The morning we left West End I filled the water tank and rinsed the dinghy while the guys went for ice. Look who showed up for a drink.
Awesome!
So, my last post was reporting our crossing to West End, in the Abacos of the Bahamas. As we were unable to get a sim card for our phone or the mifi we had purchased at any of our stops access, to the internet was limited until our western most stop in Marsh Harbor. Then the card worked in the phone, but not the mifi, and unfortunately, once in Marsh Harbor, we found an appointment scheduled which necessitated an immediate departure, so…..
It was a good end to our cruising season and we were both glad we made the jump. The long trek (@ 120 miles) across the Bahama Bank was long in our slow boat, next trip we’ll try a stop at Spanish Cay instead of a second anchorage to break up the monotony. We did eventually find the beautiful beaches we sought once we crossed “The Whale” and hope to get farther than Marsh Harbor as we missed a few must see stops.
Since we have committed to leading the long cruise next May for the Cape Coral Cruise Club, I do feel I owe some pictures at least to wrap this up and preview our return, so below are a select few.
It was two days of anchoring to get across the Bahamas bank. Scenery was blue seas and scrub islands mostly. One highlight, breakfast on the BBQ.
Beautiful sunsets even on the bank. This one came after we watched a storm complete with a water spout pass west of us as we anchored.
Running with a buddy boat broke some of the monotony. Patriyatchik is another President motor yacht.
Biggest disappointment of the bank was having fellow loopers on Last Mango sail by. Had hoped to catch up with them.
First civilized stop was Green Turtle Cay, nice resort with pool, good restaurant, we dinghied over to New Plymouth for lunch.
Green Turtle Cay is a good place to wait for a calm sea to head out into the Atlantic to go around Whale’s Cay. We didn’t hear any bad reports in our week, but then we left before Anna developed.
Our first stop after the Whale in the Sea of Abaco was Great Guana Cay. We took a ball off Grabbers.
They organized a potluck at Grabbers our first night and we caught another nice sunset.
The next day we ventured out to Nippers. Wow!
The beach in front of Nippers is down a tall set of stairs, but worth the climb.
We had heard they had a good Batelco store in Treasure Cay, so we made that our next stop.
Batelco was closed for upgrading, but the beach and the resort were spectacular!
Nest and last stop was Marsh Harbor, the biggest settlement in the Abacos. We saw some rain and caught up with friends from Ocean Breeze.
Conch pile. Conch was the biggest bargain on the menu at most restaurants being locally sourced. Side product is piles of discarded shells. Saw one sign along the road: Private Dock, no parking or dumping of shells.
Nice view of Marsh Harbor!
Travels of the Infinite Sea 