Leaving the shelter

We’re now in passage mode again. We left Man O War Cay this morning about 930 and motored the short 8 miles over to Great Guana Cay. When we started out the wind was only about 5 kt but in the middle of the Sea of Abaco it increased to about 10 kts and we could have sailed. But, we had less than an hour to go so I decided we would just motor to our destination. I will have to change the engine oil in St Augustine when we get there so motoring is not a worry. I changed it in Marathon and currently have about 110 hour on the oil. The manual says to change it every 150 hours.

The Albury Ferry heading into Settlement Harbor on Great Guana Cay.

We got a mooring in Fishers Bay in Great Guana Cay and there were no other boats here. We dropped the dink and ran into the Dive Guana dock. 8 years ago when we chartered here I did a dive with them so it was déjà vu. Anyway we inquired at the dive shop about paying the mooring fee and the young fellow who was holding down the shop while his boss was away said someone would be out in the morning to collect. We told him we expected to leave early. He said to stop back later. We did and the shop was closed.

Anyway, we walked over to Nippers for lunch and to hung out at the bar. What a cool place. It is what every dock bar wants to be. A cool bar, lots of different seating arrangements, a cool pool, wifi and a beautiful beach. Add to that a great view and you have it. Plus it doesn’t get cold here (or at least too cold). After lunch we went for a swim until the skies looked threatening.

This afternoon a storm blew up and while it didn’t come by here there was lightning and thunder in the distance so we came back to the boat to be sure everything was secured and to be on the boat in case of any emergency. The storm never got here so we just chilled out.

At 5 o’clock or actually later we dinghied in to Grabbers Beach bar which was at the end of the Bay. When we were here 8 yrs ago our crew had dinner there one night. Well the bar was also way cool. So we worked email and enjoyed a couple of Red Stripes. Seems they were out of Sands Beer and lobster (plus a few other things). Not sure why they were inventory challenged (other than lobster is out of season) because one of the things I’ve noticed about the Abacos compared to the Exumas is they seem to get freight here regularly. In the Exumas they said they got mailboats at least 3 times a month but nobody knew when. In Man O War I saw freight deliveries 3 times this week. I guess the Abacos have a better logistics system.

Tomorrow we go through the infamous Whale passage. It is frequently very difficult but we’ll see.

More tomorrow.