My apologies for not posting more regular, it would be easy to say that I was too busy but that is only half the story, I was also too lazy. We have returned to the States and moved up to North Carolina. I will try to point out some of the highlights.
We finally left our favorite spot in the Raggeds and had to start moving back north. We left Hog Cay and sailed and motored, depending on the winds, through the night up to Blackpoint Settlement.
Here we stopped and took a day to rest and wait for better conditions. The next leg was to leave on an early tide out the inlet and sail/motor across Exuma Sound to Eleuthera where we continued up to Tarpon Bay to anchor for the night. In the morning we moved up to Hatchet Bay to sit out a front that was moving in. During the night the winds kicked up to 20+ knots with a lot of rain. We sat out the weather for another day and then continued on to Egg Island at the north tip of Eleuthera to spend the night and prepare for the jump to the Abaco's.
At first light we started out crossing the Northeast Providence Channel and came in at Little Harbor Inlet. Since there was still daylight we continued up to a new anchorage for us at Iron Cay and dropped anchor. In the morning we launched the dingy and went exploring the East Abaco Creeks National Park. We motored up through the small islands watching the rays, fish and turtles and enjoying the solitude. In the afternoon we pulled anchor and motored up to Marsh Harbor to top off the fuel. After the fuel stop we continued on to Great Guana Cay to anchor for the night. The next morning we headed out to go around The Whale. The inside passage between Whale Cay and great Abaco is too shallow for us so we needed to go out into the ocean and back into the Sea of Abaco to get to Green Turtle Cay, another of our favorite places.
We arrived at Green Turtle just in time to duck into a protected anchorage for a major storm coming off the coast of Florida. We dinghied to shore several times to join friends and make trips into town. We spent about a week until we were able to move into Black Sound and tie up at Donny's Dock where we would be staying for awhile. Ten years ago we came to Green Turtle Cay for the first time and met Donny, I say that he adopted us and we became family. While here we help out with the running of the marina and any variety of other activities. We wanted to be here in April since it would be Donny's mothers 90th birthday and Cori had promised she would be there. Cori spends a lot of time visiting with her and helping her get around running her many errands. We did take some time away to visit several of our favorite spots either by dinghy or Hi Flite but always coming back to Donny's. After the birthday party we were planning to come back to the States but were asked to stay to help run things while Donny made a trip to Florida. While here Cori helped out a friend with some sewing projects for a charity event and projects for several others. Yes, she travels with a sewing machine and a lot of supplies.
Time was running out and we needed to say good by to everyone and continue on. We left Green Turtle and sailed/motored depending on the wind to Fort Pierce Inlet and motored up to Vero Beach Marina to pick up a mooring and get some rest after a 186 mile trip. After our one night of rest we dropped the mooring and continued on Cocoa Beach to anchor for the night. From there we moved up to New Smyrna Beach and anchored. We spent several days in New Smyrna doing some sightseeing, maintenance and waiting. We had been having some transmission problems and had been babying it to get back. We know a good mechanic in Daytona and had called and made arrangement for a replacement transmission to be installed. We were waiting for it to arrive before moving to Daytona. Just short of a week it arrived and we moved to a marina in Daytona for two days while the transmission was replaced. We left at high tide on the third day and continued up to St Augustine where we made a short stop for fuel before starting off for North Carolina.
We left Daytona on Thursday and arrived on Sunday. The trip was mostly uneventful until a small front came through Saturday night and put the winds on our nose and kicking up the seas causing us to run a zig zag course to make headway until it calmed down the next day. It wasn't dangerous just uncomfortable. We had been in worse. We came in Beaufort Inlet and continued up the ICW, Intracoastal waterway, to Broad Creek and our friends Jerry and Donna's dock.
We have closed the circle, We had left the dock on 11/29/24 after several delays and returned 5/26/25. We had traveled 2289 nautical miles or 2634 statute miles, about the same as traveling from New York to Los Angeles but at a speed of about six miles an hour. Basically you could pass us if you were riding a bicycle.
Hi Flite has now been hauled out for the season and we will be heading back to South Dakota and our little off grid cabin. I hope you enjoyed following along on our travels. If you find yourself in the Black Hills area give us a call.
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