Well, we have been all over this section of the Abacos. The last I wrote we were getting ready to
head up to Nippers for the Barefoot Man concert. Friday’s free afternoon show was great. There were a lot of people, young and old,
and a lot of partying. The music was
great. If you have never listened to The
Barefoot Man I am sure you can find some of his songs on YouTube. Saturday evening there was a cover charge and
that cut down the crowd but he still put on a good performance.
Sunday we said good bye to our friends on Bubbles and Skat
as they were starting their way back to the states. We decided to go to Treasure Island since we
had not been there yet and we have heard a lot about it. On the way we stopped at Spoils Cay and
anchored for a couple of hours while Cori took the kayak to shore to look for
shells. It was low tide and we needed
high tide to get into Treasure Cay harbor so it was a nice break. From there we motored on to Treasure. The channel in is very shallow even at mid to
high tide so it was a cautious trip in.
Once in we anchored and settled in for the night. The next morning we took the dinghy to shore
and checked it out. Treasure Cay is
mostly a large resort catering to people that like beaches. The beach is spectacular, listed as one of
the top ten in the world. Some of the
finest grains of sand I have ever seen.
At low tide everyone seemed to be at one end of the beach looking for
sand dollars. After lunch at the beach
restaurant we headed back to the boat.
The best reason for us non-beach types to go there is to buy water. They charge by the size of your boat, not how
many gallons you take on. We filled our
tanks in the morning, about 150 gallons and gave the boat a good rinse with
fresh water and then we were out of there.
Next stop was Archer Cay.
The main appeal of Archer is that it is quiet, only three boats anchored
there. Usually the winds are from the
east and this anchorage is not protected but the winds were from the
Southwest. We took the dinghy to shore for
shells but there were not very many.
Cori did score a couple of sand dollars.
In the morning she took the dinghy to a different beach but it too was
disappointing. The highlight for me was
that we heard from other cruisers that had just been there that there is an
unmarked wreck where we were planning to anchor. After Cori got back from the beach we went
over to it, threw out the anchor and I went snorkeling. I tried getting some video of the fish but I didn’t
care for what I got so I went back the next morning to try again. It will take some editing. It turned out to not be a wreck but a pile of
debris dumped there from some fish farming operation that had been there. Either way the fish must have liked it
because there were a lot of them.
It now being Thursday we planned to move on. After snorkeling the second time we pulled the
anchor and headed out again. We were
having a nice stretch of winds from the southwest so that gave us some
different anchorages to try before the east wind came back. Our friends on Victoria Gay were planning to
head to Snake Cay and check out a dinghy/kayak trail behind some islands and we
headed down there to join them. We
decided to bypass that and move down to Spencer’s Point where we could take
advantage of the anchorage protected from the southwest winds and be a short
dinghy ride to Sandy Cay and the National Water Park. There is a reef there that is popular with
divers and snorkelers. After checking
out the beach for shells, disappointing again, we called it a night. In the morning we waited until mid-tide and
rode the dinghy to the reef. It was a
rough and bumpy ride with the swells coming in the pass from the ocean and the
waves built up by the wind. Once we got
there and tied up to one of the moorings, they don’t allow you to anchor close
to protect the coral, I got ready to jump in.
There was only one problem; I forgot the bag with the fins, snorkel and
mask. It was another bumpy ride back to
the boat but once there we decided to pull anchor and move closer to the dive
area. When we got back to the reef
everyone was gone. It had gotten too
rough and they all left. We turned
around and went down to Lynyard Cay. We
anchored in the area where we had stayed the last time we were there, away from
the crowd. There are a lot of boats
starting their trips back and this is the first stop going north from the
Exumas and there were about twenty boats here.
Our friends on Victoria Gay and Temptaion met us down there also. Saturday we got together and rode the
dinghies to Little Harbor for lunch at Pete’s Pub. The food is great. It is an old artist colony with a gallery
displaying the work of several local artists, there are several small beaches,
and it can actually be reached by road.
Back to Lynyard Cay and everyone went looking for shells and
seaglass. I sat and read the book I
brought along.
Sunday we all pulled anchor and headed back towards Hope
Town and Marsh Harbour to be protected from some weather that was
forecast. We got to Hope Town after the
others because we chose to sail one of the legs when the wind was
favorable. This caused up to not be able
to get a mooring ball. They were all
taken. After motoring around the harbor
we gave up and sailed to Marsh Harbour.
First thing on our list for Monday was to pick up some provisions, I was
out of milk and sandwich meat and I was on my last six pack of Diet Coke. As we motored to the dinghy dock we ran into
our friends Fred and Patricia on Rivenkind II.
We had shared a mooring ball with them in Vero Beach back in
December. We went back in the evening
for a nice visit. Tuesday morning we
took the dinghy around to Mermaid Reef and did some snorkeling and shot some
video. Later Cori went to visit with
Fred and Patricia again and I stayed on the boat to charge batteries. Cori came back excited; the conch guys were
back and would agree to a trade for conch.
She brought a lot of stuff on this trip for trading. She got a dozen cleaned conchs for her
trade. Cleaning conch is a slimy messy
job so getting them cleaned was a plus.
Wednesday morning Cori got a message that some of our
friends were leaving Hope Town to start home and would mark their mooring ball
“reserved” for us to come and pick up.
Cori had made arrangements to get a bread making lesson from Fred since
her attempts at bread have been disappointing.
The lessons lasted longer than we had expected and we did not pull
anchor until 2:00. Just as we were leaving
the harbor we got a call from Busk on Victoria Gay to see what our plans were. We told him we were on our way. He went to check the status of the mooring
and reported back that it had been taken.
We turned around to go back to Marsh Harbour when it decided to rain, a
lot of rain. When we got back to the
spot we had left someone was already anchored there. Our first attempt at anchoring was a bust
since the anchor would not grab. We
moved to another spot and successfully anchored there, in the driving
rain. We were both soaked and I was in a
very foul mood.
On our way out of the harbor, Morgan, who we met at Guana
Cay, caught up with us in his dinghy and asked if we could deliver some food
and fuel jugs to friends in Hope Town.
Not expecting a problem we said OK.
After we had re-anchored we let everyone know that the delivery would
not happen. The next morning we got a
message the folks on Destiny asking if we would like them to hold a mooring for
us if one came available and we could bring their stuff. After thinking it over we decided to go for
it. They knew of a couple of boats that
were planning to leave and would mark the mooring for us. When we got outside of Hope Town we called
them and they said it would be about an hour.
We dropped anchor and had lunch.
Shortly we got a call saying to come on in, they would be sitting on the
mooring in their dinghy to make sure no one tried to take it. We ended up between Victoria Gay and
Temptation. Our plan now is to sit out
some weather so we paid to stay for a week.
That’s it; this is how we have been spending our time.
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