We left Marsh Harbour on Monday 5/19 and headed out to Green Turtle Cay. In order to get to GTC, you have to go out of the Abacos islands into the Whale Passage for a short distance before coming back into the Abacos islands because it is too shallow to traverse across. The Whale Passage can be nasty if there are strong north winds. We waited till we had fairly benign conditions before taking on the Whale Passage. Even so, it was no picnic. Check out the pictures of a cargo ship that didn't make it thru (shipwrecked). Green Turtle Cay is a pretty island but not much going on. We thought we had the dinghy motor problem fixed but we didn't. While going ashore, the engine died. We had to throw out the dinghy anchor we carry and after about 5-10 minutes, Ed managed to get it started again and off we went to shore. We enjoyed Pineapples bar and grill. Very cool place with a great bartender and good burgers. On our way back to the boat, the motor died again. This time it wouldn't start. Fortunately for us, another sailboater was going ashore in there dinghy and saw us having trouble and towed us back to our boat. Good thing they were there because it would have taken us over an hour to row that far. Ed had added a fuel filter to the fuel line and it was either clogged or had water in it. Anyway, Ed disconnected the fuel filter and the problem seems to be solved again.

After Green Turtle Cay, we headed over to Spanish Cay. We anchored out and went in for dinner at the marina. This island has an airport so a lot of fishing boats get left here and people fly in and out of this island. When we woke up on Thursday, there was no wind to be found and you could see the chain and anchor thru the clear water from the boat. This was our last visit to civilization until we get back to Florida. We left here on Thursday and anchored at Great Sale Cay (uninhabited) which is about halfway across the Bahama banks. Our intention was to stop near the edge of the banks and sleep for a couple of hours before heading home so that we could arrive at Ft. Pierce at slack tide. We did just that...except for the sleeping part. The weather forecast was for winds between 5-10 knots for the evening. They were around 15 knots which kicked up the seas to just make it too uncomfortable to sleep. Anyway, we got out of bed and weighed anchor at 2am Saturday morning anticipating a 12 hour motor to our destination. Again, the forecast was for light and variable winds out of the southeast to southwest (aka very little wind). We had 17 knots so close to our nose that even though we had our sail up we were motoring too close to the wind to sail. We arrived at Ft. Pierce inlet around 3 pm with engine concerns. The oil pressure was at half the psi it normally reads and with a lot of smoke coming off the exhaust. Great, the inlet to Ft. Pierce is a freaking zoo with numerous boats, kayaks, and people everywhere. We were embarrassed to be coming in with our ailing boat. We were also worried about the engine dying. What would we do. There was no wind to sail. With Ed manning the helm, I prepared the windlass in case we had to drop our anchor quickly. Well we made it into Harbortown marina without the engine dying. Exhausted and dirty, we quickly rinsed off the boat, then ourselves and had an early dinner, then crashed for the night.
So it is Memorial weekend and we are spending our weekend cleaning the salt water off the boat and fixing the engine. Ed changed the oil, oil filter and fuel filter and she is purring like a kitty once again. Not sure why she gave us such fits as the engine was just due to have the oil changed.

It is good to be back in the states where we take for granted things like the internet, cell phone service, groceries, restaurants. We did enjoy our time in the Bahamas as well where we enjoyed beautiful water, snorkeling, sunsets, overpriced burgers and cocktails.
Enjoy the short video of one of our sail in the Abacos