A long sail to the Abacos

After 2 nights in Spanish Wells we regrettably left the shelter where we moored and headed out for our trip to Little Harbor, Abaco, The trip is about 60 miles from mooring to mooring and the wind forecast was for 15-20 out of the SW for a perfect beam reach.

Saturday night before we left we had dinner at the Shipyard. This was the view from our table and a picture of Linda imitating a palm tree.

As we left the small channel that is the main entry into Spanish Wells we came out into 25+ knots which was not as advertised. Fortunately with the shallow water and limited fetch at that point the waves weren’t too large so we were able to motor into the wind to the point where we could clear Egg Island  and turn north.

Just before we made the turn we heard a loud pop and a big drop in the dinghy. The transom of the dinghy was held up by a mounting wire and the far leg broke leaving the dinghy hanging at a severe angle. I had strung security lines around the dink to reduce the swinging so they kept it from falling off. With no options for safe harbor we continued on and turned while I quickly strung a dock line around the engine bracket to help hold the weight. Then I got out our spinnaker sheet and tied it to the mounting bracket in the transom and ran it up over the arch to the turning block for our spinnaker and back to the jib winch. Since we would be sailing on port tack we could use the port winch. We then winched the dinghy back up to level and I tightened the line on the motor and the dinghy was secure.

After finishing with the dinghy we went to sails and had a great sail over the remaining 50 miles to Little Harbor, Abaco. Winds were from 7-25 kts mostly out of the SW until we got closer to Abaco where they became more westerly and we went to a close reach. With the wave action it was hard to keep a consistent speed but we made the 50 mile trip from Egg Island to Abaco in about 7 hours. 

The sun rising as we prepare to leave and a view along the way

There were 2 boats we found on AIS about 10 miles ahead of us that no doubt also came from Spanish Wells. They were far to the east of us initially so they must have come out the east pass which would have been a lot closer but is strewn with reefs and coral heads so I deemed it too risky in the conditions having never done it before. Instead we did the slog into the winds and probably added 10 miles to the trip. We are continually amazed at how fast and comfortable at sea this boat is.

The entrance to Little Harbor is narrow and shallow. At low tide the channel is less than 5’. We came in at high tide and got low water alarms. Once inside we found a very sheltered mooring to hold us in the gusty winds. After securing the boat we dinghied into famed Pete’s Pub for his famed Blaster’s and enjoyed the shade of the surrounding palm trees.

Just before the sun set we went back to our boat for a great dinner of vegetable pasta with wine sauce and the rest of the bottle of wine.

Next is just wait for the tide to come in on Monday to continue heading north.