Ambling Through the Abacos

After what ultimately was a less than pleasant crossing of the northwest channel, we arrive in the Abacos, anchor along Lynyard Cay, and make a beeline across the water to Little Harbor, home of Pete’s Pub.  We need to stretch our legs and get a bite to eat in a setting that isn’t moving.   

Fun times at Pete's Pub - the t-shirt second from the right has the names of friends on The Pearl who were here a few days prior

The late lunch is yummy, the rum drink calms our nerves, and we enjoy a stroll along the nearby ocean side beach where we find sea glass and an interesting crab, 

Unusual crab on rocks along the ocean beach

while also watching the other boats that were behind us crossing over from Eleuthera negotiate the cut into the Sea of Abaco. Little Harbor is also the home of the Johnston Art Gallery and Foundry. Randolph Johnston brought his family to this remote location in the early 1950’s, seeking isolation and a place to practice his skill as a sculptor.  Recently we read a fascinating book about the Johnston family entitled Artist on His Island: A Study in Self-Reliance. This would make an interesting read for anyone headed to the Abacos or curious about what life was like over a half century ago in the Bahamian Out Islands.

We have several stops we wish to make in the Abacos.  First we pull into Pelican Cay National Park to walk the deserted cay 

Sand spit at Pelican Cay

and snorkel at nearby Sandy Cay where we see plenty of beautiful corals, a few fish, but none of the magnificent spotted eagle rays that previously have lurked in these waters.  Next we head further north to Tahiti Beach at the southern tip of Elbow Cay.   

Tahiti Beach as the tide goes down

Star fish found in the shallows along Tahiti Beach

Beach combing is in order along with a stop at Cracker P’s, a beach bar on nearby Lubbers Quarters.    

View from Cracker P's across the water towards Tahiti Beach

Unlike other island groups, the Abacos are well developed for tourism with cute restaurants and beach bars in many locations. The food, drinks, and service are similar to what you would find in the United States – we are beginning our acclimation to the “Land of Plenty”. Another popular stop on our itinerary is Great Guana Cay where the shore line is dotted with vacation homes and cottages and where on Sunday afternoons hoards descend on Nipper’s Bar and Restaurant for a pig roast and dancing.  I am not feeling very energetic so Burt hoofs it up the hill on his own to observe the chaos while later I join him at Grabber’s Beach Bar, right on the beach by our anchorage, for dinner by the pool.  

Looking out towards the anchorage from Grabber's

This year we have a day of calm weather to do some snorkeling at Fowl Cay National Park. We first explore the tiny Cay and beach 

The beach at Fowl Cay with the snorkeling on the far side near the breakings on the reef

and then take the dinghy to the oceanside where we find dinghy moorings amongst the exposed reefs.  The coral is in good condition where it is flushed by the ocean waters, but the fish population is disappointing. An overnight stop at Man of War Cay gives us a chance to walk the village and admire the Albury Boat works, famous for quality hand laid up boats found in both the Bahamas and the States.  Man of War considers itself to be the boat building capital of the Bahamas.  And it is here that I finally find the Androsia hand made batik fabric for which I have been searching.  Exuberant will soon have a toss pillow, table cloth, and napkins in these colorful fabrics featuring Bahamian fauna and flora.

The majority of our time in the Abacos is spent in the harbor at Hope Town.  This is our first time actually bringing our big boat into the harbor.  The entrance is shoaled, and we have always been concerned about attempting it with our deep draft.  But, this year friends on an even deeper draft boat made it in, so we play the tides and find we have needlessly worried.   

The channel into Hope Town and one of my favorite places to sit in the shade.

Hope Town harbor is very popular, but we are late enough in the season that many of the boats which winter over in this protected spot have left.   

Abaco Rage, the Class A Bahamian sloop with an impressive racing history, is moored nearby.

We pick up a mooring and begin to enjoy the resort-style life in this picture postcard perfect village.  The iconic lighthouse dominates the western side of the harbor.  

Hope Town Lighthouse towers over the harbor

 Every night the lighthouse keeper climbs the tower to light the gasified kerosene lantern and hand crank the counter weighted mechanism. 

The steep climb up to the top of the lighthouse

The view from the top across the harbor and to the ocean beyond Elbow Cay

At sunset we see the glow begin to form behind the lens and, a bit later, the light begins to turn to make its signature combination of flashes.  This is quite different from the highly automated lights we see along the US coast. We spend our days wandering the narrow streets of Hope Town, wide enough for only two golf carts to barely pass, 

Bicycle meets golf cart can get a bit dicy - forget about cars and trucks!

and biking the length of Elbow Cay to admire the vacation homes and resorts.   

Breakers pound the northside beach at Elbow Cay

There are two resorts directly on the harbor.  Hope Town Inn and Marina houses docks full of large yachts, an open air restaurant with swim up bar, and a number of villas spread throughout the landscaped grounds.  The place welcomes cruisers by offering the use of its laundromat, wifi, and two pools.  Across the way is the older Hope Town Lodge that oozes understated sophistication.  We enjoy a lunch on their deck overlooking the Atlantic reefs and again are welcomed to use the pool and beach. 

The lovely pool and terrace dining at Hope Town Lodge with the ocean in the background.

The view of the beach and reefs from the Lodge deck

We join other cruisers we know for dinners out and happy hours on various boats – it is a very sociable group gathered here. In stark contrast to the rest of the Bahamas, the Abacos are downright lush with tropical vegetation and Hope Town offers many examples.  A little memorial garden is tucked in between homes along the island ridge.   

Memorial garden with plaques describing the native plantings.

An art gallery has a manicured lawn and garden overlooking the ocean.  

 

Periwinkle Gallery's back yard, overlooking the ocean

 The brightly painted houses are complimented by plantings of bougainvillea, oleander, and periwinkles.    

Just a few of the beautifully maintained, colorful cottages in Hope Town

We are keeping an eye on the ever changing weather to find an opportunity to head back to the States.  Our refuge in Hope Town is providing shelter from the fronts and squalls that descend on an almost daily basis.  We see what would be considered the “least bad” forecast and cast off our mooring.  First we must negotiate the Whale Cut which can be quite treacherous in certain sea conditions.  We happily find it to be completely placid. We have a lovely, speedy, beam reach for the remainder of the day as we begin our trip to the west.  At sunset we are passing Great Sale Cay, the last possible overnight stop before the crossing to the States.  Several boats we are traveling with choose to spend the night as thunderstorms are lurking in the distance.  We decide to continue on as the forecast for the coming days is less positive.  Just after dark, we encounter a squall line with lightning,  thunder, and winds in the 30’s.  We slow the boat down to allow one cell to pass ahead of us and then make maximum speed to cut between two more.  Our radar, along with similar experiences in the Great Lakes, is invaluable for this maneuvering, and once we pop out on the other side we are squall free while our friends at Great Sale spend two nights battling the storms.  The remainder of the passage is a motor sail in light north winds.  We are only aware of the breeze when we are in the Gulf Stream and the wind against the current kicks up an uncomfortable cross chop.  Forty eight hours after leaving Hope Town we pull into St. Augustine with a hearty welcome to our home country from the local bridge tender.

We will remain in St. Augustine at a mooring for almost two weeks as the storms and fronts in the Atlantic keep us from heading further north.  Meanwhile, we have time to reacquaint ourselves with the “Land of Plenty”.  The marinas in the area have sponsored a shuttle bus that each day takes cruisers to grocery stores and shopping centers.  The friendly driver, Sandy, fills us in on all that is available and even offers to drive a group of us to the regional amphitheater for “The Taste of St. Augustine” event. Within blocks of our marina we find an amazing commercial marine supply store that easily undercuts West Marine prices. Burt is able to do maintenance and repairs that were not possible in the Bahamas while I restock the cupboards and find time to do my Androsia projects.  With a waiting list for the moorings, as the weather has backed up the boats heading north, we find plenty of companionship amongst the crowd of cruisers. If this level of service continues in St. Augustine, it will soon be known as “Velcro Beach North”. But, we are on a schedule, needing to be in the Chesapeake by mid-May, so we eagerly await what is to be a significant change in the weather pattern we have been experiencing all winter and spring, and head, hopefully, all the way to Beaufort, NC in one hop offshore.

The Three C’s and Eleuthera

Our wicked winter weather is calming down, so it is time to move on from our protection in George Town to areas a bit more remote. With virtually no wind, we motorsail about thirty miles east to Calabash Bay on the northern tip of Long Island.  The water is so flat and clear that we can see the bottom in over 60 feet of water. Calabash Bay is the home to Cape Santa Maria Resort, an upscale out-island resort that is cruiser friendly.  After exploring the bay by dinghy and walking along the crescent sand beach and extended sand bores, we head in to the resort for dinner.   

The endless beach at Cape Santa Maria

It is Burt’s birthday, and this is an ideal place to celebrate with drinks and dinner in the screened in two story bar area.   

Burt celebrates an important birthday with a rum punch at the resort

As often happens in situations like this, we become the tourist attraction as resort guests grill us on the experiences we have as live-aboard sailors.  It is hard to think of our life as that unusual, but to those who venture into the tropics for a short duration vacation, we must seem pretty exotic.

The next day we have a similar motorsail further east to Conception Island, a deserted cay belonging to the Bahamian National Park system.  As remote and unprotected as it is, one usually sees only a handful of boats here.  But, this time the place is packed with 17 boats anchored off the western beach – obviously the weather has created some pent up demand.  Conception is one of the most beautiful places in the Bahamas with a spectacular crescent beach that descends through a myriad of aqua and blue colored waters to the nearby deep ocean.  The colors are indescribable. 

Wrap-around swells pound the beach at our anchorage.

We hike over to the ocean side beach with its pink sand

We walk the beach; we dinghy along the beach - we can’t get enough of the shoreline. 

Just a part of my collection from beach combing, but you can only take pictures. Since this is a national park you are not allowed to remove anything from the island or sea floor.

One morning at high tide we dinghy into a series of mangrove creeks that are a nursery for turtles and sharks.

The mangrove creeks only accessible at high tide.

They all must be sleeping as all we see is one very shy turtle. 

One very scared turtle

Another afternoon we snorkel the reef to the north of the beach.  It is decent snorkeling but supposedly the best reefs are just a bit further north.  I’m not too interested as this is also the area where scuba charters chum for their well know shark dives, a practice that we think should be outlawed.

A spectacular sunset at Conception - yes we saw a green flash but it didn't show up in the picture.

With the potential for some stronger weather we need to leave Conception and begin working our way further north in case we need to find a more sheltered harbor.  Our journey takes us next to New Bight on Cat Island.  When in New Bight, a hike up to the Hermitage is mandatory.  We walk and bike through the scrub, which is being turned into small farm fields, to Mount Alverna, the highest point in the Bahamas.   

A pepper plant attempts to make a go of it in the very rocky soil.

Atop it, the Hermitage is a jewel, a miniature Italianate monastery perfectly sized for one man, Father Jerome, the architect/priest who built so many of the Catholic Churches in the out islands. 

It is a steep climb up to the Hermitage, passing along the way the Stations of the Cross carved by Father Jerome in the native rock.

Another view of the Hermitage with the bay in the background.

That evening we head down to the Fish Fry, a collection of shacks on the water front, common in many small settlements. 

The Fish Fry before things get lively.

Here we first greet Pompey, the leader of the Rack and Scrape Band we heard last year.  He remembers us from a year ago and warmly welcomes us to Cat Island. These settlements get so few visitors that such recognition is not all that unusual.  Sadly, the band will not be playing this day.  Two shacks down we join a table of cruisers at the Hidden Delights restaurant. The owner prides herself with innovative cooking (for Bahamian standards) and home grown organic produce.  We ask her how the garden is going this year and she laments that goats have just eaten her prized imported carrot plants.  Burt asks why there isn’t goat (known as mutton in the Bahamas) on the menu, and she breaks into a smile. Nevertheless, we have an outstanding meal – my chicken was marinated in a ginger lime sauce – pretty gourmet for a shack on the beach. 

The beach at Hidden Treasures at sunset.

And across the street is the beginnings of a Bahamian C-Class sloop.  Mark Knowles, from Long Island, has come to Cat to work with younger people, teaching them boat building skill.  Without the efforts of people like him, traditional Bahamian boat building may become a lost skill.

The next day we hop a few more miles north to Fernandez Bay, home to the Fernandez Bay Resort, another small resort that is friendly to cruisers.  We delight in another sandy crescent beach – another day of walking the shore, wading the sand bars, and riding in the dinghy to search for elusive sea turtles. That night we indulge in dinner at the resort that starts with happy hour on the patio with live guitar music and eventually adjourns to a candlelight dinner in the open air dining room.  Last year we joined our friends on Salty Paws who were providing the music that night, and they introduced us to their friends who were resort guests.  Happily, this year the same couples were there, and we enjoyed dessert with them, catching up on a year’s worth of news and again finding ourselves peppered with questions about our unusual lifestyle.

While at Fernandez a mild west wind comes up and we have an uncomfortable night in this exposed anchorage. At first light we head up to Eleuthera and a more protected anchorage.  Typically boats split this trip up into two parts, anchoring one night at Little San Salvador Island, a cruise ship port known as Half Moon Bay, but the winds will make the anchorage miserable. So, we motorsail the entire 70 mile passage, stopping at Cape Eleuthera Marina for a quick refueling, and then heading into Rock Sound.  Along the way, we see a band of dark clouds stretching from west to east in an otherwise clear sky.  Along this band, waterspouts are forming due to the temperature differential between the unusually warm water and the cold cloud tops.  At one point we see four waterspouts simultaneously, but we are able to pass safely beneath the cloud. Also, along the way, we hear an announcement for a cruisers’ happy hour at the newly re-opened Wild Orchid Restaurant in Rock Sound.  We’ll be late arriving, but with showers taken along the way, we are ready to launch the dinghy and head in to reunite with many of the friends we made in George Town. We assume our friends on Egret are at the happy hour since there is no dinghy on their boat, but when we get in we discover they are not there.  The next day we drop by to see them and find their dinghy is self-destructing and in the process of being repaired by a local.  We provide shuttle service in to shore for groceries and a bit of exercise – being without a dinghy is a real inconvenience as it leaves you stranded on your boat.  Several days later, the dinghy is returned and remains inflated for a couple of hours before they capitulate to the inevitable and begin the search for a new dinghy.  Many phone calls later, they have purchased a dinghy in the United States and arranged for delivery to Marsh Harbor in the Abacos on April 8.  Meanwhile, they are marooned on their boat unless someone is around to give them a ride.

One pretty cottage along the shore in Rock Sound.  Note the pineapple motif in the fence gate - pineapple farms were plentiful at one time on Eleuthera but with advent of corporate farms in Hawaii, the Eleutheran stock was transported to Hawaii.

One evening at the Wild Orchid, we meet several administrators from a school and research station called the Island Institute.  Besides providing research facilities for various universities, they also host a “semester abroad” program for high school students, a number of which come from several prestigious private schools in the Cleveland, Ohio area.  The students complete a normal high school semester while also assisting in some of the research programs and acquainting themselves with this unique marine environment.  While chatting with these people, we asked about a recent tragic event that occurred just off their facilities.  Apparently, a 30-some year old male was kiteboarding off the coast while his girl friend was observing from their anchored sailboat.  At one point he took a sudden crash.  His girl friend immediately went to assist with the dinghy but found him bleeding profusely.  He was able to indicate that he had been hit by a sting ray.  She called for help on the radio and took him back to the sailboat where they were met by the staff from the Island Institute who transported him to an awaiting ambulance. The staff described his wounds as far more than just a slash of a sting ray. Rather he was missing most of his calf, and they surmised that he was originally slashed by a jumping sting ray but the blood in the water attracted sharks and the rest is history.  Sadly, he bled out before reaching medical help.  It is stories such as this that stoke my deep fear of sharks.

A front is coming through so we re-anchor on the west side of Rock Sound to get better protection.  For most of the night we see continuous lightning in all directions but for some reason it is never overhead.  We wake up the next day to strong NW winds and hunker down. The following day conditions improve enough for us to motor sail into 20 knot winds up to a favorite stop, Governor’s Harbor.  

A view of our anchorage at governor's Harbor

This town was the first capital of the Bahamas and the older buildings reflect the British colonial style of architecture.   

Building along the waterfront reflect their colonial heritage.

And this plaque on Cupid's Cay further demonstrates the historical importance of this town.

Once the original settlement of the Eleuthern Adventurers, a group similar to the pilgrims who came to the Bahamas in the 1640’s, it is now a lively town combining more cosmopolitan Bahamians with winter residents and tourists.  We enjoying strolling past the many colorful cottages and government buildings, and end up dining at the newly opened and elegant French Leave Resort which overlooks the town and our anchorage. We really feel like we have returned to civilization.

The attractive entrance to French Leave Resort, made of local stone and driftwood.

 

The following day, we sail and eventually motorsail in dying wind through the narrow Current Cut (shallow and very strong tidal currents) to Meeks Patch, just outside the town of Spanish Wells at the northern most point of Eleuthera.  Spanish Wells is an unusual place by Bahamian standards.  It is almost completely white, populated by descendents of the Eleutheran Adventurers, it is a working city, not a tourist destination, and it is home to the largest fishing fleet in the Bahamas. We arrive there on March 31, the last day of lobster season, and a parade of large fishing boats with their attendant pangas is passing our anchorage on their way home to Spanish Wells.   

One of many fishing boat which pass our anchorage on their way back to Spanish Wells.

These boats go out for months at a time to the waters between the southern Bahamas and Cuba which are very fertile lobstering grounds, so fertile that this fleet provides over 50% of the lobster to the Red Lobster restaurant chain.  We watch with fascination as one boat is off loading cylindrical bags of poached and frozen lobster tails.   

Unloading many crates of lobster tails processed for export.

After some time with their families, these boats will return to the fishing grounds to build “lobster apartments” on the shallow banks – structures of concrete blocks and tin which provide the lobsters with nice hideouts for the summer months before harvesting begins again.  In the fall, the pangas will branch out from the mother ship with the fisherman who free dive the apartments to harvest the lobster, taking them back to the mother ship for processing.  It is a profitable business as evidenced by the well maintained homes and boats of Spanish Wells.  We take our bikes ashore and explore Spanish Wells and neighboring Russell Island which is connected by a rickety one lane bridge.  While Spanish Wells consists of orderly, parallel, numbered streets with homes on small lots, 

One of the attractive homes in Spanish Wells - we love the lavender paint job with the beautiful bougainvillea. 

A view from the east facing beach of Spanish Wells - note the pink sand.

Russell Island has fewer but larger homes and some actual farms where we see oranges, mangos, and bananas growing in patches fenced for goats to graze.  

As we go further north, we see more agriculture and lusher vegetation.

There is actually soil here, something we haven’t seen in the rest of the Bahamas.

While we enjoy our stay in Spanish Wells, again helping our friends on Egret with shuttle service to the island, we see a nice opportunity to sail north through ocean waters to the Abacos.  We have around 15 knots of wind on the beam so it should be delightful, but as the wind begins to die the ocean swells, which are higher than predicted, give the boat an uncomfortable roll.  We eventually put on the motor and head into the Sea of Abaco, our last destination before heading back to the United States, as fast as possible, arriving with headaches and queasy stomachs.