Monday April 9th/12
We left the Berry Islands for the Bight of Abaco hoping to see beautiful, rarely visited beaches and hopefully some great fishing too. We had wanted to visit this part of the Abaco's for a long while and we were really looking forward to it. It was very, very quiet there and we really didn't see anybody else or even any other boats! Our first anchorage was at Moores Island for just one night - not too much to see there so the next morning we sailed to Joe Downer Cay. The wind was blowing so it was a bit choppy as we sailed in. It was fantastic as a big dolphin met us on the way into the anchorage and escorted us in, staying with us almost until we were ready to drop the anchor! I think it was lonely and so very happy to see someone - anyone!! On the way in we were watching for likely heads to spearfish off but saw only one place - a big rock in quite shallow water. Unfortunately Bruce didn't see anything big enough to spear, but did see hundreds of very small crawfish! The big rock was covered in little holes and out of each hole was poking little crawfish antennae! It must have looked like the rock was alive! We didn't have our camera with us as it would have been an amazing picture - a crawfish nursery! Later on we went ashore for a walk on the beach. I was hoping to find some lovely shells as there obviously weren't many cruisers visiting this area. I was disappointed though as there really wasn't much of a beach. It was quite rocky with sparse sand and the shells were mostly fossilized or broken. We did have a good walk on the beach though!
Over the next 4 days we sailed to Basin Harbour and Mangrove Cay, enjoying the quiet and doing some spear fishing and exploring. At Basin Harbour there were tall cliffs dropping to the sea with large chunks of rock below them that at some point had fallen off into the water. The sea was a bit murky and everything was so quiet there it felt quite ominous and spooky as we dinghied around beneath the cliff walls. In one of the bays Bruce speared a mackerel!! We have only ever caught mackerel before when we were trolling so it was a real surprise to see one on the end of Bruce's spear! Fresh fish for supper!
While we were in the Bight there was a huge fire on Little Abaco Island - actually several fires and smoke was blowing all along the island. I thought it was several controlled burns but Bruce thought it was a wildfire. After 2 or three days of seeing the island burning both day and night, I decided he was probably right. We spent a couple of nights at Mangrove Cay and then left the Bight and made our way around the northern end of Little Abaco Island. A big storm was brewing and we decided to stay in a marina for the night the storm was due to hit. The day before the storm (April 6th) we arrived at Spanish Cay Harbour and got the boat anchored and put lines out as it was very windy - also in case the storm hit early. It was a very narrow harbour and right next to the island's airstrip, so we could watch the planes take off and land. There was also a pelican living there and we had fun watching it take off and land too. Before this I had never realized how clumsy they are when they land in the water! Very graceful when landing on tree branches or going into the water after a fish, but they make a hell of a splash when they land on the water!! Hilarious!! We thought about going to our old haunt, The Bluff House Marina, but after finally managing to make contact with our friends Jim and Cathy, we learned that the marina was full, as were all the marina's in the area in anticipation of the pending storm. We decided to stay at Spanish Cay and took a berth at the marina there. More expensive than we usually go for and the waves were coming right into the marina over the breakwater but it was the best we could do. It was quite a storm!! Extremely strong winds and heavy rain, but by the next morning the weather had settled down again and we set sail to meet Jim and Cathy at Allans/Pensacola Cay. It was lovely to finally meet up with them for the first time since last season. We had a lovely supper together on Windrush and made plans together to leave for West End, Grand Bahama the next day. Anchors were hauled in by 3:30 the next morning and Windrush was on her way closely followed by Ocean Dreamer. While we were sailing along we saw these flashes of light coming from Ocean Dreamer's cockpit and wondered what on earth Jim was up to! It turned out he was taking pictures of Windrush - really fantastic pictures. Jim is a very accomplished photographer! Later he showed us some of the other pictures he had taken during their cruise. His pics of pelicans were amazing and really put my attempts to shame!! It was a great sail to West End and we arrived there safe and sound with no problems. Once again we stayed in the marina - for the last time though as their rates had really gone up for no good reason that we could figure out! So ended our 2nd Bahamas cruising season. We had a really great season!! We made lots of new friends and met up with old ones again. We spent much more time in the Jumentos this time and look forward to doing that again. Our visit from Kirsty and Shawn was lovely and will hopefully be repeated. Geoff and Emily you are next!