I am writing this from the very sheltered and lovely anchorage/mooring field at Treasure Cay. Our trip from Harbor Island was as follows:
Harbour Island to Little Harbour
This was a longer leg needed to get us from North Eleuthera to the Abaco Islands.
Our route took us in the open Atlantic crossing the Northeast Providence Channel, headed north and offshore from Great Abaco Island. Unfortunately there is not much civilization or anything in the way of an anchorage that we could see before Little Harbour - so this forces a 60 mile sail. We were joined by good friends Dave and Tracy who flew in to join us at Harbour Island. The crossing was "sporty" with winds from the SE at 18-22 and some pretty big seas (8-10 ft). Notwithstanding this, the boat and crew did well. With reefed sails we were averaging 7-7.5 kts.
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| Sailing Buddy TraSea passes us |
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| Little Harbour - Odelisque moored behind us |
As we approached Little Harbour we were hailed by new friends Dean and Marie on Prairie Two. They had made the crossing the previous day. Their report of breaking waves across the entrance to Little Harbour was good information and on their recommendation we continued a little farther north to the North Bar Channel. This still had some breaking waves, but was wider and deeper. The entry was challenging, but OK. Once inside the reef, we elected to anchor at Lynyard Cay as we were loosing daylight. This proved to be a nice anchorage with a nice beach for Salty to explore.
The next day, we made the short hop south to Pete's Pub and the mooring field in the very protected bay. We came across our friends boat - S/V Odelisque on its mooring outside Pete's Pub. the owners are friends that live near our home and have recently bought a house at Little Harbour. We hope to catch up with them in a couple of weeks when they will be here.
Hopetown
The following day, we headed north again, but this time with the protection of the outer Abaco Islands. We headed north on the Sea of Abaco to the wonderful town of Hopetown. Although we tried to get a mooring in the harbour, all were taken, so we anchored on the outside. We took the opportunity to .......well of course visit a bar, re-stock some provisions, and get dinner ashore. The following morning we also made a trip to the Hopetown Lighthouse. This impressive lighthouse is reportedly the last remaining operational kerosene powered lighthouse in the world. I have not validated that claim - but it was a really interesting visit!
While in Hopetown, Salty made a new friend....a Manatee. What an experience! He came nose to nose with this magnificent animal and they actually kissed. Neither were afraid or intimidated....it was just pure curiosity from both of them. what a moment!
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| Salty and the Manatee! |
Nippers and Marsh Harbour
From Hopetown - another short hop. This time to Nippers and a stopover in Fishers Bay. Then on to Marsh Harbour and a stay of a couple of nights in Mangoes Marina - probably the friendliest marina in Marsh Harbour, layed back, and at less than $1 a foot, a bargain. Dockmaster Ray made us very welcome and was a great source of advice and local knowledge. It also happened to be Junkanoo that night (Saturday), we we simply had to visit the local festivities. The carnival was very layed back and certainly unrushed! People lined the main street to watch the passing parade. |
| Crew on the beach at Nippers |
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| Dave and Tracy.....another bar! |
It was a great experience and extremely colorful. There was street food available so we sampled the local pork chops........very good!
Unfortunately Dave and Tracy had to leave us to return to Houston on Monday, so we said our sad goodbye's....hoping they will once again join us later on our trip. Hope you had fun guys!
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| Treasure Cay Beach |
Treasure Cay
From Marsh Harbour, we again made a short hop.......everything is pretty protected and line of sight navigation in the Sea of Abaco.......this hop took us to Treasure Cay. The enclosed anchorage and mooring field is very well protected and the beach here is reportedly one of the top beaches in the world. Top beach in the world....well that's quite a claim, but certainly very nice and Salty loved it!
Well - there's supposedly a cold front coming in tomorrow. We considered moving on to Green Turtle Cay....but when we checked its busy up there. Everyone is hunkering down for the wind. While I don't think it will be too bad, maybe 20s but not like we saw in the Exumas........this sure isn't a bad place to hole up for the next day or two!
More in a few days.....in the meantime, check out our realtime location at this link:
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