The Abacos to Cat Cay

Ahoy Mates!

After our stay in Treasure Cay it was off to Marsh Harbour, considered the main stop in the Hub of the Abacos. There are a myriad of shops, restaurants and services there, as well as, and international airport. We were able to sail most of the 17 miles to the Harbor View Marina, right in the center of restaurant district. Perfect for fresh fish dishes and a fabulous Conch Burger.

We spent four days at the Marina using it as our home base for some touring. We sampled many of the restaurants including Jamie’s, a local spot with great food and friendly service, Wally’s with a more formal atmosphere and superb dishes and Mangoes for fantastic fresh fish, prepared with local flair. They were all excellent!

One of the truly wonderful things about cruising, is the interesting people that you meet. We were privledged to spend time and share dinner with Dr. Randy and Linda. He is a recently retired ER physician who along with his wife, Linda  a former nurse are starting a new life aboard their Absolute 60, a magnificent power yacht with a grand interior. We wish them all the best and hope for an invitation to join them on that floating palace! Hint, hint…

While in the Abacos I took the opportunity to schedule a dive trip with Dive Abaco for a two tank dive at the Fowl Cay Preserve about 5 miles east. I packed up my gear and walked only a block to the dive shop.

After a half hour ride in a seaworthy dive boat, we arrived at the site on the ocean side of Fowl Cay. After squeezing into my wetsuit, gear and camera please note the back roll with ballerina-like entry!

Since it is a preserve fish life were very friendly as evidenced by “Ash” who has a way with the lady Nassau Groupers!

The dives were well planned and included many “swim-throughs” in the narrow tunnels and caverns of the coral reef.  There were schools of blue tangs and yellow tail snappers along with the usual arrow crabs and colorful cleaning shrimp. Of course, the highlight was the large group of friendly groupers!

The next day we executed our plan of returning to the USA via the Great Bahama Bank. The trip from Marsh Harbour heading south around Great Abaco and to Fowey Rock south of Miami via the Bahama Bank is 225 nautical miles (258 statue miles). The weather forecast was good with light wind and 1 foot seas. Great for a power boat, not so good for a “blow boat”. We decided to cross the Great Bahama Bank and stop and anchor in Cat Cay on the west end of the Bank. This 179 nautical mile trip would still involve an overnight so we readied the sea berth, which is nothing more than a lee cloth fitted to our port setee to allow sleeping without falling on the cabin sole (floor).

We motor sailed  around Hole in the Wall on the south end of Abaco and then continued west, north of the Berry Islands.

This part of the Atlantic Ocean between and the Bahama Bank is Cruise ship alley. Since Saturday is a busy day for ship sailings, we encountered no fewer than 8 cruise ships from Princess, Celebrity, MSC, Norwegian and Carnival. We have and use AIS or Automatic Identification System that allows you to identify ships and gives a myriad of information, like name and description of vessel, course, speed and closest point of approach, etc.

If the closest point of approach is less than one mile we always call the bridge on the VHF radio make sure that the bridge sees us and offer to make a course change. More often than not the cruise ship or cargo ship will offer to change course to avoid us!

Morning bought with it another nearly windless day and more heat than was comfortable, but the Great Bahama Bank is one of our favorite stretches of water. The water color and quality is absolutely gorgeous! This part of the trip would require travelling about 70 miles in water only 10 to 40 feet deep. As you know, as sailors, we carry loads of technical gear, tactical equipment and specialized clothing for use in specific conditions. Crossing the Great Bahama Bank on this day required very special light cotton boxer shorts, which proved perfect for a mid-morning nap!

After a day of attempting to use the spinnaker to take advantage of what little wind we had we anchored just off of Cat Cay before sundown.

We settled in for the night in anticipation of our Gulf Stream crossing. Since we had cell phone reception our weather reports were very favorable, again predicting light winds and flat seas. Oh, how we were hoping for 10 to 15 knots out of the East for a spinnaker run!

Stay tuned for the the return to our home port of St. Petersburg via Marathon, Key West, The Dry Tortugas, Captiva and Cabbage Key.

Thanks for your wishes of fair winds!

Captain Bobby and the Admiral