On the move again

Since we last updated the blog, we’ve moved approximately 200 miles north which puts us back in the Abaco Islands (northern Bahamas).   The weather at Emerald Bay kept us in the marina for 8 days (ka-ching!) and was predicted to continue to be squally for the next 5-8 days.   The marina did it’s best to keep the stranded boaters happy by setting up two happy hours in the clubhouse.   The marina is owned by Sandals so they stocked the bar, sent bar tenders over from the resort and you could either buy sandwiches or bring your own food.   It really a great place to be stranded.   However, eight days is a really long time to sit in one place so when  the wind dropped down to 18 knots on March 10 (and the waves were NOT breaking in the channel) we cast off the lines and bogeyed about 30 miles north to White Point.  At least a dozen other boats left the marina that same morning.  

White Point is a pretty anchorage on the Exuma Banks side and is protected for the North and East which is where the squalls were coming from.    We didn’t get to go ashore because the winds blew between 20-30 knots and we had squalls for 3 days.  

Once that weather system cleared (see a pattern yet?) we hauled the anchor and headed out Dotham Cut to Rock Sound on the island of Eleuthra (about 42 miles).   We had great wind but only at about 40 degrees off the bow so it was a close hauled sail at best.   We love Eleuthra and we got one beautiful sunny day there before the rain came again.   Last year, we didn’t have hardly any rain so Mother Nature is apparently making up for it this year.

From Rock Sound, we had a great sail to Royal Island (about 60 miles).   To get there, you have to pass through Current Cut (aptly named) so we actually had to slow the boat down so we wouldn’t get to the cut too early and have 4-6 knots of current running against us.   Talk about torture, we were flying along when we did the calculation and realized we had to sail slower.   Royal Harbor is one of several natural harbors in the Bahamas where Americans came in and started a marina development and then abandoned it when the recession hit (just imagine how popular that is with the locals).   Dolphins (2 adults, 1 baby) were swimming around the boat while we were trying to anchor.    I actually had to wait for them to stop playing below the bow before I could drop the anchor (insert smile here).

We just did a quick overnight in Royal Island and made one more long haul across the Northeast Providence channel to Little Harbor in the Abacos (54 nm).   This time we were even closer to the wind and had to motor-sail to make time.   Little Harbor has a very shallow entrance (6 feet MLW) that we can only enter on a mid-rising tide but the timing worked out perfectly.   We had 2.1 feet of water under us as we entered the harbor and picked up one of the last moorings.   The harbor is protected from the ocean surge and wind from almost all directions.  In the 1950’s an artist named Randolph Johnston moved there with his family.   Initially, they lived and set up a workshop in one of the caves.   Subsequently, they built a home, foundry, gallery and a pub.    Bronze sculptures done by both the father and son are scattered throughout the property and the foundry and gallery are open for tours.   Today, the harbor is lined with Bahamian cottages but it still has a laid back feeling (the roads are sand, not macadam!) and we are adding the Pub to our list of best beach bars anywhere.  Several turtles and rays live in the harbor and kept us entertained.    The rays and possibly a bull shark leaped completely out of the water while chasing smaller fish.   Now there’s a picture I would love to have caught!

Since Eleuthra, the weather has continued to be squally with rain showers almost every day.   We have seen 4 rainbows in the past 5 days and the showers were short and didn’t stop us from any activities.   Besides, when you live on the hook, rain is the only wash down the boat gets so we welcome the rain to rinse the salt off!  

This morning (March 20) we made a short motor-sail to Hopetown, one of our favorite places in the Abacos.   This is another small and very protected harbor.   Because of the size of the harbor, no anchoring is allowed inside the harbor; you either take a mooring or a slip at one of the marinas.   For the past several days, we’ve been listening to the chatter on the VHF that indicated all the moorings were filled.   We were prepared to anchor outside the harbor and wait for an opening but there were 2 open moorings when we arrived.   No dolphins to greet us but the guy running the moorings happened to be out in his skiff so he met us at the mooring and handed us the lines.   It doesn’t get much easier than that!  In Hopetown, there are many beautiful Bahamian rental cottages, several good restaurants, a manned lighthouse to tour and enough knick-knack shops to be cute but not too touristy.  I only know of one coffee house in all of the Exumas (Southern Bahamas that we just came from) and I never made it there so I will be definitely indulging my java habit a bit here.   All part of easing back into life at home!   We plan to be here for several days, hit a couple more spots in the Abacos to meet up with some friends from home and that we met along the way and then point the boat into the gulf stream towards home.   We’ve been gone for 5 months at this point and really miss friends and family back at North Point and at home!

Little Harbor-view from Pete's Pub.  Short Walk is behind the blue power boat.

Little Harbor-like the "pot" at the end of this rainbow?

Little Harbor-rainbow #2

Little Harbor-view from abandoned lighthouse

Little Harbor-summer kitchen at lighthouse

Curly Tail lizard

Cave in Little Harbor