Sea Glass Hunting on Lynyard Cay

Good news today - Karen's foot is much improved. Apparently shaking a leg at the Barefoot Man concert was good for her foot.

A long travel day by Abaco standards - 25 nm from Great Guana Cay to Lynyard Cay. Karen wants more Sea Glass and Jill and Wayne on Born to cruise offered to show us the "good stuff", and they did - we found a bunch!!

The trip down was okay - left Great Guana around 9 am then 7 nm of on the nose motoring then we motor sailed down to the Pelican Cays, then pulled in the sail and motored across the north bar - pretty rolly with 4 - 5 foot rollers but it was only about 2 miles.

Anchored easily at Lynyard just off the sailors signing beach (a place where flotsam and jetsam is hung in a tree with the sailor's names and boat name and date signed on the piece. We have one hanging there from a previous trip.

No internet connection down here so it will be a couple of days before we get one - probably Monday. If you need to contact me use the SSB Radio email address - wd0etl@winlink.org.

There are actually about 10 boats strung along the Cay this afternoon - thought we would have it all to ourselves.. Ohh well plenty of room.

Should be a great night with a ¾ moon and clear skies and NO light pollution. Just need to get to bed earlier. Jill and Wayne had us up till nearly 10:30pm playing Farkle and Mexican Train Dominoes - p

Barefootman concert

Made it to the Barefoot Man concert. This is a big deal in the Abacos. Never heard of him before we came and never heard of him after but he is good. Fortunately it was not too crowded probably because it was cool and also on a weekday.

We met the crews from Celtic Cross and Born to cruise and Flash II over there. Stone McCuen opened and was pretty good but the Barefootman was the real draw.

Folks were pretty well behaved and nothing outrageous occurred but we didn’t stay till the end. We left around 3:30pm and stopped at Milos fruit stand for some fresh veggies and fruits --- Milos has the best.

We are planning to fix dinner for the crew of Born to cruise and maybe have a “Games night” over here tonight.

I would write more but I need to help with dinner and this PC is giving me problems tonight., Hopefully the pictures will display.. Enjoy.

Ghost town in Marsh Harbour Anchorage

Hmmm something bad happened to yesterdays BLOG entry... I didn't see it this time and I looked for it in the edit area and found it listed under February 27th "Some days are better than others".. I'll see if I can get it put in the right area...


Just a quiet day here in the anchorage. The wind is strong but the fetch is small. Comfortable on the boat but rough at the dinghy landing. The anchorage has cleared out quite a bit too since so many boats went to Guana Cay yesterday and today to wait for the Barefootman concert tomorrow.

I made a trip to town to get an ACE bandage for Karen’s foot. Seems to be better than yesterday but still favoring it.

I tried to buy some Conch Salad but my Conch man George still has not shone up!! I guess he just doesn’t like the wind.

Speaking of the wind -- it is getting monotonous and on top of that the radio is full of talk from folks planning to stage to head back to Florida – Grrrr – it is too early to start that mindset. Unfortunately once the “seed” of going home is planted it is difficult to think of anything else.

Not sure if we will make it to the Barefootman concert now. If Karen’s foot is still sore we probably won’t go. That and the anchorage has cleared out here in Marsh and I have a great spot that has been tested by strong winds so I’m inclined to leave the hook down especially if Karen’s foot needs some professional attention – too early to tell yet.

Also it is blowing 15 – 20kts and the ride up to Guana Cay will be rough and it is already crowded and the holding is POOR. Better to stay put here today and head up tomorrow morning with forecast 10 –15 kt winds. We will just have to watch the forecast though.

Now this Cold front was COLD!!

Brrrrr - coldest day of the year I believe. It was 55 degrees this morning when I got up!!

What a night - dead calm.. Great contrast to all the wind that came yesterday. The weather forecast looks great for the rest of the week although I should have thought about that wind direction a little more before making our plans today.

We left about 9 am with the intention of running the whole length of the hub of Abacos - Treasure Cay to near Little Harbour. We intended to go to Tiloo Pond for the night and do some sea glass hunting. We had a nice light wind aft of us leaving Treasure Cay a little more west in it than I expected but it was supposed to go North then NE. Once we got down past Boat Harbour near Witch Point the wind was still W-NW at 300 degrees and increasing. Lots of white caps and heading into Tiloo Pond -
thus we will be on a lee shore with the swell coming at us. Not good. We diverted to the Turret under Tavern Cay on Tiloo Cay but found it very inhospitable. Bouncing and rocks all around. We thought about Snake Cay but if the wind does go N to NE then that will be bad and the holding is not good there.

Thus I swallowed my pride and backed up 6 miles and anchored in the NW corner near Boat Harbour. Quite sheltered in this wind. Unfortunately it was now 3pm and most of the day has gone by. Ohh well at least it should be a quiet night.

There were already 4 boats here so plenty of room to anchor. I dropped the CQR into the sand and grass and it did not connect. Ohh well fool me once shame on me fool me twice shame on you. I retrieved the anchor then dropped the 22lb Delta and it bit immediately.. Ohhh well we are secure for the night.

I thought internet would be good here because of the proximity to Boat Harbour but it is not. Karen is not impressed. The only good thing is we have an excellent view of the Out Island Doctor's Castle in the air from here. The book is great and I recommend it to all sailors coming to the Bahamas - "Out Island Doctor" by Evans Cottman.

Now to rethink the plans for this week!!!

Weathering Cold front passage in Treasure Cay

Fortunately the cold front did not pack much of a punch when it got here – no strong squalls just a little rain. The holding in Treasure Cay is very good although one large trawler kept resetting an anchor in the wee hours this morning. I was awakened about 1 am by the sound of a bow thruster near my head. Then I heard the low rumble of a diesel just outside. A quick look and sure enough a trawler that had been anchored behind us was trying to re-anchor next to us – not doing very well watching him drag back on the anchor. I watched awhile and felt sorry for him because it is tough to anchor in a crowed anchorage and to do it the dark and rain – just miserable.

He moved off and tried another location and when his motor sounded distant I went back to bed. Ten minutes later he was back trying next to me again. It was bad. Finally he moved out in the channel and dropped the hook. I suspect he worked at it for more than an hour. At one point I saw he was using a Danforth style anchor and was clearing grass from it before trying again. I don’t think the Danforth style is appropriate her in sand and rock. Need something with a point that you can bury.

It has been a moderate blow all day but no really big gusts. Probably 14 – 17 with an infrequent gust to 20. The temps have turned chilly – low to mid 60s so we are just relaxing on board and Karen made some bread today – ohhh smells good.

We made one trip to town to mail some letters to the USA – 1st class postage is .65 cents to USA. Hit the grocery store for a minor provisioning run and get ready to go to the lesser-visited areas here in the hub of the Abacos. Plan to be back to Fishers Bay by Friday morning so we can go to the Barefootman concert in the afternoon.

As a long shot – if the weather is right then head across Whale Cay passage to Green Turtle Cay and spend the remainder of March up in that area planning to head back to the USA late March or early April . Gosh I can’t believe I said that. Scared myself. Ohhh well still plenty of time to enjoy the Abacos yet.

Some days are better than others

Some days you wake up and you just know it is not going to be a good day. Well today is one of those days…

It started when I drew water for coffee this morning. The water ran then stopped. The pump would not come on. A quick investigation showed a fuse had blown… I replaced the fuse and it worked okay then. Wonder what happened??

It was a restless sleep last night. After dark the wind increased and it got kind of bouncy in the anchorage -- more a surge than waves. Not terrible just irritating. The wind finally seemed to lay down after midnight and it wasn’t too bad. Just glad we didn’t try one of our alternative anchorages down south – it would have been bad.

Once I got moving this morning and did the BASRA weather net I realized there is going to be more wind than previously forecast – thus plans needed to be changed. We decided to head back to Marsh Harbour where it would be protected and we could do some provisioning in case we go north of Whale Cay this weekend.

I had trouble getting the anchor up. First the chain wrapped on the stub of the CQR that I had hanging and I had to clear that. Then I pulled the Delta in using the windlass until I reached the chain and then had to go hand over hand with the help from the helm. It did not go well and at one point I pulled the chain from the bow roller into the space between the 2 bow rollers and the chain jammed. I couldn’t free it so I just bypassed and pulled the chain up without the bow roller. Once underway I still couldn’t clear the jammed chain and had to resort to a hammer!!

AS we passed by Matt Lowe Cay the water was calm but once facing South MOW cut we saw 20 – 22 kts of wind and 2 –3 foot seas nearly on the bow. We were splashing a lot of water on the enclosure – this was unexpected.

We continued on and it was rough to Point Set Rock then we turned for Marsh and had it all on the stern and it was just a bit rolly. Once in the harbour it was relatively calm.

The anchorage was not crowded because several boats had already left for Great Guana Cay to anchor for the Barefootman concert on Friday – good luck it would have been rough today and more wind is expected tonight and tomorrow now.

We anchored with no difficulty and the big ol CQR stuck the first time here in Marsh. Good thing because I did not want that headache.

I tried to get my conch salad but the conch man had taken the day off. For some reason he doesn’t like working when it blows hard or is cold.

We relaxed and had a leisurely lunch. Then Karen noticed the water flow in the aft head sink was no go. Hmmm worked everywhere else – I’ll investigate later. Also the fresh water pump was not pumping like it used to and the foot pump was acting strange.


We went to the grocery and picked up a few things. On the way Karen stepped in a depression along the road and hurt her foot!! Not terrible and she walked it off.

Back on the boat I troubleshot the water system – made no sense. Would not pump now at all, even the foot pump would not pump, and the aft head sink faucet was clogged with fine sediment… I disconnected hoses and blew into them and verified a clear path and put it all back together and it works fine.. What’s going on??? Time will tell.

Now that Karen relaxed her foot hurts – what’s wrong with that?? I told you it is just not a good day.. That and on the radio we here the alert going up at Great Guana Cay for a boat already dragging anchor up there and it is not crowded yet!!

I suspect our plans are changing again now.

Just Blowing in the Wind

Ahhhh it is that time of the month and time to display another Miss Kalik – March – enjoy..

This is an interesting cold front passage. The day started calm and the wind has built steadily from 5 knots to 25 kts then back to 15 kts right now. The squalls and actually frontal passage is not expected for another 6 hours. Currently everyone here in the anchorage is just hunkered down. Most boats have folks in the cockpits relaxing and reading and watching other boats – looking for that first sign of a boat dragging. Unbelievably – because the holding is so good here – one boat did drag early on this afternoon but re-anchored with no difficulty. We all keep our VHFs on and on channel 68 so if something happens we are all alerted early.;

I’ve also posted a picture of a great example of a “Stacked Pack Sail” enjoy Craig.. This is probably the type of sail system I’ll go to on this boat. I really dislike the Dutchman system that is on here now.

Other than that we are just doing odds and ends today – repairing hems on flags, light cleaning and a lot of reading. In advance of forecast strong rain squalls we have already stored the dinghy in the davits and will just stay aboard tonight however it does seem to be quieting down right now – probably the calm before the storm. One thing I have learned is that if the wind is blowing strong and then suddenly lightens up - it is because there is a wind shift occurring and it will be back in a vengeance post haste.

Tomorrow is forecast to be quite windy then calm in the late afternoon. We expect if the forecast holds that we will leave Tuesday and head down to Tillo Cay to do some shell/sea glass hunting.