Trying to get out of the Abacos!

Having spent 5 days in Green Turtle due to weather, we had time to explore the island pretty well. We spent most of our time in New Plymouth, a quaint historic community. We’d have breakfast there most mornings, buy fresh baked bread at the local bakeries, pick up produce in the market and check out the sites. We spent a day on the northern shore playing in the crashing waves, grabbed a beer at the ‘world famous’ Sundowners, enjoyed an incredible Piña Colada at Pineapples (we loved this little tiki bar), danced to beautiful Calypso music of the Caribbean’s well-known Gully Roosters and had a pricey breakfast in Green Turtle Club because we were told we had to check it out. Mostly, we were holed up in our little boat waiting for the storms to pass.

While in Black Sound harbor in Green Turtle Cay, we experienced flood tides, resulting in extreme highs and lows in water depth. At times, portions of the docks would be submerged, only to expose major portions of the harbor six hours later, subsequently beaching some boats. We left Green Turtle Cay early morning on the 10^th, on a rising tide.  With great crossing conditions over Whale Cay Channel. This particular channel is notorious for heavy seas and rough chop even when conditions in the Bight of Abaco are calm and mild. This is because it’s exposed to the Atlantic, with nothing to buffer it’s seas. If a high pressure system or heavy winds are occurring a hundred miles north, the channel can become nasty, occasionally pushing vessels into the rocky shallows just south of the channel.

We dropped anchor in Marsh Harbor a quick 4 hours later. Marsh Harbor is the 3^rd largest city in the Bahamas. We had dinner that night at Snappa’s with our friend, Mike (s/v Casey Dee), and some of the friends he’d made.

We particularly enjoyed the company of another young couple our ages, Sean and Mary. Two Irish kids from Dublin. He practiced medicine in Ireland, until he grew tired of it and got into computer programming, while Mary and her three sisters form an Irish Celtic band. Sean had purchased a Cape Dory in Massachusetts and plans to sail it to Ireland with a friend by the end of the month (Mary opted to fly home).  He’ll be heading to Bermuda first, then the Azores and finally home to Dublin – an ambitious journey!

We also got to know Bill and Jeannie, a liveaboard couple who have sailed extensively around the U.S. for about 5 years. They were a real source of information for us, and inspiration as well. Dave got the grand tour of their 39' Southern Cross, s/v Nemo. Dave fell in love with this 'tricked out' boat. It has the works in it, and now Dave is drooling over it. A Southern Cross might very well be in our future. 

The following day we spent snorkeling Mermaid Reef and taking frequent cat-naps.

Our second night we all had sundowners aboard True North, somehow managing to fit 13+ people aboard! We moved the gathering to Marsh Harbor marina for live music and dancing. Mike is quite the dancer! The next day Dave spent the afternoon up the mast on Sean and Mary’s boat, helping them get a mast light set up. Followed by lunch with the gang, then Dave and I were off the explore Marsh Harbor.

Mike decided he would head over to Great Guana Cay with us the next day. With Sean and Mary aboard Casey Dee, they followed us on over to the neighboring island. We enjoyed a lunch together at Grabbers and checked out the super popular Nippers. The Casey Dee left later that day, with conditions worsening our already bumpy ride over.

Dave and I dropped anchor in the harbor with plans to spend a few days on the island. So far, little time has actually been spent on the island itself – with 20-25 knot winds, we’ve been spending most of our time protecting our boat. Anchorage here has proved to be unreliable, with our boat dragging on our third day, and us having watched a few more close calls from the other boats in the harbor.

We’re hoping by Tuesday we’ll have lighter winds so we can snorkel a little and have a drink at Nippers, then we’ll be off for Hope Town, followed by Tilloo Cay.