Discovering Abaco islands

 > Fri Apr 1st 2022 - Arrived at uninhabited Great Sale Cay after a daytime passage of 8 hrs. We transited the Indian Rock Pass just north of West End, raised our sails in 18 knots of wind, and had a glorious sail to our destination, no motoring! Water was the beautiful turquoise the Bahamas is known for. Anchored near the cay with a few other boats. Spent 2 wet nights there with harrowing thunderstorms/lightning strikes all around us, freaking hate that! And man, does it rain in buckets. Rob was running around putting our iPads, phones and modems in the microwave and oven, apparently believing they were some sort of faraday cage. On our first morning one of the vessels approached us to enquire if we  were headed back to the US; they had been the victim of a lightning strike resulting in all their electronics being fried and were probably looking for someone to follow back home. 😳 Maybe Rob was right? We had the tallest mast of all the boats there, so guessing we were lucky. 

> Sun Apr 3rd 2022 - Set sail for the Abaco islands. Anchored  at Manjack Cay, a beautiful and quiet anchorage. Spent a few days exploring the area via dinghy and jumping in the water for the first time. The water was very shallow and crystal clear. We spotted an abundance of evil looking barracuda and a couple of big turtles. Rob spent hours in the water cleaning the hulls and got seasick!🤣

> Wed Apr 6th 2022 - Arrived in Elbow Cay after motoring into the wind for 6 hours and anchored south of Hope Town just off Firefly restaurant. Nice and quiet. Dinghy-ed into Hope Town the next day  walked around the quintessential Bahamian town with the candy-striped lighthouse, a gorgeous little town, a collection of colorful ‘tiny’ homes. Rob demanded we find Vernon’s Bakery, we found it (not hard to do) and Vernon. What a dear old soul with a deep connection to the ‘motherland’. The lemon meringue pie was superb. Back at the boat we fired up the water maker for the first time, a little nerve racking. What does one do without water?  All is well, and we now have an abundance of ‘free’ water, all power necessary coming from our solar array. Gerda swam a few laps around the boat for exercise, dove the anchor, making sure it was securely set.  

> Fri Apr 8th 2022 - Moved over to an anchorage just outside of Marsh Harbour on the other side of the Sea of Abaco to escape the changing wind direction for a few nights. Decided to brave the large grocery store in Marsh Harbor to get some fresh produce and milk and we’re pleasantly surprised by the abundance of good  produce! Marsh Harbor is still showing a lot of Dorian hurricane damage, which was quite depressing. 

> Sun Apr 10th 2022 - Set sail for Lynyard Cay, about 14 NM South. It was sweater weather so no getting in the water. The plan was to snorkel at Sandy Cay, but we wimped out as it was cool and water choppy.

> Mon Apr 11th 2022 - Left for Shearpin Cay. Only about 3NM as the crow flies, but we had to go around a large shallow sand bar so took us about 2 hours. Just hung out for a few days, did some chores. Amazing how much time/co-ordination laundry takes on a boat, even with having a washing machine. Washing needs to be co-ordinated with making water and switching the generator on. And while it is a combo washer/dryer the drying part takes hours, so it is quicker to hang the laundry to dry in the sun (at least microfiber material dries super fast!) Went for a walk on the beach and crossed the cay for a view of the ocean on the other side. Beautiful view, but forgot our camera. 😟 Also went for a quick snorkel on the sand bank in crystal clear water.

> Thu Apr 14th 2022 - Left for Tahiti Beach on the south of Elbow Cay to meet up with our sailing friends John and Jeff on sailing catamaran ‘Free Indeed’(they accompanied us on the passage south) and their better half’s Janice and Amy. We spent a wonderful evening on their boat having a great dinner cooked by Janice. Next day the 2 of us went for a pleasant walk around a quaint neighborhood on the Cay with the most beautiful ocean views. Winds picked up and rotated 180 degrees on Friday evening, gusting 25-30 knots accompanied by torrential rain. We swung dangerously  close to shore forcing evasive action to move and re-anchor in deteriorating conditions, a little scary but we managed. 😳👏 We discovered our ‘marriage savers’ (headsets) don’t work when saturated. Gerda is a rock, she’s helms the vessel in these situations like a seasoned veteran. I (Rob) am so grateful she has picked this up so quickly otherwise we would be SOL. Muti behaves like a sail in anything more than a moderate wind, the situation goes pear-shaped really fast and things break. Broken equipment in the islands remains broken unless we have a spare onboard. 

> Sat Apr 16th 2022 - Left for Man-of-War Cay with our friends, the ladies left to fly back home and we said our goodbyes. Did some boat chores: made water and did laundry (theme?) after which we went for a quick walk around the island, rebuilding after hurricane Dorian was nowhere to be found on this island, the devastation still very apparent. We found some British chocolate! Decided not to spend the night.

> Sat Apr 16th 2022 - Left for Great Guana Cay. While anchoring Rob saw a shark in the water; guess who swam after hearing the Jaws music.🤣 Dinghy-ed over to Settlement harbor, walked to Nippers restaurant for lunch on the ocean side, fun experience and lovely view. They are still rebuilding the restaurant but it’s a magic spot regardless. We are still learning a lot - dinghy engine cutout on the way back to Muti from the beach, panic ensued (Rob of course), fuel line had vibrated loose. Tied up our dinghy at the dock to go for lunch at Nippers; came back to find the dinghy stuck on the sand as the tide had receded. We will now pay attention to the tides. 😳