March 5, 2013 Abaco, Bahamas

Sorry that it takes so long to add to our blog but our WIFI access is not always good enough to allow us to upload our photos. For the same reason it's almost impossible for us to upload videos though we may try in the future.




A power boaters dream, flat seas!

On a beautiful Tuesday morning we departed Ocean Reef Resort for the Abaco chain of the Bahamas. We crossed Grand Bahama Island by way of the Lucayan Waterway which cuts through the center of the island and leads us to the northern coast and the Bahamas Bank. From there we set a course for Great Sale Cay, an uninhabited island where we would spend the night at anchor.  The seas were calm and the water was the aquamarine colour that you see in post cards. The anchorage was deserted, we had the place to ourselves. A beautiful sunset was replaced by a starry night that stretched down to the calm water to the point that we couldn't tell where the sky stopped and the sea began...totally amazing!
 

A beautiful sunset at Great Sale Cay



This rock is named "Center of the World", don't know why!

We had planned to stay here for a couple of days but the winds came up and forced our decision to move on. Our next stop was Green Turtle Cay, Abaco. There are two anchorages, White Sound and Black Sound which we both used while we were there. White Sound has two major resorts with great food and entertainment on certain nights.

Carole enjoying a Green Turtle Twister at Green Turtle Cay Resort
 

Black Sound is close to the settlement of New Plymouth, a small but clean little town that offered three small grocery stores, two hardware stores and a bank which only opened on Mondays and Thursdays! We rented a golf cart and toured the island one day. The views from the east shore over looking the Atlantic ocean were breathtaking!


While on Green Turtle we took the opportunity to dinghy over to a beautiful beach to let Carole do some shelling and photo taking.

Endless deserted beaches!

The island next to us is called "No Name Island", (really). We were cruising around slowly looking for conch when Roly spotted what looked like a small dog running on the beach. On a second look we realized that it was a piglet and not a dog at all. We beached the dinghy and the little boar came right up to us and Roly was able to pick him up and hold him!

My little Buddy!

After a moment, the mother of this little guy showed up along with four other sows and a boar as well as three other piglets. It was quite a sight to see all these animals come through the trees and down to the beach to greet us. We were a bit apprehensive at first because we had heard that they could be dangerous, but they just wanted to see if we had any food. They must be used to people because they let us pet them and were not aggressive at all. Carole fed them some granola bars that we had with us and immediately she became their best friend!

The weather window we were waiting for finally arrived on Wed. March 27th. The winds had been blowing from the north for many days preventing us from going through a passage out to the Atlantic called the "Whale Cay Passage." This can be a very dangerous stretch of water as many sailors lost there lives going through here at the wrong time. We headed through the fairly calm passage when the tide started falling which creates a condition called a rage, (the tide flows opposite the wind and causes some pretty big waves to build depending on the strength of the wind).  Well as you would guess, the tide and the wind picked up just as we were going through. With reefs on both side and the waves building, we had no choice but to keep on going. Three large waves crested as we went through them and really sent us for a ride, especially the last one. It's hard to estimate the height of a wave from the fly bridge but I would say 10' plus. What a ride!!! Coming down the back side of the last big wave caused the boat to hit the water hard and damaged our dinghy and dinghy cradle that sits at the top of our sundeck roof. The repairs were made when we arrived at our next anchorage in Great Guana Cay.

This pic was taken after we passed through Whale Passage. You can see the waves breaking over a small freighter that grounded because of hurricane Sandy last fall.

The reason we took the chance and travelled the Whale Passage in less than ideal conditions is because of an invitation from friends Ian and Michelle to attend a concert by a guy named Barefoot Man on Great Guana Cay. This musician is a local legend that performs concerts throughout the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands where he lives. He has a large following around here with the boaters that come in from far and wide to hear him play his funny and amusing party music. The crowd at Nipper's Bar on the beach was really rocking, young and old, and you could tell that they felt no pain. This was an afternoon concert which made for some really good pictures.

Ian, Roly and Michelle at the Barefoot Man concert.

View of the crowd at the bar from the third level.

 

Carole and the Barefoot Man, aka; George Nowak. 

 

I had to add the picture of this woman in the leopard print outfit. Check out her waist! Apparently she's in the Guinness Book of Record's for the smallest waist.  She's had her two lower ribs removed and other assorted surgeries to make her waist smaller and accentuate some of her other body parts! You meet all kinds of people in the Bahamas! 

The next day we got together with friends Ian, Michelle, Jack and Darla to do some snorkeling and try to get some lobster for supper. Well, no luck with the lobster but we did find a great lunch restaurant and then a beach bar where other boaters dinghied to as well for some entertainment by a local "Rape and Scrape Band".

Jack and Darla followed by Ian and Michelle.

No luck with the lobster but a great swim anyway!



Grabbers Beach Bar
 

"Rape and Scrape" band. The local music.

This guy is actually playing a hand saw, hope it doesn't slip and cut off his...

Ian decided that he wanted to try some deep sea fishing the next day so we hopped aboard his boat and the four of us headed out on the calm sea to try our luck.

A dozen or more dolphin decided to entertain us, the first we have seen in the Abacos.

We were in about three hundred feet of water when I got the first strike of the day. A feisty 12 lbs mahi mahi, what a beautiful fighting fish! It took a little while to land but with every ones help we got it aboard!


What a little fighter, thanks for the help Ian!

The second strike of the day was again on Roly's line, a 35 lbs wahoo! This guy measured out at 5' and was almost exactly the same size as the one Ian caught back in Freeport. When this fish took his lure, (a $7 Ace Hardware lure by the way), he thought he would strip all the line off of the reel but he managed to get him under control. His arms were a little tired after reeling in almost 300 yards of line with one pissed off fish on the other end!


Can't wait to eat you!

Our day of fishing produced two strikes for Ian which unfortunately didn't make it to the boat and one other unproductive strike for Roly as well. All and all, a great day on the water!

 

 

Ian teaching Roly how to clean wahoo and mahi mahi.

 

 

Two nurse sharks and a sting ray eating the scraps from the fish cleaning station.

Ian taught Roly how to clean our catch, (first time Roly's ever caught anything that big) and then we had a great feast back on our boat with an appropriate wine of course.

Thanks again Ian and Michelle for taking us along for a great day of "catching" fish!

 

Enjoying the fruits of our labour!