December 24, 2017- December 30, 2017
First, I apologize for the delay in publishing this blog as I spent 12/31/17-1/7/18 in Sarasota, FL helping my children's grandmother transition to an assisted living apartment.
After leaving West End we traveled through the Indian Cay Channel to the Little Bahama Bank headed toward Great Sail Cay. The water was that beautiful blue green with the bottom visible during the whole trip. It’s almost mesmerizing looking into the water. We took our usual one hour on one hour off shifts and decided to save time by just anchoring off the bank instead of going into Great Sail Cay. The wind was calm and there were no expected changes. We spent a calm and quiet night basically in the middle of nowhere. We shared a bottle of champagne and exchanged the gifts we had made for each other. The sunrise in the morning was amazing.
Christmas morning found us headed to Manjack Cay listening to contemporary and classic Christmas music on our Sirius radio channels. It was a bit incongruous singing along to “White Christmas” when the temperature was expected to reach 80 degrees. Got to love it though. We weren’t traveling at our usual speed so the trip took longer than expected. We arrived in our anchorage at 4:00pm and joined a multitude of other boats that had already anchored there. I went in the water with my snorkel gear to check the anchor and the propeller. The anchor was clearly dug in well, but the prop had vegetation twined around its shaft. It took several dives for me to remove it all, but it should improve our speed now that it is clean. Christmas dinner was already on the grill by the time we anchored…turkey breast, carrots, cranberry sauce, gravy, and apple crumble made for a great meal.
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| Maybe not traditional, but it was delicious. |
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| As we were finishing dinner the sun set. |
The next morning we went through the Whale channel which requires a passage around Whale Cay out into the Atlantic and then around the other end of Whale Cay and back into the Sea of Abaco. It was a bit rocky, but I made it without losing breakfast. We anchored in Corn Bay which is on North Man-O-War Cay. It’s a lovely spot with a beach on the bay side then a small isthmus of land leading to a beach on the ocean side. After diving in to check the anchor we took the dinghy into the beach. Bob even got in the water with me. Bob took the dinghy back and I swam back to the boat just because I love to swim especially with my snorkel gear on. There wasn’t much to see but a few starfish and a small clump of coral with some fish, but it was invigorating to be in the water.
The next morning we took the dinghy into the settlement on Man-O-War Cay. This cay has the most industrious local population of the Abacos. There is a boat shop where they build Albury boats, a sail shop where the ladies are constantly sewing bags of all shapes and sizes, and a boutique where a lady creates garments out of Bahamian Androsia (a batiked fabric). I bought some cotton Androsia scraps at the boutique so I can create a new quilt for our v-berth. Lunch was at the Dock and Dine Restaurant at the marina.
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| I purchased a small back pack at the Albury Sail Shop. |
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| Conch shells are for sale in many locations on the cay. |
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| This photograph was taken looking out to the harbour from shore. |
That afternoon we made the short trip to Marsh Harbour and dropped the hook in a great location in the harbour. We are close to the dinghy dock, The Jib Room (for Saturday Night steak-out) and the Conch Inn where we like to get showers. For the next couple of days we did errands (getting ice and disposing of garbage), did laundry, and purchased groceries.. This feels like our home here in the Abacos. We will use Marsh Harbour as our base and take several long excursions to explore the out islands.
I made arrangements to fly out of Marsh Harbour to West Palm Beach where I rented a car and drove to Sarasota, FL. I will be gone until 1/7/18.
My next blog post will be about my return to the Bahamas and our stay in Marsh Harbour.
Thank you for reading my blog
