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(As always, click on the small images to view a larger image)
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Arrived West End, Grand Bahama Island 4:45pm 1/7/01
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Land Ho! - approaching Grand Bahama Island
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| Finally, the weather gods decided to cooperate and the winds shifted to the southwest and were predicted to stay that way for a few days.
To cross the Gulf Stream, you have to wait for these conditions. (The Gulf Stream is a rapid current heading north between the Bahamas and the US. When the wind is blowing from the north to south against
the current flowing from south to north, even a light wind kicks up some large, choppy seas.) We (our little flotilla: Synchronicity, Josuda, Agassiz and Naiad) left Lake Worth at 4am, heading out Lake Worth Inlet,
bound for West End, a trip of 53 miles. Winds were light on the stern, and with only an annoying roll, we motored across to the Bahamas - after all that wait the crossing was uneventful! We pulled into Old Bahama
Bay Marina at 4:45pm and cleared customs. We ended up staying there for 4 nights, again waiting for the winds to settle down.
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Synchronicity at Old Bahama Bay Marina
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On the beach!
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Josuda and Synchronicity
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| 1/11/01 Great Sale Cay - Left West End in the morning, motorsailing across the Little Bahama Banks to
Great Sale Cay, an uninhabited island conveniently located at the end of a day's sail across the banks. Navigation in the Bahamas is mainly a daytime activity, and trips
are planned to be anchored safely somewhere by nightfall.
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Agassiz and Naiad
sailing across the banks
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Naiad in the distance...
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Sunset at Great Sale
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| 1/12/01 Grand Cay - From Great Sale we continued on to Grand Cay, a small cay inhabited by about 200 people. Not too much there, but a nice harbor.
We bought some fresh lobsters there and had a nice Bahamian lobster dinner on the boat.
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| 1/14/01 Carter's Cay - Very shallow harbor - could not even make it in. Anchored out on the bank in the lee of the cay. The autopilot gave out today - I have to hand steer until I get it fixed or replaced. Blustery night...
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| 1/15/01 Allen's-Pensacola Cay - Now THIS is why I came here...
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Look.... No footprints.
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Starfish on the bottom in 8ft of water...
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Atlantic side.
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| Allen's-Pensacola Cay is what you picture when you think of the idyllic island anchorage. The cay is uninhabited, there are great beaches
where more often than not, yours are the only footprints seen. The water is crystal clear, and an incredible shade of blue green, with patches of green fading to white in the shallows. (and none of these photos seem to quite capture it) This is the home of the Allen's-Pensacola Cay Yacht Club;
a section of the Atlantic side beach where the cruisers have decorated the trees with shrines or memorials to their visits, made mostly with items found washed up on shore (which is a lot of stuff - pretty much the only thing
between the shore and Africa is the Canary Islands.) A lot of stuff washes up on shore - bottles, floats, boards, hawsers, nets, cans, etc... Just a stroll along the beach and you have enough material for a memorial. Just
carve or paint your boat name and a date and hang it from a tree. Some of them are pretty elaborate. There is also a logbook in a plastic box to record your thoughts. The start of the path to the Atlantic side is lined with conch shells.
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The Allan's Pensacola Yacht Club
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Synchronicity's shrine at the
Allan's Pensacola Yacht Club
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Another Synchronicity memorial...
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Synchronicity (1st sailboat on the right) anchored at Allan's-Pensacola.
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| 1/17/01 Green Turtle Cay - Anchored in White Sound.
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| 1/18/01 Marsh Harbour - Marsh Harbour is very much a working town. Although no small amount of income is derived from tourism,
Marsh would be here if no tourists came at all. It is an economic center and seaport for the Abacos. It is not a prettified tourist town, but it is where a lot of services are available.
But what an adventure getting there was today!
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Marsh Harbour Sunset |
1/24/01 Baker's Bay & Settlement Harbour - Great Guana Cay - Baker's Bay
Settlement Harbor
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| 1/25/01 Man o' War Cay -
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| 1/26/01 Hopetown, Elbow Cay -
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| 1/27/01 Marsh Harbour -
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| 1/31/01 Baker's Bay - Great Guana Cay - Finally bagged a lobster. Snorkeling at the reef on the Atlantic side,
I saw a huge lobster under a ledge. The god of all lobsters! Got him with my spear gun and cooked him up with just a touch of Old Bay...MMMMMM...MMMMM!
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The mighty hunter and his prey
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Lobster tail and a rum punch -
a true Bahamian dinner
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| 2/3/01 Marsh Harbour -
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| 2/6/01 Hopetown Cup Regatta, first leg - Finished 5th overall, 10th after calculating handicaps.
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| 2/9/01 Hopetown Cup Regatta, second leg - Finished 5th overall, 9th after calculating handicaps.
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| 2/10/01 Marsh Harbour -
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| 2/13/01 Tahiti Beach -
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| 2/14/01 Little Harbour - Little Harbour
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| 2/21/01 Marsh Harbour -
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| 2/23/01 Johnny's Cay/Hopetown - Anchored off of Johnny's Cay for the afternoon. Went snorkeling on the reef, and I speared a strawberry grouper! Also bagged about
10 conch right under the boat. Moved over to the anchorage outside of Hopetown and cleaned conch. Bahamian cracked conch for dinner! (Made grouper fingers the next day...)
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| 2/24/01 Marsh Harbour -
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2/26/01 Baker's Bay -
Sunset over the Spoil Cay at Baker's Bay
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| 3/1/01 Marsh Harbour - Returned to Marsh Harbour to ride out a bad cold front and pick up my friend Dan, who arrived on Sunday, also choosing a bad week
to visit. Ended up in Marsh Harbour for 6 days, riding out winds that were clocked at up to 50 knots in the windy side of the harbor. Luckily we were anchored on the (somewhat) protected side, where the winds were only
blowing 25 - 30 knots..
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Dan, decompressing |
| 3/4/01 Marsh Harbour - Dan came down to visit during all the bad weather.
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| 3/8/01 Baker's Bay - The weather settled and I finally got Dan out of Marsh Harbour. Another pot luck dinner on the beach. It is so much fun and the variety of
food that everyone brings is incredible.
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| 3/9/01 Treasure Cay -
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| 3/11/01 Marsh Harbour - Back to Marsh to get Dan on his plane. The low pressure systems continue to dominate, bringing high winds and southerly winds. This generally
means staying at Marsh Harbour. Managed to get out for a daysail with some 'local' friends (Americans who live here), including a boat jam with Paul, who teaches in Nassau, coming up to the Abacos every other weekend to teach here.
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More music on the boat... |
| 3/18/01 Settlement Harbour, Great Guana Cay -
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Nippers Beach Bar |
| 3/20/01 Marsh Harbour - Back to Marsh Harbour,
weather is nasty and I have the flu! But at least I'm sick when the weather is lousy, it would really suck to feel bad
and miss some beautiful days.
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| 3/23/01 Baker's Bay - The weather is beautiful
again and I'm feeling better, so nothing is better than a trip to my favorite anchorage, Baker's Bay! A swim on the reef,
a walk on the beach and another potluck dinner and rumdrinks on the beach. Life is good!
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Pretty good crowd for a impromptu event...
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Good food and company as another day
in the Abacos draws to a close.
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| 3/25/01 Fisher's Bay - On to Fisher's Bay for the Pig Roast at Nipper's.
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| 3/27/01 Marsh Harbour - Back to Marsh to ride out a cold front and pick up Kevin, who arrives on the 29th.
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| 3/29/01 Marsh Harbour - Kevin flew in today and completed the curse - all my visitors picked the days with the worst weather.
High winds from the S-SW are predicted, which greatly limits the places to visit.
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| 3/30/01 Baker's Bay - Marsh Harbour - Got out to day sail up to my favorite place, Baker's Bay, but returned to Marsh for the night.
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| 3/31/01 Hopetown - Went over to Hopetown, which is a very protected harbor, with a very pretty town. Went snorkeling with Kevin and he
lost a cap on his front tooth in the water. And of course there are NO dentists in Hopetown, particularly on a weekend. After trying in vain to contact a dentist in Marsh Harbor, he was faced with spending the
rest of his trip with a missing front tooth and a lisp. But in true self-sufficient cruiser fashion, we made a cap out of wax and fixed it in place with poli-dent. It worked great, allowing him to speak clearly
and was even hard to notice! We went out to celebrate and watched Maryland lose to Duke in the NCAA tournament at one of the local bars.
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| 4/2/01 Marsh Harbour - Put Kevin on the ferry to catch his early flight, and took the boat back to March Harbour ride out the rest of the high winds.
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| 4/3/01 Marsh Harbour - A very spontaneous day. As i was walking back from the store, I heard my name called. I had passed right by Marlee's house (Marlee [Marlene]
is a Canadian transplant who live's here and makes silver and sea-glass jewelry. We met at Sapodilly's) and she and a few friends were sitting on the front porch. So I joined them for a drink and talked for a while. Then when I went
back to the boat I saw that Rhythm was anchored next to me. I had met Aylin and Raymond on Rhythm at the Jib Room Happy Hour last week with Kevin. So when I saw their boat next to me I invited them over for sundowners. We started talking
about the Hopetown sailing races the next day, and one thing led to another and we both decided to enter. They were quite the racers back in England, and were sailing a 40ft Hunter. So Dana and I introduced them to the great American tradition
of 'trash talking' - describing how badly they would be beaten the next day, with Dana giving me the occasional elbow jab to remind me that we would have to back up whatever we said tonight at the race tomorrow. As this would be only the third
time I had ever raced, I decided to forgo any rash bets.
Raymond and Aylin
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| 4/4/01 Marsh Harbour - Well Dana, Roger and I took Synchronicity out to the Hopetown Race. And in spite of light winds, AMERICA TROUNCED ENGLAND!. Upholding
the honor of the upstart colonies, Synchronicity crossed over the finish line some 30 to 45 minutes before Rhythm. We were not sure of the exact margin as we were well on the way back to Marsh Harbor and out of sight when Rhythm finally crossed
the finish line.
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| 4/5/01 Marsh Harbour - Once again, hanging out at the Jib Room Happy Hour. Met Tom and Holly on Interlude. Even though they are on a powerboat, they are OK and we let them
hang out with us. Actually their boat is beautiful and very comfortable, decadent actually, and they are wonderful people!
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| 4/7/01 Baker's Bay - Full Moon Party! As well as the day before my birthday. Yet another pot-luck dinner on the beach. This one was a blast. There were a lot of boats in the
anchorage, including seven in our 'fleet' alone. The party went very late with a LOT of rum being consumed. The sunset was fantastic, and the moonrise 2 hours later was equally impressive. A HUGE orange, full moon rising over the island.
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Birthday kisses from
Aylin, Marsha and Holly
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You gotta love these sunsets...
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| 4/8/01 Fisher's Bay - My Birthday! I woke up, still fairly loaded from the night before, and proceeded to experience the whole sobering-up-turning-into-hangover process while wide awake.
Bloody awful! I thought that a nice swim would help so I went into the delightful waters of Bakers's Bay to change the zinc on my prop, but that just made me feel worse. Finally started to feel better in time to follow the fleet to Fisher's Bay, only an
hour's cruise away. Besides, I couldn't miss the big jam session on Interlude, the floating palace! As I pulled up to the Interlude, (last as usual) dragging my guitar and amp, the sounds of the whole group singing 'Happy Birthday' made it's way across
the dark water. Absolutely wonderful - cruisers are the best people in the world! Kate from Eridanus even baked me a cake on her boat! Great people, good music - definitely one of my more memorable birthdays!!!
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Interlude heads out from Baker's Bay
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Birthday cake and music - it really
doesn't get much better....
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| 4/11/01 Marsh Harbour -
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4/13/01 Marsh Harbour -  A major jam at the Jib Room. Bob and Carol (Time Enough), Raymond (Rhythm), Chuck(Eridanus) Jack and Catherine (visiting on Eridanus), all dragged our instruments
over to the Jib Room, (which was closed, but we used their patio) for a great jam. we attracted a fair crowd from the boats at the marina, and everyone joined in on the singing.
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| 4/14/01 Little Harbour - A farewell visit to Little Harbour and Pete's Pub. The current version of the 'fleet' (Synchronicity, Naiad, Rhythm, Half Moon, Interlude, Summer Wind and Time Enough)
went down to drink blasters and in some cases, bid goodbye to another of our favorite places for this season. But this visit did not have a good start, I ran hard aground in the channel going into the harbor! With the tide going out, I tried with a lot of assistance
to get off, but to no avail. I had given up and was resigned to spending the next 8-10 hours aground, when Raymond and Aylin from Rhythm showed up, and after checking out the underwater situation via snorkel, we managed to get Synchronicity off the shoal via kedgeing
and waking the boat with Raymonds dinghy. With great relief I anchored outside of the harbour and headed to Pete's for some hard-earned blasters. The next day, (Easter Sunday) we borrowed the pub and the fleet had Sunday Brunch (complete with Easter bonnets),
organized by Bob and Carol from Time Enough. Later on a few of us went snorkeling on the reef outside of the harbor channel and I speared a bunch of grunts which Raymond (from Rhythm) cleaned and cooked, so we invited Dana, Wally and Marsha over for fish dinner on Rhythm!
as I was getting ready to sail back to Marsh Harbour on the next day, I heard a familiar boat being hailed on the radio. I didn't think there could be two Taj Muha's so I called and lo and behold, it was my friends and Bahamas cruising inspiration, Tom and Gina. And
they were anchored in Little Harbour! (It's a very small place, I don't know how I missed them...) So I zipped over for a quick reunion. They had the slip next to me when I kept my boat at Bert Jabin's in Annapolis. They were preparing for their first cruising experience
to the Bahamas, and I did a web page for them and stayed in contact through their trip. I planned my itenerary after theirs, (of course I never made it out of the Abacos...) and was reassured by the good experiences they had. Hmmm... an example of a synchronicity?
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| 4/16/01 Marsh Harbour -
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| 4/17/01 Marsh Harbour -
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| 4/21/01 Fisher's Bay -
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4/23/01 Baker's Bay - All good things must come to and end, and it is here that I choose to end this leg of the wonderful journey. After the great time at the Barefoot Man show with all
my friends, the plan was to go back to Baker's Bay. So in the morning I upped the anchor and moved over to Baker's and joined Rhythm there for a short time. Dana came over, but the wind was not right for spending the night, and he went back to Marsh Harbor.
Raymond and Aylin were leaving for Hopetown, and I went over to say good by, and then back to Synchronicity and with tremendous sadness in my heart, watched the last of my new friends that I will see in these islands sail away, leaving me alone in the anchorage. Since the weather was right for crossing Whale Cay Passage, I decided to make for Greene
Turtle Cay and start the journey home. It was SO hard! Leaving the Abacos was bad enough, but not being able to bid all my friends a proper good-bye was doubly hard. But the weather dictates everything here, and I had stayed too long as it was. The crossing
was there so I headed north across the Whale Cay Passage.
Rhythm sails away, on my last day in the Abacos...
I can't begin to describe the incredible emotion and sadness I am feeling at leaving the Abacos. I was taken quite by surprise at the intensity. It's amazing how strong a bond can be created in a few short months, or even weeks. Although I am really ready to
be home, as I hoisted my sails and headed into Whale Cay Passage to start the journey home, there was physical pain in my heart at leaving the many friends I have made here, cruisers and locals alike, and the places I have grown to love, like Bakers Bay, Little Harbour
and Hopetown. I feel such a sense of loss, this group of wonderful people will probably never be together in this fantastic place again at the same time. It really was a magical experience and it's killing me that it has come to an end.
So it's back to 'reality' - cars (I have not driven a car in 5 months!), computers, work - but I am anxious to get home. There will be no sightseeing on the way back - I just want to come home!
So farewell to these beautiful islands. I am grateful to the people here for the kindness, the welcome and the great times they have given me. Fair winds to all of my cruising friends, I know we will meet in some other anchorage in the future, to share some rum and watch
the sun go down together.
The Abacos, Bahamas - April 23, 2001
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