Man O War Cay

 We arrived at Man O War Cay on February 1. We put our anchor down in an open area outside of the harbor. I counted 18 sailboats in the anchorage. The water was flat calm, but we knew that was about to change. Our Friends David and Paula went inside the harbor to check to see if they had mooring balls available. We were told by other boaters that there were no mooring balls and no place to anchor. David and Paula came back and said there were lots of balls available. We decided to get in the dinghy and go see for ourselves. We found what David and Paula had seen, but only saw about 5 balls that looked usable by our boat. Now, the problem was that the entrance to the harbor is very shallow and should only be attempted at mid tide or higher. The high tide was at 7 the next morning. I was concerned that all of those other boats had to go somewhere. Our little three boat group decided to get moving early and head into the harbor and pick up a ball. 

When we arrived we were greeted by Mike. Mike is a super nice guy that had lots of local information including where to go spear fishing. Today was the last calm day for a while so, we got ready to go right away. The cost of the balls was $20 per day or $100 per week .We decided to pay for a week and check out Man O War. Much to our surprise, none of the other boats from the anchorage came in to the harbor. I think they all went over to Marsh Harbor that is only about 5 miles away and has a large anchorage. 

This is a shot of the anchorage on the outside of Man O War Cay.

I did some snorkeling on that first day and found a couple of King Conch. I found out later (Mike informed me) that they are not edible, so we threw them back. The following day the weather came in as expected and we were very glad we were in this very protected place. It blew about 25 knots for 2 days. 

The mooring balls in the harbor are very close together, but are on short pendants, so all is good. 

This 50 foot boat came in and took the ball next to us. They ran aground at low tide. 

After the blow, our buddy boats decided to head their own way, which is the way it goes in this lifestyle. We had much more of Man O War we wanted to see. This island is very unique for the Bahamas. They do not sell alcohol on the island, and there are no restaurants. This is not the place to come to party. The island was founded by the Albury family in 1820. Benjamin Albury was a shipwrecked sailor that was rescued by his future wife's family. The legend is that it was love at first sight. He was given 60 acres of the island as a wedding present and he started a boat building company. That company still exists today and can be seen along the waterfront of the harbor. This island was also badly damaged in Hurricane Dorian in 2019, but has done an amazing job of clean up and rebuilding. There are many churches on the island for only 450 residents. We met a number of people as we walked around and found all of them to be very friendly and welcoming. While we were there, we walked the island end to end. It is all beautiful. 

This is the Heritage Center on the Cay. Very interesting history.

This is the very nice local grocery store. Everything is very expensive, but high quality.

This is the original Methodist Church built in the 1800's. 

This is a Bahamian sailing dinghy built by Albury Boat works.

The ocean side of the island is stunning. It was mostly too rough to snorkel that side of the island while we were there.

Here is an Albury Brothers boat fresh out of the building process. They are known to have the highest quality. 

Our host in the mooring field, Mike is into building and resurrecting wooden boats. There are two in the harbor here that are being restored. One was built in 1945(Traveler) and was recently brought back from Florida to be restored. The other in 1963 (William H.). The William H. has been sunk 4 times including after hurricane Dorian. She stayed under water for 3 months and is now in the process of being restored. It was moored in our mooring field. 

The William H is being restored.

This is Traveler. It just made the trip back from Florida under it's own sails and motor. Now going through restoration by the local folks. 

We really enjoyed our long walks on the island. It is a beautiful place and we can see why people come here and stay. 

This part of the ocean side is rocky and you can see one of the houses that has not been rebuilt yet.

We have to get a Kim on a beach shot

Breathtakingly beautiful

This is a narrow spot on the island with the Atlantic Ocean on the right and the Sea of Abaco on the left. 

Kind of Random, but Harry Potter fans would enjoy this English phone booth.

This is a shot of the bay that we were moored in

This local cemetery was dominated by the Albury name. I was surprised to see it placed along the ocean side. It has been washed away multiple times.

This is SHIFT in the mooring field. All of our Buddy boats are gone.

SHIFT is doing well on this trip. Our comfortable home. 

Well that is about it for Man O War. We really enjoyed the vibe of that place. It was very different than the other places we have been in the Bahamas. Next up was the opposite end of the spectrum. We then moved on to Hope Town. There was a music festival going on there and we wanted to check it out. 

The "Whale"

 To move Southeast from Green Turtle Cay to the rest of the Abacos, you have to pass through a cut called Whale Cay Cut. Or known by the locals as the "Whale".  This is a cut from the protected waters of the Abaco Sea to the open Atlantic Ocean. You have to go through this cut because the inside passage is blocked by a large reef. There is a way through the reef, but it is not recommended for boats with more than 3 foot draft. We are 4.5 feet, so through the Whale we go. 

This cut has caused the death of many a sailor over the years. It has a very strong current and when the swell coming from the North Atlantic builds up can cause conditions that will destroy boats much bigger than ours. We waited in Green Turtle Cay for the right conditions to make this passage safely. Monday, January 30th looked like the perfect day. I consulted with the local folks at Donny's and they agreed that we should be fine to make the transit, so we left and headed out of the harbor to see what awaited us. 

We were the lead boat of 5 boats that were communicating on the radio. As we approached, we could see some larger waves, but nothing that SHIFT can't handle with ease. We powered through with no problems. Then we turned to the South and headed down to Great Guana Cay. We anchored in Bakers Bay to complete our day. We had traveled only 12 nm, but I was sure glad to have that one behind us. 

Our view of Green Turtle Key as we departed

This doesn't look like much, but this was the sea state in Whale Cay Cut as we transited south.

Great Guana Cay is known as a place that the rich and famous people come to play. Much of the island is private and off limits to us regular folks. The good news is that you can't own the water in the Bahamas, so we can go to most beaches as far as the high tide line. We were never approached or hassled while we were there. We spent time swimming in the 80 degree water off of the boat and snorkeling on some of the reefs.

Our tender pulled up on the beach in the crystal clear water at an island on the inside. That is Great Guana Cay in the background. 

On the little spoil island with our new friends David and Paula

I did a lot of snorkeling on the reefs. I saw lots of cool fish and even some I would like to eat, but I never got a good shot.

This 150 foot Super Yacht cruised by while we were at anchor. 

Sunset over Bakers Bay, we ended up staying two days.

The crystal clear water is amazing

We pulled anchor on February 1, and headed over to Fishers Bay and put the anchor down there. Fishers is about half way down Great Guana Cay. We wanted to go ashore and visit the famous beach bar called Nippers. It was a very beautiful place on an amazing beach. We met a number of locals and learned about  many places we now want to visit while we are in the area. We stared at the beach and swam in the pool. 

Our day anchorage at Fishers Bay. We had very calm conditions.

The water was so clear. I tried to take a picture of a Sea Star on the bottom in 10 feet of water.

The beach at Nippers is amazingly beautiful. I love the contrast of the turquoise water of the reef with the deep blue of the open water of the North Atlantic beyond

Here is a shot of our "buddy Boaters", David, Kim, Paula, Laura and Richard at Nippers

Darn, kind of fuzzy

Can't get enough of this beach

David and I found lounge chairs under a palm tree, while the other swam in the pool

The pool was salt water and was kind of chilly, but it was a hot day.

After our visit to Nippers, we pulled the anchors and headed over to Foul Cay. Foul Key is a nature preserve and is supposed to have great diving. As we approached, we decided it looked too rough, so we continued on to Man O War Cay. 

We all got our anchors down at Man O War on this beautiful calm day, but that was once again about to change. We had the biggest weather system we have seen since coming to the Bahamas arriving in two days. We needed to find protection. The problem was there were 15 boats in the open, unprotected anchorage. Where would they all go? I will tell this story in my next entry. 

Green Turtle Cay

 We arrived in the Bahamas on the 17th of January. We had enjoyed some very settled weather for the first three days. That makes life on a boat very easy and pleasant. We had an amazing day of sailing on the 20th. It was very calm, but just enough wind to cruise along at about 3 knots. We did not plan to go far, so that was just fine with us. We stopped for the night outside of Foxtown. We were in an unprotected anchorage, but it was so calm we expected all would be fine. We would be wrong! We had no wind, but we were exposed to some ocean swell that was coming through the reef and we rocked and rolled all night. Lesson learned.

Thanks to our Starlink, I am able to get up to date weather forecasting anywhere we are. I had been watching a forecasted change coming in for the 23rd. During the winter months the weather in the Abacos is very comfortable. Highs about 80 F and lows about 70 F. We normally have a SE wind at about 10 to 15 knots. That all changes about once a week with a "norther". That is a cold front that comes from the North American mainland and turns our winds out of the North. It usually only drops the temperature about 5 F, but the wind can blow as strong as 30 knots for a day or so. It is time to find some protection in the lee of an island or even better, a protected harbor. 

One of those protected harbors is on Green Turtle Key. I had heard about a little cruiser hangout called Donny's in Black Bay on GTC. I sent him a request for a mooring ball, but he was full. He did offer us a marina slip for $45 per night. That is a good deal in the Bahamas. We went for it and thought we may stay a couple of days. Without really talking to each other, our friends Rich and Laura had made the same reservation. 

You have to go into the bay at mid or higher tide and remarkably we arrived at the entry of the harbor at almost the same time. 

I spent much of my time fishing as we cruised along. No, I did not catch anything, but did see a shark chase my lure for a bit.

Kim took advantage of the very calm conditions to put a coat of Teak Guard on our brightwork. Pretty crazy to be able to do that under full sails.

This is one of the many island (Cays) pronounced "Keys" that we sailed by. You can see how calm the water was.

Here is our slip at Donny's

Donny's is an icon in this area and caters to cruisers on a budget, like us.

Donny's Dock Dynasty. We met a number of other cruisers. This place was destroyed by Hurricane Dorian in 2019. It was rebuilt with the help of many cruisers that came back to help Donny out. To listen to Donny tell the story about the storm is pretty horrific. 

Green Turtle is a small island that is only about 2.5 miles long. Most of the travel on the island is by golf cart. We got around the island with a cart that Rich and Laura rented for a few days and then we rented one for a couple of days. We went to a beautiful beach that had a nice reef just off shore. We had a blast snorkeling and swimming at the beach. 

The beach on the ocean side of GTC. 

The sunsets are next level.

The black line in the crystal clear water is a reef that is full of fish to see. 

Kim, Rich and Laura and David and Paula at a restaurant overlooking the water.

Just another nice beach

They were cleaning fish on the dock above. There are 5 Nurse Sharks swimming around.

This is sun down and Sundowners restaurant.

I never get tired of these beautiful sunsets.

This is a totally different beach. We went there on a windy, stormy day.

Rich and Laura. Rich got three coconuts.

The signs in the islands are always interesting. This cart was terrible, but it got us home...barely.

A beautiful mural on a local building.

A view of the settlement of New Plymouth. It was established by loyalists to the British crown that had left the US after the Revolutionary War. 

The old Jail. 

There is evidence of the damage of Hurricane Dorian all around you. Much has been done to clean it up, but some looks like it happened yesterday. 

I just like this shot on the waterfront. The water is so clear. 

 You can not visit the Abaco's without seeing the destruction caused by Dorian. It is all around you. Many things have been rebuilt, but some structures are just a foundation. The damage is really hard to imagine. This is so much worse than any other storm damage I have seen. The people have survived and are getting on with life. The double whammy happened with COVID. They need the tourist dollars to rebuild. This is the first season since 2019, that people are coming back in large numbers, but it still has a long way to go. 

We really enjoyed Green Turtle. We ended up staying 9 days at Donny's. He has a weekly rate that is a great deal, so we started with that and then we had to wait out some more weather to leave. We finally left on January 30th. We had big hurdle to overcome next. It is something called the "Whale". What is the Whale you ask? Well come back to my next entry and I will tell you all about it.