Spanish Cay, Abacos

Well, we finally made it to the Abacos. Here is the Admiral on the porch of Spanish Cay Marina /Resort ( http://www.spanishcay.com/). This is a private island with an 85 slip marina. There are two boats in the harbor, one being us.

We've had plenty of wind, from the right direction, making for some quick rides.

In West End we met a couple of recent university Grads from England (Jade and Sarah), out cruising on their Bristol 27. A great maturing experience for a couple of great kids.



Here they are exiting West End following us through a scary cut on our way to Great Sale Cay. another quick ride.



We spent two nights on Great Sale Cay and went to the beach treasure hunting one afternoon. We checked out the ruins of an old US Missile tracking station that was built during the Bay of Pigs affair....


Here is kimosabi and Noor anchored in Great Sale Cay.



We then zoomed to Grand Cay on the northern end of the Abacos. That evening we had a great Grouper dinner at Rosie's. The next day we sailed 47 KM in 5 hours to Crab Cay for the night. Les and Barb ended up anchored off of Hawksbill Cay near Foxtown (north of us) and sailed to Green Turtle Cay today. We'll meet up with them later.

West End, Grand Bahama

Well, 14 hours of beating 90 NMiles to go 55 NM, we made it. The last five miles it blew 40, with us reaching onto an unknown shore with a partially flogging main at 12-14 knots in blinding rain. Oh, it was dark too... Thanks goodness for Steve Dodge's excellent description and photos of the entrance. Otherwise we would have had to stand off and wait it out.

We left Lake Worth at 6 am and tied to Old Bahama Bay fuel dock at 8 PM. Lesson learned: when as far North as Lake Worth, winds should be south, not SE.. It was real fun fighting the Gulf Stream.

More later, have to take a shower to wash the salt off. The inside of the boat stayed amazingly dry!!

On Monday we took a bike ride to the village. Ever wonder where conch comes from??