The Bahamas, unlike most countries are separated into literally 1000's of islands and these islands are split into distinct districts. Each district has its own distinct character and challenges. Entering the Abaco's after sailing around Eluthera and the Exuma's has made us face the challenge of having to trust our charts implicitly as we cant see the bottom and trust the weather forecasts as we are experiencing remarkable weather; that's remarkable in a bad way.

We waved goodbye to Goldcrest as they were on a mission to head off to the USA as soon as possible and we were left alone. At night there were no anchor lights in the bay and the only light that could be seen was from the distant stars that sparkled in the sky.

After being stationary in Hatchet Bay we'd managed to acquire a barnacle based forest on the bottom of Ruffian and so we took to the water to clean things up. When we dived in, instead of seeing the usual plain sand bottom, we were presented with sea grass and hundreds of little fish that usually live in the sheltered surroundings reefs, but with no reefs around, they had all taken up residence in empty Conch shells and tufts of grass. As we swam we would see flashes of blues and yellows on a backdrop of deep green.

Scraping the growth of Ruffian gave Iain a new experience. With the need to scrape the very bottom of the keel he found himself standing upside down, with his feet planted firmly on the hull and his hands holding the bottom of the keel. From Iain's perspective to see a yacht upside down is bizarre in the extreme and the same came be said for Fiona's view of Iain defying the laws of gravity.

The water in the Abaco's is very different from anything else we've seen in the Bahamas. The shallow water is blue, the deep water is blue, the reefs are blue and the rocks are blue. Basically this means that you've got to trust your charts implicitly and this is made all the more scary when we have mere inches between the keel and the ground.

Upping the anti a little further, as we were sailing towards the safe confines of Marsh Harbour our chart plotter suddenly stopped talking to our instruments. We were left sailing 'blind' and we had to rely on the tried and tested navigating techniques of ancient mariners to get us to safety.

After safely tucking ourselves into Marsh Harbour we started to experience the fist of the remarkable weather. A tropical wave was making its way up from the eastern Caribbean and cold fronts were working their way off the east cold of America. The tropical wave was remarkably early and the cold fronts were remarkably late in the season. We were literally stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Marsh Harbour was "the" place to be with 'Il Sogno' already safely tucked in and 'Cascadura' soon following. Marsh Harbour is also our planned departure point for the USA and so it wasn't all bad. There was a super social time to be had with our friends and Ruffian had to be prepped for going off shore.

Between bouts of amazing dinners on board 'Il Sogno' and 'Cascadura', along with pot lucks and excursions to the local ice cream parlour (clearly just for the benefit of Katey) we serviced engines, filled all our tanks, checked kit, cleaned lockers and commissioned sat phones. We just needed some of this remarkable weather to go away so we can venture to the USA.

The waters in the Abacos are a close second to those in the Exuma's.


The sun sets on the 'Sea of Abaco'.


The lovely beach and bank at TIlloo Cay.


The most idyllic playground.


Cripes. That's a bit of a change. Marsh Harbour is busy busy busy.


A mess like this can only mean one thing. We're readying for going offshore.


That paints 1000 words. Banoffee pie on Oyster plates.


Kyle the killer imparts his expert knowledge to us.


All the gear and no idea. Surely these'll catch some fish for us.


After provisioning in Marsh Harbour there are going to be some interesting meals on Ruffian.


All we need now is for the weather to play ball. 800 miles of upwind work doesn't look like a lot of fun.