could off the carpet, he took over the helm and told me to go take care of it while he drove the boat. By now it was starting to hurt and was swelling up like with a big bump. I got it cleaned, disinfected, bandaged, cleaned the carpet and went out to stow the lines and fenders. We were back in the Sea of Abacos again and the waters were restless with small white caps and it was a little choppy. The wind was blowing a good 20 knots but wasn’t affecting us one bit. We could see the tail end of Abacos Island on our starboard side, off to our front starboard quarter was the red and white stripped light house of Harbor Town and off to our portside, Man-O-War Cay, our destination for today. Larry had all the way points in to get us in through the tricky cut to Man-O-War Cay, all according to the cruising guide. It makes me nervous to trust the cruising guide more than the electronic charts but it’s the best information we have. The guide has several little postage sized photos in it to give cruisers an idea of what to look for as you approach the cut to Man-O-War Cay Harbor. You almost need a magnifying glass to see what the heck they are trying to show you and then you still can’t see the little teensy post they are talking about in front of the itty bitty dock or roof or other such stuff. There are shallow shoals all around and we are proceeding carefully and slowly, just wondering if the shoals have shifted since the cruising guide was updated or the last storm. We can see the North Cut to the Atlantic and waves are crashing over the reef each side of it. We can see a large freighter out in the Atlantic beyond the reef battling the winds and waves and it looks pretty nasty out there. I try to see the harbor entrance at Man-O-War through the binoculars. I can see a small house with the same roof top that looks like the one on the postage size photo in the cruising guide. That must be the entrance to the harbor. I tell Larry and he says we still have to go around several little islands or cays before we make the turn to approach the entrance. It’s misleading as what I saw in the binoculars matched the photo exactly but we still had to go around some islands and make a turn farther in the distance. I saw a sailboat coming out and he crossed between the islands or cays that we have to go around. Without checking the charts I can see how easy it would be for someone to go the wrong way, especially seeing this sailboat come out through an area that is too shallow for us. We pass the little islands and the color of the water changes significantly ahead, which means shallower water. We are a bit hesitant going into the waters not knowing if enough depth will be there for us. It shallows a bit but we are OK. There’s not much below us but it’s still OK. I now see where the cut is but the view that matches the photo in the book doesn’t occur until you are right on top of the situation, meanwhile you’re checking you charts, the depth finder and searching for the entrance with the binoculars. We have to enter the cut on a diagonal approach which goes against your common sense. You are supposed to try to “line up with a post that has two arrows on it” and follow this diagonal approach from a way point just outside the cut. Where the heck is the post? Oh, there it is. Can that be it? It’s just an old stub of a stick and you can’t really make out any arrows on it yet but THAT must be it! The entrance is VERY narrow and I stand out on the bow to watch the depth and sides. The sides are jagged edged rock and we have no more than 10 feet at the max on each side. We continue on the plotted course trusting it totally as the depths don’t match the charts whatsoever. It’s kind of loosy goosy boating in my opinion, or should I say “ballsy boating.” Once through the cut and 50-60 feet inside we are supposed to make a turn to the portside and head in to the marina. Once inside you COULD finally see the post had two arrows on it but good grief who could see that from outside? Yea, we made it again with no mishaps! All these crazy places that we’ve been going where you never know if the marker is going to be there or not or whether the rustic marker survived the last storm or hurricane and if you do find the markers, it’s usually some surprisingly rustic piece of post with a hand made, faded in the sun sign. It’s nerve wracking. Many times you wonder what you are going to do once you get in these precarious places if the post, or whatever landmark you are supposed to look for, is missing, then what the heck do you do? Well, you just keep going and hope you are on the right track. Today, everything was there though and was exactly as described in the cruising guide and all the little postage sized photos matched the existing conditions. So I guess I should have more faith. I hailed the marina on the radio while Larry maneuvered up the small area between the two land masses and we got instructions on where they wanted us. This place is very small. There are only a few slips. We backed into the slip with no problem. Two black guys, one I think, was the dock master, came to help taking our lines and then there was this huge guy watching looked like a Caucasian Sumo wrestler. He stood on the dock and kept asking me something while we were trying to get the lines tied. I couldn’t understand him. “BRONSON” Once we got the lines tied, engines and electronics turned off and the power hooked up, Larry went up to the office to check in. I stayed on the boat and this giant of a guy on the dock again started talking to me. At first I couldn’t understand him at all. I had to have him repeat everything several times. Finally I realized that he was fascinated with Ziggy and was asking me all kinds of questions about him. He was so huge and Ziggy was so small that it was such an odd attraction for this guy. He kept reaching his big hand out trying to touch Ziggy and I kept telling him to watch out because Zig wasn’t too friendly but he didn’t seem deterred. He just wanted to pet Ziggy. Ziggy and I both were intimidated by this guy’s size. The more I listened to way he talked though, the more I began to understand. He had what we later began to recognize as the local “slang” that has developed through the generations of original loyalists that have settled and remained here for a couple hundred years. It’s a strange unfamiliar sounding combo of what sounds to me like Elizabethan English mixed with a good ole Southern drawl. The giant took his eyes off Ziggy for a second and watched as I adjusted a line on the stern. I guess he decided I didn’t quite do it right and before I could say anything, he jumped right off the dock and landed in a big boom onto our boat. Now, I’m pretty tall, but standing next to this guy, he was a monster in scale. He scared me at first because of his size and strange attraction for Ziggy and by suddenly jumping on the boat like that but he just merely retied my line in the most perfect way with his big hands, and showed me how I was doing it wrong. He told me his way was much safer and it would hold stronger. He was absolutely right and I realized right away that these are sea faring people here. The sea is their life and I guess the thought of seeing that line tied improperly was just too much for him. He tied it the way it should’ve been done. Sometimes in the rush of everything when you are docking things don’t always get tied in the most nautically correct way (at least for me). After he fixed the line, he again tried to make friends with Ziggy again but sadly Ziggy would have nothing to do with him, he kept turning away from him like he was afraid, so the guy swung his big hulk back up on the dock like a big gorilla and simply said, “it will take time”, and eventually left. He said his name was “Bronson”. During our stay here, as the village is very small, we bumped into “Bronson” several times, passing him as he drove around in his golf cart. He looked almost bigger than the golf cart. I no longer was afraid of his size and his unfamiliar ways seemed common place after awhile. These people are straight forward here and there is no chit chat and phony politeness. It was interesting how enamored he was with Ziggy. He never gave us trying to make friends with Ziggy and each time he did so very patiently and gently. Ziggy finally gave in; I guess deciding he was quite harmless and even took a ride with him on his golf cart. It was comical seeing these two extremes in size riding around together.
A BIT LIKE TANGIERS What an interesting place this is. It’s so small and quaint and the people living here have a way of talking that takes awhile to get used to. It reminds me very much of Tangiers Island in the Chesapeake. It’s sort of the same Elizabethan English with a southern drawl. It’s the only way I can describe it. These people like in many of the other places we’ve stopped in the Abacos, and I guess throughout the Bahamas, are descendants of the loyalists that left the US during the Revolutionary War. They have remained here on this small patch of land for generations and have made a way of life for themselves through boat building and other various trades, mostly associated with the sea, some in the past through salvaging what they could from ship wrecks. They’ve managed to scratch out a lifestyle here that can not be easy but must be satisfying as they seem to be very content and seem to no interest in leaving. I think all of us could learn a lot from their lifestyle. This particular cay is very religious and there are several little modest churches throughout the hamlet considering the small size of the population. Alcohol is forbidden and everything shuts down on Sunday, completely. It’s also a very neat and clean community. There is no trash lying around and houses are freshly painted, yards nicely maintained and fruit trees and flowering plants are abundant. The people are friendly and all wave and say “hello” but don’t seem inquisitive about you or other visitors, well except for Ziggy. They seem to be quiet, hard working and have a reputation for being master boat builders. Their humble surroundings are all that they seem to need or want. They have only a few streets and everyone knows each other their whole lives. They have what they need, a well stocked hardware store, two grocery stores, their places of work and their churches to worship. Of course the weather and surroundings are amazingly beautiful. CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE
BBQ NIGHT Tonight is BBQ night at the marina. They have a BBQ Friday and Saturday and we heard it was good so decided we’d join them. I’m not sure what people do the other nights to eat out around here as we only saw one other restaurant in town. It was very little and closed the few days that we were here. The marina is small with just a couple of short docks and there were only a couple of transients that we noticed. Some transients were on moorings in the narrow channel which I thought was a harbor but it was more like a narrow channel between two cays. The BBQ started at 5:30. We watched from the pilot house and when we saw the BBQ start to smoke and a few people begin to arrive, we headed in to join them. The restaurant was an open air
patio and looked like nothing more than someone’s back porch. They had plastic
sheets that they rolled down from the roof overhang when protection was needed
from the weather and wind. The furniture was nothing fancy either, just
plastic patio furniture and the tables were covered with colorful plastic table
cloths with nautical themes of fish and under water images and the chairs were
simple plastic stackable chairs. Even though it lacked in décor, it didn’t
lack in customers and activity, conversation.
The BBQ itself was nothing more than a big rusty metal barrel trash can turned on its side and hung from a rusty iron frame with a hand crank for rotisserie BBQ’ing if they so desired. The barrel was slit length wise and the top portion opened with a handle like a lid. When it was closed, the meat smoked and cooked and a delicious BBQ smoky smell wafted throughout the marina. We quickly learned that this was a very casual place as you had to go up to the counter and place you order from the hand written menu for the night. Tonight’s menu choices were BBQ’d ribs, steak, rack of lamb, or fried chicken, and a choice of the typical sides, macaroni and cheese, peas and rice, coleslaw, etc. There is no liquor as I mentioned so you make do with, water, soda, or ice tea. So we ordered two ice teas, two steaks, peas and rice, and macaroni and cheese and sit down and watch the show. Suddenly, people begin to arrive in droves from where I do not know. They arrived by boat and golf cart, and some walked, many not staying, but picking up dinner orders to go. They called in ahead of time by radio or phone and placed their orders and carried them back to their houses or boats in big bags. The phone and radio ringing constantly with new orders. It was the most popular place in town and the only place. It was like going to ma and pa’s for Sunday dinner. Everyone knew each other and many looked a lot like each other. You could see the family resemblance in almost everyone; after all they’ve lived here for generations. One big lone dog wandered throughout the restaurant and sniffed everyone’s crotch that came in which was interesting and quite embarrassing. The BBQ smoker was going strong and the smells emanating from it was getting us very hungry. We enjoyed watching the people and listening to their unfamiliar way of talking. Many visiting boaters are here too. Soon people are talking and enjoying themselves but it is a quiet group compared to other places where alcohol. Our steaks were HUGE and delicious along with the very simple side dishes which were plain but homemade. It was simple food but good. We over filled our stomachs and soon called it an early evening as everyone else did. No blaring music from the bar tonight.
THE VILLAGE We stayed a couple days here and really got to know the village. The central village is situated on a knoll in the island and most of the buildings are old simple salt box styles, with wooden storm shutters. Some have no glass or screens. There seemed to be no need for it and you could see the curtains flapping through the windows outside in the wind. Some were painted in pastel colors and a second color on the shutters and doors. Most had little simple concrete stoops at the front doors much like a colonial cottage and each had small little yards well maintained enclosed by picket or painted concrete fences. The streets were the familiar small concrete pathways just big enough for one golf cart to get by. If you were walking you had to step out of their way. There were several small businesses but little or no signs. If there was a sign, it was small, simple and to the point. There was no need to advertise as everyone living here knows where everything was, and have for generations. That’s why when you come to these little villages, you have to talk to the people, be friendly and find out where things are. Otherwise you miss so much. CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE
There’s a small little grocery
store right on the docks and though a small one room affair, it had a very good
selection of things and was neat as a pin. All the canned goods and boxed
goods were dusted and lined up perfectly on the shelves and facing exactly
forward. The produce was the best I’ve seen anywhere so far. All
fresh and good, not much of each but good.
There was a pretty fair sized hardware store that had more than you would imagine on a small cay like this. Down on the docks were a couple small one room warehouses. Some well known boats have been hand made here for generations. In fact we’ve seen some of the more modern day styles all over the Abacos and didn’t know they came from here until now. They are the small ferry boats and many of the small fishing skiffs that everyone seems to have. These boats have a reputation for being well made. The doors to the workshop warehouses are open no matter what time of day or night you walk by. There’s no worry about anyone stealing anything here. Tools and supplies are there open for the taking but this is a tight knit community and there’s no threat, nor is there police on the cay. Down the end of the path along the docks, in a converted sail warehouse, there is a shop and workplace where about 6 women sew making things out of canvas. I think they started making canvas bags out of used sail material and now it has grown into a business of making canvas bags, hats, purses, wine totes and what ever you can think of, in canvas, that they can sew on their machines. You can walk into the old sail warehouse and talk to the woman while she happily sews away and reminds you much of someone’s grandmother. These people are industrious and their houses and yards are neat, and tidy. You’ll notice the same last names all over town as of course they have lived here not only their whole lives but generations. Many you can tell are related because they same bone structure, facial features and mannerisms. We walked past their little cemetery on a small patch of sandy area by a beautiful beach over looking the Atlantic and noticed the same last names on most of the graves. It was a beautiful cemetery, simple, with concrete crosses and slab covers for protection from the strong winds and storms, and waving palm trees over head. Many are decorated with flowers and some are surrounded by the pure what sand of the nearby beach. It’s a beautiful place and we liked the people. They are friendly, wave to you, say hello and make you feel welcome even though it must feel like an intrusion for someone like us to walk their little village poking around, staring at their houses and walking through their cemeteries and beaches. We felt very safe and welcome here. I’m glad we spent the time to come to this unusual place
Destination: HOPE TOWN MAN-O-WAR, NOT AS EASY LEAVING AS COMING
Again, it now becomes a regular routine; we wait for the high tide and then head to our next destination. Today we are headed to Hope Town, famous for its picturesque little village and more importantly, their historical striped light house. As we leave the Man-O-War marina and head down the channel towards the tricky cut I notice the little ferry boat behind us looking like he’d like to pass us. I tell Larry and we think we’ll wave him on by and let him lead us out the cut. He goes by us and then guns it, racing out the cut way ahead of us. We try to follow his path but he’s too fast and far ahead and I think cut the corner short and by now Larry mistakenly follows in his path. The ferry boat doesn’t have the draft that we have so doesn’t have to worry about the depth. I’m up on the bow and have a better visual vantage point than Larry who is inside the pilot house. I can see we’re cutting the starboard edge too close. I wave to Larry to turn away but he keeps heading in the same direction. No matter how much I’m jumping and waving he continues on. I felt helpless and useless trying to wave him off but he just ignored me and soon we had the inevitable contact with the ragged edge as we went out this stupid cut. I came into the pilot house and asked “Why didn’t you turn? I was waving to you to turn!” He was obviously upset from the impact and said from his vantage point it looked as if he was going to hit the other side if he made the turn that I wanted him to. I felt bad for him as it was difficult to see anything really and my idea of following the ferry out turned out to be bad idea. I assumed the ferry driver would be considerate and show us the way but was mistaken. We did no damage to the boat as checked it later by diving below the boat in Hope Town Harbor but still we felt bad. We should have done exactly as the cruising said and that was to head out 50-60 off the starboard shore to the stupid little post, line it up behind us and head to the waypoint. The ferry thing just got us totally off track. Another lesson learned.
ACROSS THE SHALLOWS Now we have another challenge ahead of us and that was merely to get to Hope Town without any mishaps. It seemed easy and it was a short hop away. We can see it easily but getting there is a different matter. We both are shaken by now but there’s no time to be thinking about that as we have to concentrate on the next challenge and that’s getting this deep draft boat across these waters. I think sometimes we’re pushing the limit by going in some of these places but, no, if we had both stayed on track and followed the instructions we would have made out just fine, so no giving up now. He head across a wide open area with little water below us. We can see a wide expanse of very light colored water which means “shallow”. We had to cross it. We hold our breath as the depth sounder dips to even less water below us. We go as slowly as we can preparing for touching the bottom but things go fine. Now we have to make an unlikely jagged course from one weird way point to the next across what looks like nothing but open water to avoid shallow areas that we cannot see. It doesn’t even seem to make sense to us but we follow the cruising guide religiously now. We head down the recommended course now looking for “a quarry on the shore” as a heading. We see too patches of light colored dirt areas on shore and hope the one we are heading for is the quarry. We head the course and as we almost feel like we are going to run right up on shore we make a portside 45 degree turn and follow the edge of the shore until we reach our next way point. Now we search for the channel markers. We get to our waypoint and see the red and green channel markers which this time, are red and green balls. We make our turn starting into the channel and spot the “road on shore” that we are supposed to head to and hopefully the two small homemade “red triangular range markers” will be there to help line the boat up to keep her in the channel water. We move farther to our portside than we’d like to line up these range markers even though we are now riding over solid dry ground according to our chart plotter! By doing so it puts us not in the center of the marked channel but well off to the portside of it. Again the sky gods are not cooperating and have filled the sky with clouds blocking any visual sunlight we could use to see the bottom and help us to “read the waters”. We head slowly down the little channel, keeping those range markers lined up with that little road on the hill. Once we reach the end of the markers and almost able to drive right up the dirt road, we make a starboard turn past the light house on our starboard and head into the little harbor. We slowly head in as we hail the marina and gaze wide eyed at the very dense mooring area. HOPE TOWN DOCKING A BIT OF A CHALLENGE Rudy from the marina is expecting us. We head towards the marina and I’m watching as Larry comes very close to a dock on our starboard side. I point to it in warning and he says he’s trying to miss the boom off the “John Bull” sailboat on our portside which is sticking way out into our path. I didn’t see it before but now when I did, I couldn’t believe it. We barely had enough room to get by. The wind has the moored boats swinging perpendicular to us and its boom was sticking way out beyond the stern of the boat. I’ve never seen anything like it. Thank goodness Larry was able to see it. I glanced at the depth sounder and we only had 3” below us! We had heard Rudy on the radio warning us about the John Bull boat but by now we were past it and there were a million other things to deal with and watch out for. We’ve got some 30+ knot winds and we’re in very tight shallow quarters. We see Rudy on the dock and where he wants us. Larry will have to come close, make an almost 360 degree turn with in a very small open area between two unpredictably swinging moored boats. I’m dying just thinking about it. He calmly made his turn very well, amazingly in these conditions, and backed her down and up to the dock. I handed the lines one by one to Rudy and tightened each one and surprisingly all went like clock work for a change. We were tied up very quickly and it was not easy because the winds were blowing us off the dock. Rudy left right away as it was Sunday and it was his day off. He told us the day before that he couldn’t promise that he’d even be there but I guess he stuck around waiting to help us in. We sure appreciated that. EXCELLENT JOB I was exhausted and stressed and Larry, I might say, did an excellent job. I was surprised and a little irritated at the couple in the slip next to us, just sat in their cockpit and never got out to offer any help. It kind of irked me at the time because we could have really used their help in the winds. Once settled though, they congratulated us on what a great job we did docking the boat. They said they’ve seen about six different boats come and go here since they had been there and they all had a terrible time. They said we made it look easy. Well, we were shocked to hear that but considering the obstacles we could understand the troubles you could get into. I guess this was our lucky day though Larry did a very good calculated docking so I don’t want him diminish that. He should get the credit that he very well deserves.
MOORING FIELD, A BEAUTIFUL SETTING As we settled in, we gazed out at the little harbor and what a beautiful setting it was. The harbor is filled with moored boats, all shapes, sizes and styles. You aren’t allowed to anchor in here as it’s a very crowded and everything is a tight squeeze. There are mooring balls for boaters to pick up throughout the harbor and they are placed about as close as you can get them. We were told we couldn’t pick up a mooring ball as we were too big and there wouldn’t be enough swing room. We had a great view of everything from our pilot house and it was fun to watch the boats swing very close to each other. We saw some boats come in, pick up a mooring and once settled exasperatingly find out their swing was too close and then have to find another mooring ball. Sometimes they would be wandering through the crowded and sometimes wildly swinging mooring area searching for another free ball. Rarely was there an unused mooring. One boat would leave and another would come in and snatch it up. This is a very popular cruising destination. Many just don’t even bother with these places but just leave their boat at Marsh Harbor and come for day visits by ferry. I can understand why after experiencing some of the challenges we’ve had getting in these places but it sure was worth the trouble. Now we could sit and enjoy the area without the time constraints of catching a ferry back.
LIGHTHOUSE
HOPE TOWN IS CHARMING This little harbor is about the most picturesque little place we’ve been with its little pastel cottages and candy caned lighthouse. Everything is set on the narrow strip of land that curves around the harbor and in the morning and late afternoon we can hear the little church play a tune that is gently heard over the harbor. It reminds me of Roche Harbor, on San Juan Islands, in the Pacific Northwest in that respect. We got the dinghy down as soon as we got settled. It was going to be our mode of travel while we were here. We were docked on the other side of the harbor and it would be the only way we could get to town. We headed out to check out the little town and find a place to have lunch. We weaved our way through the moored boats and found the public dinghy dock. The sailboat couple next to us told us that everyone puts a stern anchor out at the dinghy dock because the dock gets very crowded and also because the tides and winds are very strong. I think that this is the only time in all our cruising that we’ve ever had to use a stern anchor at a dinghy dock but it made for a much easier way to get into the dock rather than fighting your way through the dinghies that are usually all tied up hap hazard. This way they are lined up nice and neat. I guess since it’s shallow too it makes it easy to do.
CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE
This place was even cuter up close. Little concrete pedestrian paths weave their way around and past the quaint old cottages like small miniature city blocks. The houses are painted pastel shades or white and each have contrasting colored storm shutters and doors. Many have little plaques with whimsical names on each cottage. Several were decorated with pineapple images. Some pineapples were over the door headers or caps on gate posts, or cut outs in picket fences. Flowers and tropical plants filled the little fenced yards and hibiscus and multi colored bougainvilleas draped over fences and archways. The pathways are like walking streets and no cars or golf carts allowed, just pedestrians. It such fun just to walk around and enjoy all the different cottages. It’s all walkable and small. We headed to what seemed like the old downtown dock area that must have been a busy loading and unloading place when this town began a few hundred years ago. The quaint old buildings that now house the historical museum, post office, and now a tourist information center, and the police headquarters are still there, but I must say I think they are there for the tourists to look at rather than police the neighborhood. The buildings are solidly built of wood or concrete and have survived a few hundred years of hurricane and tropical stormes. They are painted with bright colors. There’s one small hotel in town that overlooks both the harbor and the Atlantic which we thought was charming and had the most beautiful pristine beach and might be fun someday to come back to and just relax.
CHOLERA CEMETERY As we wandered through town, we came across their small ragged little cemetery, just nestled right in a small lot next to little houses. The stone rectangular slabs looked weathered and the simple wood crosses were tilted different directions. A simple red wagon with a shovel was at the gate. A rustic sign for the cemetery was made from an old piece of weathered scrap wood, with hand painted letters merely saying “cemetery”. Life and death is simple here. We passed the school yard filled with black and white children, playing on a half sandy, have grassed playing field. They were screaming and laughing, like any school yard in any town, country or village. They all had school uniforms on. There was no distinction from the poor or more fortunate. We walked as far as we could each direction and far out of town we came across another cemetery. This one was older. The names were some of the same last names that we found at Man-O-War, the dates were earlier, in the mid 1800’s. This cemetery is referred to as the “cholera cemetery”. Cholera hit this island hard in the mid 1800s and they lost many people. They buried those lost in this cemetery far from town and closed it off hoping that would help stop the plaque. The cemetery at Man-O-War was old too and the ages of those listed on the weathered and washed out inscriptions were amazing. We noticed many lived into their 90s. Something about living on these small patches of coral and sand and fresh windy breezes rolling off the Atlantic must agree with the people here. CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE
ARE THERE ANY LOCALS LEFT? We have a hard time getting the feel of the locals here in Hope Town. It’s mostly boaters and tourists walking around the little pedestrian streets. Everything is pretty oriented toward tourism. Almost all the little cottages I’ve described are available for weekly rentals and brochures are out front of each in plastic boxes. Many are empty waiting fro the season to start. It’s become a vacation destination. It didn’t have the same “real town” feel of the other places we’ve been. People that live here have been forced to trade in their remote lifestyle to tourism. It’s still small and quaint but there’s no boat building and such, like Man-O-War, just rental cottages, a couple gift shops, one dive shop, a small museum, two cafes, a few inns, and the two small grocery stores. The people don’t seem as friendly as other places in the Bahamas and perhaps that’s because the majority of people that come here are tourists, just temporary visitors that come and go. The locals have learned to rely on the tourist economy, renting out there houses and cottages, building small hotels, and laying mooring balls and building marinas for the transient boaters. Their visitors are temporary, faces that change with the coming and going fronts. We could pick out some of the originals by their strange slang that’s become quite recognizable to us. We saw the kids playing at school. We met the people that ran the businesses. Rudy, who owned our marina, was a local. He was born and raised here and had family ties going back 6 generations. The people working in the two little grocery stores were local too. They keep to themselves but open up if you take the time to be friendly and have interest in their life.
HARBOR’S EDGE, OUR FAVORITE “JOINT” CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE
So we had two restaurants to choose from for lunch, and both were on the docks overlooking the harbor and open air seating. Captain Jacks wouldn’t allow Ziggy nor were they very friendly, so it was an easy decision, it would be the Harbor’s Edge today. Harbor’s Edge became our favorite and seemed to be run by several black girls who were so nice and polite. The food was great and they had a large selection on the menu so you never got tired of what they had to offer. We’d have lobster (or crawfish) salad, conch fritters, hamburgers, fresh local grouper, or some times whatever the special was that day. It could be BBQ’d ribs, peas and rice and delicious freshly made coleslaw for $10. Everything was made fresh by the black cooks and they make simple delicious food. It was centrally located and you could sit on the dock at the picnic tables and watch the world go buy. Here you didn’t miss a thing. It became our regular lunch place. It was also the hang out for people who wanted to get “online”. They’d bring their lap tops into the bar, order a drink and could sit there to their heart’s content corresponding with folks from home or searching the web. You could even dock you boat right off the deck. It was also where the boaters came to watch the football games and just was a fun gathering place. We loved it.
FOOD SHOPPING AT VERNON’S We found two grocery stores. We happened onto a third place which was rarely open and had strange odd hours but they had the best produce. She sold her limited produce right out of the front room of what looks like her house. It’s always a challenge, on a boat, especially in places like the Bahamas, to find good fresh produce and groceries. Since there were only three places in the village to eat, (one we wouldn’t eat at because we thought they were unfriendly and the other the hotel, which seemed like a lot of trouble to come to at night in the windy weather) we did a lot of cooking on the boat. We’d eat out at lunch and stay in at night as the weather was windy and we didn’t feel like riding the dinghy and get wet at night. This town was especially fun though trying to find groceries. I really enjoyed Vernon’s Grocery. It was a small little place. It looked like Vernon had converted a house into a little one room grocery store. He was an eccentric sort and had little hand written signs with clever philosophical quotes and sayings posted everywhere. The shelves were all homemade and sagging, and some things were just piled on the floor still in the boxes that they came in. You could find most anything you needed in there if you just had the patience to hunt and peck through it all. Some things were the typical basics and then he’d have unusual gourmet items. I especially liked the local things like homemade jams and chutneys made from exotic tropical fruits and he had some interesting homemade prepared rice mixtures, spicy corn muffin mixes, and special Caribbean hot sauces. We even found Starbucks coffee in there (unfortunately all decaf) which is a rarity in these parts. He had a few glassed door refrigerators on two back walls with frozen meats, and vegetables. Some of the things in there looked so old and wilted you wondered if he was ever going to replace it. One day a week the boat would arrive with produce and you knew that was the day to make your rounds to get whatever was fresh. I’d find homemade cheese wrapped in cellophane in his refrigerator that looked really good. (In Green Turtle Cay I bought some homemade Irish cheese that was wrapped in cellaphane and didn’t need to be refrigerated, it was delicious.) You never know what you are going to find in these places. I don’t think there are any health codes on these islands that I know of because you’d never see things displayed and stored like these places.
PIES TO DIE FOR The best thing about the store was the baked goods. There was a small kitchen right off the cash register and the aromas that came from that kitchen, as they baked their key lime pies, coconut pies, and Bahamian sweet breads, could be enjoyed throughout the neighborhood. If you smelled something baking you quickly learned to head back to Vernon’s by 1:30 to get whatever just came out of the oven. That key lime pie was the best we ever ate. It just melted in your mouth. It was tart and rich and the crust was crisp and dripping with honey. The meringue top was luscious like whipped cream. We also had to try the homemade coconut pie which is made from scratch and that means, cracking the coconut and mincing the fresh unsweetened coconut into big chewy chunks. The crust was like baklava phyla dough again dripping with smooth rich honey. Well, as you can imagine, we are gaining pounds as we have to try all this great stuff.
COCKTAILS START WHEN THE CONCH HORN BLOWS Well, Larry got ambitious with all his free time here, waiting for the high tide to circle around again to a decent hour so he decided to see what he could do with a conch shell we had laying around. He began grinding and sawing and soon after a few hours work, I heard the most beautiful sound coming off the back of our boat. He had made a horn out of the conch shell! We had heard a few boaters blowing them in the harbors at different places, mostly to signal happy hour at 5:30, or the arrival into an anchorage and now we had ours. It was funny to join in the symphony at 5:30 with our own trumpet. It sounded pretty darn good too. CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE
MISSED THE WEATHER WINDOW During our stay in Hope Town
there was a great weather window. As we listened every morning to the
local Boater’s Net, they called it a mass Exodus of boats leaving the Abacos and
heading south for Eluthera. The winds decreased and now blew with a sense
of civility and the skies were finally crystal clear. The sea reports were
calm. Shoot, we missed our opportunity to head south to Eluthera.
LEAVING HOPE TOWN Well, time to leave. The high tide finally came around to a reasonable time in the morning so we could leave. It was high tide just after sunrise and of course the winds are blowing again as a new pre-Frontal condition is heading this way. We have no choice. We need to leave on high tide so we can get into position to head for Eleuthera in the next weather window. We think the window will be Tuesday or Wednesday of next week from all the reports. We retie the lines so that we don’t have to get on the dock to untie the boat when we leave. We pull in the door mats and I start the engines. No one will be up this early to help with the lines so we have them ready to pull in from the boat.
PLANNING OUR EXIT STRATEGY We have been watching the boats in the harbor planning the best way to get the heck out of here. All week the winds have been out of the north and the boats were lined up perfectly for a clear shot out on the outer edge of the moored boats. Of course, this morning, the front is approaching and the winds switched 45 degrees and now the moored boats are back in the same position we came in. That darn “John Bull” boat with the huge boom sticking out well beyond its stern is lying right across the path we wanted to take. Rudy told us the other day, “if it’s in that position across the path it’s better to go around its bow and through the moored boats”. That means we have to enter the tangled zone of moored boats. We’re looking for an opening through the constantly switching moored boats. They are all so close together and they are moving in all directions because the winds are switching as the front heads this way. The boats are all kind of squirrelly, some moving one way and others the opposite. If we leave at the right moment, we see a spot we can get through, if we hurry, but then the wind switched and that opening closed in the blink of an eye. We then considered another opening going through the center of the mooring field and a more complicated way to get out. The options kept changing. Well, we just hope when we get the lines off, the winds will be right and we will just have to decide the course at that particular moment and hope we have taken the course of least resistance. I wanted no part of this maneuver today of taking the boat out and told Larry I’d hold the boat to the dock until he got the lines on the boat and then he should take her out. Once the lines were off, Larry came up and took over. He saw a small opening to the side of the “John Bull” boat. It was very narrow and the boats hadn’t started to swing back together yet so it looked like he could make it through. That would be the second best scenario and was better than heading into the middle of all the boats and having to deal with all kinds of possible scenarios. The “John Bull” had our preferred route blocked as his boom swung around and closed that off. Larry didn’t hesitate; he saw the brief opening and went for it. I watched and cringed as it looked very narrow. The boats were just beginning to swing back together again to close off the opening just as we went by. We made it just in time. Whew! Then Larry then made a turn headed out the channel.
COMING AND LEAVING GOING RIGHT OVER LAND, ACCORDING TO THE CHART PLOTTER We tried to remember where all
the shoaled areas were. We rode around in the dinghy this week studying
the waters to see where the shallow parts were. Once out of the harbor we
had to line up those two red triangle range markers again on the road behind us.
I went up on the fly bridge to get a better view to let Larry know if he had her
lined up straight. We had a lot more water under us this time going out
than we had coming in. He lined her up just right and we headed out the
same path that we came in on and the chart plotter showed us going over land
again.
It was an easy trip over the Boat Harbor Marina, in Marsh Harbor. There were white caps and 30-40 knot winds but it was strange today because we hardly felt them. It was ironic how calm it seemed out on the water and away from the dock even though the winds were blowing. When we got into the marina we were on the exposed side of the front coming in. It was very windy and hard to get the boat up to the dock as it was blowing us off with all its might. I need to learn that when the wind is blowing us off the dock on the docking side, I need to get the stern line on first. It always seems to be a different scenario each time. I also forgot to have the tail of the bow line hanging over for someone to reach and tie. I just didn’t have the line ready and it made for some difficulties but we got settled just fine. I need to do better next time on the lines.
Destination : BOAT HARBOR MARINA Boat Harbor is a resort marina, with pool, restaurant and multiple docks. They have a hotel and conference area and it was fine but we both liked the more casual laid back Conch Marina better. It was more local and there were lots of things happening, like people coming and going, and it was closer to town. We generally just don’t like to stay in the resorts. We’re not interested in hotel restaurants and pools. We like the town people and what we call the “real stuff”. This place was just a typical resort and hotel. They had a nice beach right next to the marina but knowing boaters I don’t think I’d want to swim there. It was just too darn close to the boats and with no pump out facilities…well. Today they had a small local art show going on which was fun to see and the restaurant was pretty good but typical hotel service and food. At least we could get off the boat here and go for long walks without having to fight the winds and weather with the dinghy like we experienced at Hope Town. We’re just going to take advantage of our time here to wash the boat, clean, and do laundry and do some last provisioning getting ready to leave for Euthera in a few days. We ran into two other Nordhavns here as we arrived. They were just getting ready to leave. They were heading to Lanyard Cay and are planning on making the crossing to Eleuthera on Tuesday. They said they had a dickens of a time docking in here too. Michelle, on DiveAdx described it as a “cluster f__k”. We said we’d probably see them at the anchorage in a couple days as we were all heading the same direction.
BOATER’S NET Every morning, like reading the morning paper with your coffee, we listen to the Abacos Boater’s Net. I’m not sure how many listen in and contribute but you get the feeling that it includes all the boaters in the area. You quickly get addicted and soon don’t want to let a morning go by without listening in. You get to hear all the local happenings. They have boaters reporting in from different locations as to what the sea conditions are in their particular area. They provide a more simplified synopsis of the weather with a slant towards what the local boater’s want to know for their cruising needs. You also get a short but interesting version of world news. Of course you have to listen to the local pubs and restaurants calling and giving a pitch on what their special is for the day. And last but not least you get one trivia question about the Bahamas and whoever can guess it gets to call in and guess. There’s no prize if they guess the right answer but its fun never the less. Any boaters with mechanical or even personal problems, looking for things like parts or a good mechanic, and or just want to have mail taken to the states by someone flying out, they can call in and get their answer from the local pooling of boaters listening in. It’s like one big family. It’s make you feel at home. New comers to the area are encouraged to call in and tell everybody their boat name and where they are from and they are assured a warm welcome. Also, those leaving can call in to say goodbye. We’ll miss listening to them but have heard there will be another as we head south. It’s a fun group of people and it’s a big help for many.
LIFE WITHOUT A CELL PHONE When we sat all day in our boats during that terrible Front awhile back, in Marsh Harbor, everyone was watching their anchors or their lines at the dock and sitting by the radio to hear whatever came up. Once someone came on the radio about this or that it seemed to start a bonanza and they all would get on for some excuse or the other. It was comical. It’s OK to eaves drop here and fun.
CHRIS PARKER, THE WEATHER
GURU Many mornings, if we are up at 6:30 AM, Larry would tune in on the single side band (SSB) to listen to what Chris Parker had to say about the weather predictions and what people should do in various locations throughout the Bahamas. Some of the boaters have hired his services which allows them to talk to him directly, give their position and where they want to head and when and he would give them a detailed predictions of expected weather conditions for their travels. We all listened to his amazing detailed reports and he would recommend an exact time to leave, the direction expected winds will be and what the seas and currents will be. He’ll tell you when you should go and when you shouldn’t and when you should hunker down and button up. We listened in as he was giving recommendations to someone heading from Tortugas going towards Cuba. He tells them to leave just right after dawn and head a certain course which is beyond a straight course to their destination. He says they need to go this way so they can get past the location where the current becomes counter clockwise, at so and so waypoint. This direction will give them a more comfortable trip. It’s amazing to listen to him go from one boater to the next giving detailed recommendations like this. Everyone listens to him like he has special powers and maybe he does. He’s been right on most of the time. We pick up lots of information for our cruising by listening to him.
GROCERY SHOPPING Grocery shopping throughout the Abacos has been fun. Each different place is a new adventure. We found that the more you hunt the more you find and there are some real treasures. Like the Bahamian bread, pies and rolls. We now have two Bahamian rolls and unfortunately they’ve landed on our waistline. I don’t know why American can’t bake this simple delicious bread like these Bahamians. It is absolutely the best bread we’ve ever tasted. The white is delicious and the coconut bread is heavenly and when you soak it in egg and milk and cinnamon and make French toast in the morning, it’s so sweet and delicious you don’t even need maple syrup or butter. If there is any left over stale bread, you just make bread pudding and add a few raisins and when it bakes, it puffs up like an amazing soufflé. Mmmm delicious! We unfortunately for our waistline discovered Vernon’s Grocery in Hope Town. They bake their breads and pastries in a small kitchen just off the cash register in a remodified house. The aromas coming out of that kitchen emanate all over the village and you know some good stuff will be ready by 1:00-1:30. The key lime pie was to die for. Shopping for vegetables is a little bit of a challenge. You head for things that will keep, like broccoli, carrots, cabbage or whatever is in that day that is fresh. You don’t go with a list, you adjust your menu in your mind as you shop and grab what’s good or fresh. The lettuce is all prepackaged Romaine and ice berg and it all looks anemic probably from being a little old. The tomatoes are delicious and flavorful if you can get them fresh before they stow them away in the refrigerator and then lose their entire flavor. They either love sweet potatoes or they are just easy to grow here. There are so many different varieties of sweet potatoes, more than I’ve ever seen. They are all different sizes and shapes. Some are huge like big elephant feet and full of clingy dirt clods. I didn’t have the nerve or room to bring them back to the boat to try and see what I could do with one but I sure have wondered about them. The meat looks pretty good and
there are lots available but I loaded up in the States and my freezer was full.
There was no need to buy any but one day Price Right at Marsh Harbor I relented.
They just got a bunch of fresh chickens in and they were the most luscious
looking chickens I ever saw. They were nice and plump and a good color not
all yellowed or blue looking like what we get in the states. So I bought
one and it was absolutely divine. It was so tender and tasty and made a
great roasted chicken and then a delicious broth for soups. The meat made
good hearty chicken and rice soup and Ziggy was licking his chops and got
several meals out of it too. Many things just taste so much better if you
get the timing right at these stores. Sometimes their things are more
fresh and untreated than what we have. The carrots are big, fresh, and
tasty, not bitter like at home and Vidalia onions sweet and available almost
everywhere. We bought some delicious looking frozen lobsters in Marsh Harbor at the fish packing plant. The packing plant we in an unlikely residential area. It looked like a small convenience store but once inside it was like I hit the jack pot. They had a wonderful selection of fresh frozen fish, whole and filleted. The lobsters were large and plump. It was primarily a wholesale place and much of the stuff was sold in bulk. You could buy a box of lobster tails to take home if you were flying I supposed. They sold conch meat already cleaned and chopped and some delicious Honduran shrimp and we know how good that is and how clean the waters and beautiful the waters are there. I was wishing I had more room in the freezer to take some of these good things back to the boat but just managed to only have room for four large plump lobsters. We also got some good lobsters at the wholesale fish company in New Plymouth. Shopping for food is fun because you get a chance to interact with the locals, and it’s like a treasure hunt finding the good places as there’s not much signage or advertising here. In Marsh Harbor everyone was going to Solomon’s, which seemed to be trying to be like a K-Mart on the small scale but we happened on to Price Right which is just a block over. It was not advertised and not recommended by the marina but once you find it you immediately realized this is where the locals shop. It was packed and crowded and the mixture of cultures was fun. All the little black kids come after school and package your groceries in hopes of a tip because they don’t get paid for their service so whatever you can give them they are happy to get. I think they do a better job packing than in most places back in the states. They are so anxious to help you and want to do a good job. I would make a point to stop and check the markets, stores, or fruit and vegetable stands when ever you could or even if you were just going by so you can to see what fresh things might have just arrived. That’s the real trick to it all and to examine things closely to make sure it’s fresh and the labels aren’t old. I was also surprised to see so many things available to buy. They’ve pretty much got everything we have and more. It has been a fun experience just shopping for food these last few weeks.
HEADING TO THE ANCHORAGE It was Tuesday and we think
Wednesday will be a good weather window to leave the Abacos and head to
Eleuthera. We left in 30 knot winds from the dock again and once outside
the marina, the Sea of Abacos was scattered with small white caps. The
winds were in the 30s and sometimes in the 40s but we didn’t even feel it.
The Front was heading our way, but we didn’t want to wait for it to pass and
then head out. We’d rather be out in it than worrying about leaving on a
low tide. So here the start of it comes. It’s the typical fast
coming big black mass of clouds, wind gusts, and rain. It doesn’t affect
us and we just slowly continue on. Our main concern is watching the
depths.
We’re heading to Lanyard Cay anchorage which is a good close location to leave for the cut to the Atlantic in the morning. Our trip is only 1 ½ hours but we have to cross one area where we have to go in between two very shallow sandy shoaled areas and then make a precise turn around one to head down the side of Lanyard Cay to get to the anchorage area. We were a little nervous about this part of the trip because we would trust the charts and from our experience in Hope Town, they weren’t too reliable. Again we’d have to watch the waters, looking for shallow areas. We had a cloudy, stormy day, which is not good for reading the waters so we were hoping we’d fare OK. It was amazing, even though the skies were black and rainy as we reached this area, we could clearly see the shallow shoaled area. We stayed in the dark water and followed the narrow deep area and made our turn without any hitches. Hooray!
FIND A GOOD ANCHORAGE AND HOPE IT BITES Now to find a good anchorage. Larry had been in contact with DiveAdx over the last few days. We’re all planning to make the crossing about the same time so as usual, boaters all seem to like to talk to each other more during those decision times. They like to hear when other boaters think it’s a good time to see if it confirms with your assessment. DiveAdx and Wayfinder, two other Nordhavns that we met, had been at the anchorage for 3 days. The weather has been windy so they had been having their share of trouble getting a hold in the area and said they had to move a few times to find a place where there was some good holding. From the sounds of it they still were having some trouble. So that’s the next challenge. We study the charts and the winds and the recommended anchorages by the cruising guides. The wind direction is going to shift today after this Front comes through. So once we get anchored and settled with the existing conditions, the Front will come through and spin us around with a completely opposite set of conditions. None of the recommended anchorage locations are very well protected for today’s conditions. We think we’ll be fine though even with the winds in the 30s. We see the Nordhavn’s up ahead anchored but in a shallower area. We think we might be better off in a little deeper area with a sandy bottom. We see two sailboats just north of the area where we think we want to go so it looks like we have an open area. We slowly head into the area and circle around, checking the depths on all the areas that we think we will spin to make sure we’ve got good depth as the tide goes down. All looks good to Larry so he gives me instructions on where to go so he can drop the anchor. He goes over the hand signal signs again as it’s been awhile since we anchored. Larry’s goes out to the bow and I make the circle and come up to the point where he wants us. I face her into the wind and once I reach the spot I give him the signal. He quickly drops some chain. I watch the chain gauge and when it shows that he’s dropped 25 feet, I back her down. She bites right away surprisingly. We think we’ve got a good hook on the bottom. We back her down some more as Larry lets out more and more chain. We had a good 10 feet below us and Larry let out about 100 feet of chain. We sat and watched and weren’t moving. We left the engines on quite awhile just to make sure because we were close to the rocky shore. There was hurricane damaged rustic dock on shore and a house that was boarded up. We used those as markers to see if we were moving. After about fifteen minutes, we turned the engines off but left the chart plotter on to watch our movements. Things were looking good when the full extent of the Front began to appear. It announced itself with a big black mass of clouds and rain. The winds stayed the same but immediately as the Front came through the winds made their predicted clocking to the opposite direction of when we set anchor. Now they were coming NW. We watched the chart plotter and it looked like the boat dragged about 100 feet but then settled in again. The winds just blew us around and rearranged the chain a bit but we were set. Apparently Wayfinder wasn’t having the same luck. We heard them calling DiveAdx just before the front came in. They said they wanted “to get this over with” and they pulled up anchor and dropped it in another nearby location, hoping the bottom would not be so grassy and they could get a bite. I guess we were lucky today considering all the problems they have been having for the last few days. Once the Front went through the winds died down and we were set. So, hopefully with a good nights rest, knowing that anchor was secure, we would be on our way leaving the beautiful Abacos in the morning and heading south to Eleuthera. We had a great time in The Abacos and will miss the little villages, the beautiful waters and the friends we made.
AWAKE AT 5:30 AM We made the mistake of leaving the radio on Ch. 18 last night. We awoke in the dark this morning to “DiveAdx, DiveAdx….Wayfinder” at 5:30 AM. Larry got up and looked out but it still was dark. He came back to bed and we both wondered what was wrong. We heard Wayfinder hailing DiveAdx several more times, between 5:30 and 6:30AM. We finally decided to get up, put the coffee on and got ready to listen to tune into guru Chris Parker on the SSB. Finally about 6:30 AM Wayfinder connects with DiveAdx and apparently Wayfinder’s fuse was bad for his autopilot. He asked DiveAdx about fuses and DiveAdx told him the spare that he had would work and Wayfinder said he’d give it a try and call back. I guess the reason he was trying to call so early was they wanted to catch them before they put the dinghy away. Guess DiveAdx had one last pit stop to do for Thor, their lovable dog. Soon DiveAdx called Wayfinder back and it seems the fuse worked. Larry heard them talking about pulling anchor and getting ready to leave. He hailed them on the radio and wished them a good crossing. We were heading to a different destination but would probably cross paths somewhere along the way. Today we’re heading for Dunsmore, Harbor Island, just north of Eleuthera. Our crossing today will take about 6 hours to get within reach of land and then we will hail “Woody” on the radio. Woody is the local pilot for hire. You can call him on the radio and he will meet you outside the reef and lead you through shallows or what they call “Devil’s Backbone” which normally would be impassable waters. All the nearby anchored boats left about 7:00 just as the sun was coming up. They all pulled anchor and headed out the southern cut in single file. All shapes and sizes of them, sailboats, two Nordhavns, catamarans, small trawlers. We could hear them on the radio warning a buddy boat behind them about shallow areas and to be careful.
Larry had decided the night before that we were going out through the northern cut. It’s only about two miles out of our way but we will have plenty of deep water below us and a wider opening. We’re glad we did because DiveAdx called back and said they just crossed over a 5 /12 foot shallow area. So, we left after everyone. We got the anchor up without any hitches. There are minimal winds today and the waters are pretty darn flat. We have an easy run out the cut and are now out in the Atlantic again. Aaaaah, it feels good to have about 1200 feet below us. It felt good to be just out on the open seas, nice soft swells, nice spacing and winds behind us. We couldn’t ask for better conditions to make the crossing. Guess we timed the weather report just right.
On to Harbor Island (Eleuthera)
|
The
seas have been raging and no one was able to go with 10-12 foot seas but now
things were pleasant. Once you hear boats are leaving or have left you
get this strange the itch to go. You don’t want to be left behind.
We were trapped in Hope Town though at least for the next couple days because
the tide cycle was extra low now and high tide was too early in the dark morning
hours or too late in the day to leave. So, we waited for the first high
tide during daylight hours to leave and begin waiting for another opportunity
and that finally became 7:00 AM tomorrow. We were ready to go. 
WE
LEAVE ALONE