Moored at Man-O-War, Abacos

I was up at 2:08 am Wednesday. Knowing the demands of the long day ahead of us, I opted to try to get another 40 minutes of sleep. I am glad Myron set a 3 am alarm, because I fell back asleep and we both slept soundly until that alarm went off. I peeked outside and saw our traveling buddies, Selene, were up and ready with their running lights on. We had prepared the night before, so we were anchor up in under five minutes of waking.

It was not bad negotiating the harbor entrance in the dark. It is lit with a red and green, a rarity around here, plus we now have a powerful handheld light to put some daylight on the rocks. We got the main up outside the harbor and headed for the Egg Island cut. That is one of the best cuts in the Bahamas and probably one of the few I do not mind negotiating in the dark, particularly with the chart plotter, radar and the handheld light. Our last night challenge was the trap floats outside the cut. We came across two.

Initially, there was only 10 knots on our quarter. We had all sails out and the motor on to make our flood tide on the other end of the 50 mile trip. As the wind increased we were able to take out the motor. I could see lightening toward Great Abaco and the stars were blocked out by dark clouds behind us, but throughout our crossing the squalls kept their distance. We had about a five foot swell out of the northeast and seas building with the winds from the southeast. One lure was out, but we only got a few bites. I suspect the fish were too small for the 12 inch lure.

We made it through little Harbor Cut in the Abacos without incident. It was not until we were on the banks and heading for Man-O-War Cay that we got 20 knots or so associated with a large squall going over Marsh Harbor and to the north. Naturally, our speed increased with the increased winds. We had already given Barry an ETA and had to contact him again to tell him our ETA would now be 25 minutes earlier.

Barb and her friend, Barbara, were on Beach Cruiser in the eastern harbor and welcomed us into MOW Cay with the unique sound of the conch horn. Barry led us to a reserved mooring well up the eastern harbor near Charlie's dock. It is good to be back.

We ate, showered, and fell quickly asleep. The downside is that we are awake now and it is midnight. We should get back on a regular schedule within a day or so. As will happen in constant use of Hold Fast, we had some equipment failures. We are now in a mode of preparing punch lists, pricing out replacements and generally considering all the work we need to do in the yard this year. That is just a part of responsible boating and we try not to let it dampen our joy.

Love to all,
Dena

{GMST}26°35.32'N|077°00.00'W|3/26/2015|12:00 AM{GEND}