To The Abacos!

1674 NM   N26 01.054  W077 24.527

Today, we left Great Harbor Cay headed for the Abacos.  For the first time since we arrived in the Bahamas, we were headed for someplace new, a place we hadn't visited before!

Our ultimate destination was Marsh Harbour, but that is too long a trip to make in one day.  We had planned to break it up into three legs.  First, a 40 mile hop to the southwestern end of Great Abaco Island.  This would get us across the deep water of the Providence channel.  We had picked this specific day for crossing because the seastate was mild.  We would anchor off of a penisula called Sandy Point, and the next day travel around "Hole-In-The-Wall" at the south end of Great Abaco, go north in the deep water off of the island, and enter the relatively shallow Sea of Abaco at the Little Harbour Inlet, anchoring just inside behind Lynard Cay.  And the third day we would go 28 miles up the Sea of Abaco to anchor inside the protected anchorage at Marsh Harbour.

But even before before we got started, this plan had to change. (Anybody notice a recurring theme here?)  The inlet at Little Harbour is shallow, narrow and bordered by reefs.  If the tide and the wind are opposed, it can be dangerously rough, so I had to plan our travel times so that we would arrive there at slack tide, which happened to be around 12 noon.  And working backward from that time meant that we would have to leave our anchorage at Sandy Point around 1 AM!!  But, time and tide wait for no man,  so once again, our plans included an overnight passage with overlapping watches.

When leaving Great Harbour Cay, you first have to go West, and then North, to go around the Island.  The South side is too shallow for this.  On the North end, two different cruise ship companies have purchased two different islands (Big Stirrup Cay and Little Stirrup Cay) and transformed them into exclusive private resort playgrounds.  The cruise ships anchor out and ferry people ashore.  One of the lines is even constructing a huge dock and a waterpark there!

Cruise Ship At Anchor

Waterpark Under Construction

Once past, we were well out onto the Providence Channel.  The water is thousands of feet deep, and can get quite rough when the weather is unsettled.  Fortunately, we had chosen our weather window well, and our only concern was to keep track of the numerous freighters going through the channel.

One of Many Freighters

In no time at all, we were anchored off of Sandy Point,  A squall passed to the East of us, dumping rain that missed us, but treated us to a small rainbow afterwards,  and helped with a spectacular sunset.

Rain to the East

And a Faint Rainbow Afterwards

This Never Gets Old

At Midnight, we got up, had a light snack, and got underway by 1am.  Joan and I took the first watch.  At 4 am, Bill came on and I went off.  At 7am Joan went off and I came on, just in time for the dawn.  The wind had completely died, and there were just large smooth swells slowly coming in from the deep water to the East. 

Deep Water Dawn, East of Great Abaco

The entrance into the Sea of Abaco at Little Harbour looked intimidating, with the swells turning into breaking waves as they encountered the reefs on either side of the inlet.  But the inlet itself was basically calm, and we came right through the center of it without trouble. Tide timing works!  But its nerve wracking to see breaking waves that close on either side of the boat.

Once on the Sea of Abaco, the shallow waters and bright sunlight produced that amazing turquoise color that the Bahamas is so famous for.  The Sea of Abaco is somewhat reminiscent of the Chesapeake Bay in size, but that blue water makes it fantastically picturesque.

Motorsailing on the Sea of Abaco

At this point, our plan was to anchor behind Lynard Cay, and continue up to Marsh tomorrow.  But our tide timing had gotten us here so early that we decided to just continue on all the way to Marsh Harbour, only another 28 miles.  There was a westerly front forecasted to move through tomorrow evening, and I felt better if we got safely tucked away sooner rather than later.  You never know when a breakdown is going to delay you!

We motorsailed on the jib for a bit, but eventually had to take it down as the wind came too far forward.  The rest of the trip was uneventful, except for part where we had just rounded Matt Lowe's Cay to head in to Marsh Harbour.  A squall sprang up so suddenly that before I could even get a jacket, I was soaked!  And that water is COLD!  Visibility dropped to a boat length while the skies opened up.

But it was quickly over, and the sun started drying everything off.

The approach into Marsh Harbour is convoluted.  You basically have to go in a large spiral, rounding the peninsula first on the south, then on the North, then turning into the entrance channel, then turning into the anchorage.  Its enough to make you dizzy.

The large anchorage had a lot of boats in it, but they were well spaced, and there was room for more.  We found a nice shallow spot that wasn't too far from the dinghy dock, and dropped the hook, which bit in and set immediately.

End-of-Voyage drinks all around.

Life is good.