Going Home

An early start from Caicos Marina and sailed out through the Sandbore Channel between North of West Caicos. From there it was a straight run across to Mayaguana and into Abrahams Bay. We anchored up in about 2metres of water and I swam on the anchor and checked it was set well. We then secured the boat for the strong winds 35+ knots that had been forecast for the next couple of days. We were greeted by a call on the radio from a man called Scully. Scully was the go to man for anything you may need and self appointed ambassador for Mayaguana.

Saturday 4th Mar – Tuesday 7th Mar
Abrahams Bay, Mayaguana
The wind was starting to get up now and for a quick break we took the dinghy in to the government dock in what turned out to be a rather wet encounter with the waves building in the lagoon. The dock does not have much navigable water and it is really only a concrete retaining wall with cleats. We found a good spot and tied up and walked the couple of hundred metres into town. It was good to stretch the legs. We walked around the town for a while and then settled into the bar for a quick drink and then next door for some lunch. Fresh Conch seemed the appropriate choice for me and Mezz had the Chicken. We then wandered back to the dock for our wet ride back to the boat and there we stayed until Monday lunchtime. With the anchor alarm on and a track active on the plotter we mapped the arc of our anchor through the 30+ gusts of wind for the nearly 48 hours. We had to go in on Monday to the government offices to do the official check in, pay for our cruising permit and fishing licence which was all rolled into the one (cash) payment of $300usd… sound familiar.
Given we would be cruising for the month in the Bahamas it didn’t really seem that bad. Or maybe I am just used to getting reamed now.
It was still blowing like stink so we went pretty much straight back to the boat after getting a Bahamas Sim card sorted. At least we had some data to get weather reports again. All bad news though. The ocean side of the reef was roaring so we were glad we were tucked inside for now.
We contacted Scully on the radio and arranged to do a tour of the Island if the wind had dropped on the Wednesday morning, and it had… so we did…..
The island tour was great, Scully was a wealth of information about the island and its history. We visited the US airforce base that was part of the Missile early warning system in the 60’s and early 70’s. the Airforce was responsible for a lot of the infrastructure on the Island and provided employment in the early days. Since abandoning the base, mother nature has taken a lot of it back. At least they have a really really good airstrip. The airports “international” terminal is in old fire truck shed and Scully is employed twice a week to run the generator and comms for the airstrip.
After a good look around and lots of photo’s we headed back to the boat. A late afternoon snorkel around the inner reef and we were ready for an early night. The wind was blowing under 20kts now and had been for the afternoon and evening so we decided to pack up and head off early the next morning.