view from where I am writing this blog

We left Eleuthera because of an upcoming weather front, so we left Cape Eleuthera and headed towards Spanish Wells.  we decided since it was such a calm and beautiful day, that we would just go straight across Cape Eleuthera to the top of the island.  We did not have a lot of navigational information on Eleuthera, and since I am the navigator, I thought the fact that there wasn’t any information on our track was okay.  About half way, we were dodging coral heads and small submersed islands in very shallow water. Apparently, we had entered uncharted territory!  We were very happy to see Garmin navigational information pop up again!  we anchored at Royal Island and wanted to get an early start the next day to head to the Abacos.

The crossing from the Eleuthera to the Abacos was exciting.  We had pretty heavy winds and lots of sea!  We had rollers in the 8-10 feet range and they were only seconds apart.  David did a superb job of sailing the boat and Sassy was a sturdy boat.  We pulled into a marina out in the middle of nowhere and were very happy to be there.  It is a new development and is going to be great.  We ended up staying there 2 nights to wait for the right window to sail into the sea of Abaco.

This part of the Bahamas is more Floridian than the Exumas.  These islands are called the loyalist Cays because they were settled during the revolutionary war by people who were loyal to the king.  So, a good amount of the local Bahamians are white.  There is another group who emigrated here in the 1700’s for religious freedom.  Religion is very strong in the Bahamas.  I attended a mass on the beach in Hopetown…was lovely!

Marsh harbour is the largest town…although it is primarily a reprovisioning harbor.  Not long on charm.  But the surrounding islands make up for it.  Elbow Cay is charming…with one of the last hand manned lighthouses.

For my birthday, we sailed up to Great Guana Cay and had a lovely time with fellow cruisers.  This is definitely one of my favorite islands.  We leave tomorrow to go back to Marsh Harbor to do laundry, etc before I fly out to Los Cabos to join my 3 sisters for our sisters week.  Then I will brave the cold of PA for a couple of days and come back down to Treasure Cay.  We will then head on to Green Turtle Cay and over to Ft Lauderdale.  Green Turtle Cay was the destination of this whole trip from the Chesapeake, so it will be nice to finally get there.

Still having an adventure and enjoying it, but it will be 6 months soon and I will be ready for a couple of weeks, maybe months on land!

Love to all,

Katie & David

Cute house on elbow cay

Peters Pub and Gallery in Little Harbor

Hopetown Harbor

cruisers Hootenanny