Visiting the Abacos...Buddy Boats and More!

OK, you may have noticed that I have been using boat names for our new friends we have met on our journey. This is for two reasons, first is privacy. I feel since this is going online that we should respect the privacy of the people we meet. The second is that I suck at names and looking up everyone we meet on boat cards, yes this is a thing, while writing a blog is not something I want to do. Boat cards are exactly as they sound, cards that have a boat's name as well as the owners and some form of contact. Nikki and I did not have boat cards printed up as we had no idea that they even existed. It will be months before we get them printed. 

On this journey, we had the great pleasure of traveling with Turnerbout to explore the Abacos. It was now our third time crossing the Gulf Stream but this time we left from Lake Santa Barbara, Pompano Beach. It was an easy motor over. We tried to sail a couple of times but the wind angle was not working. We left on April 5th at 13:30 and arrived at Great Sale Cay and dropped anchor at 13:30 the next day. After a short stop, we were off to Green Turtle Cay and Donny’s Marina to grab a mooring ball and hang out for a few days. Green Turtle Cay is a nice little stop with good restaurants and walks. 

The Catamaran Guru was hosting a rally over at Tahiti Beach and we thought this could be a ton of fun. We headed out to Tahiti Beach and wow, what a great spot. It reminded me of Zlatni Rat in Croatia. This was a great spot and Zorro loved the easy access and they had a food and beverage barge right at the beach. We joined a race from Tahiti Beach to Fishers Bay and a dinner at a great beach bar. Nice to meet and mingle with other cruisers and partake in the fun and games that Catamaran Guru hosted.

We spent a couple of more days at Tahiti Beach, love this spot, then we were off to Little Harbour for a day which has a great bar with an amazing sunset, an art gallery and there are several sculptures on the waterfront.

As it was now mid-May we needed to start working our way back toward the US because our insurance provider required that we be North of Hatteras, North Carolina by June 1st. Turnerbout needed to pick up some family at Marsh Harbour so we elected to go there and anchor in a protected area. 

We headed out to explore Hope Town.  Hope Town was co-founded in 1785 by Wyannie Malone, a widow from South Carolina who traveled with her four children for safe refuge after the American Revolution. The community of Hope Town has done a tremendous job in the preservation and education of its past. We walked the town, which turned into quite an epic walk in the heat, checked out the lighthouse - which was surprisingly hard to find since we could clearly see it.

After we finally found it and explored we ended up hitching a ride in a golf cart part way back from a woman who was painting a mural at the local school. It was appreciated as we were so hot by this time! 

The next day we explored the town a bit more and found a cool museum and coffee shop that showed you what life was like back in the 1800s

We went on a dinghy mangrove tour on Manjack Cay there were so many turtles!

We snorkled a few different reefs and had a great time exploring the Abacos with Turnerbout. 

But Zorro was not feeling well and not eating. After 3 days We decided to get him to a vet. This can be a challenge in the Bahamas. We managed to get an appointment back in Marsh Harbour, an 8 hour sail in the wrong direction, we are now backtracking to get him checked out. Separating from Turnerbout we headed to our vet appointment. After a quick check we determined that some x rays were needed to see if he had an obstruction. Nothing there so possibly a bug or maybe stressed from moving around and sailing. 

We were running out of time to get out of the Bahamas and above Hatteras before June 1st. We worked our way to Fox Town as a jumping off spot to get back to the US. Unfortunately the weather was not cooperating with us and our needs. We need a weather window of about 5 days to get up to Norfolk, Virginia by June 1st. In a past post I talked about how insurance companies require that you are out of the hurricane zone from June 1st until November 30th. For us we need to get above Hatteras North Carolina by June 1st, this pretty much means getting into The Chesapeake Bay and Norfolk Virginia since there aren’t any good anchorages around Hatteras. But with so many storms and bad weather we had to make a decision. We could risk it and fight the storms and bad weather to sail all the way to Norfolk and be on our insurer's good side. Or we could detour and head to Charleston, South Carolina and sit out the storms and then work our way north when a better and safer weather window comes. 

Next blog: Which way did we go Norfolk or Charleston and how was the sail?