Conditions were favorable for crossing the infamous whale passage which is notorious for its “rage” – there can be 10 foot standing waves in the cut if conditions are bad.
Today it was, to quote Don from s/v Boomerang, like “piss on a plate”.
We planned to head into White Sound at Green Turtle Cay as our 5’9” draft would never let us into to the more southern hip and happening Black Sound.
Unfortunately we had to leave Marsh Harbor at high tide to get out of our slip. That meant that we arrive at the entrance to White sound about 1.5 hours before low tide. Not ideal but the charts showed 5’6” so we figured we’d give it a go…
Promptly ran aground at the entrance of the channel. There was no way we could back ourselves off.
The local ferry with dual big diesels engines tried to tow us of – negatory. Big old Q wouldn’t budge. All we could do was to call a ‘securitee’ on the radio, warning other boaters that we were blocking the channel, open a beer and wait for the tide to come in.
Three hours later, about 7 pm we started to float off and put the engine in reverse. Headed straight for an anchorage about a mile away, dropped the hook and relaxed.
Went into historical New Plymouth, nice town, less frilly than Hopetown but very authentic stuff.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Saturday 17 April Hopetown – Marsh Harbor, Abacos 10 Miles.
Headed back to Marsh Harbor to refuel, re-water and re-provision before our crossing back to the States.
We hooked up with Innisfree, Jim returned from a quick visit to Canada so we all went to Wally’s restaurant to celebrate reunion. The food at Wally’s is the best in Marsh harbor. Our plan was to leave the next day for Green Turtle Cay but we had to wait for high tide as Q sat aground in the slip at low tide.
We hooked up with Innisfree, Jim returned from a quick visit to Canada so we all went to Wally’s restaurant to celebrate reunion. The food at Wally’s is the best in Marsh harbor. Our plan was to leave the next day for Green Turtle Cay but we had to wait for high tide as Q sat aground in the slip at low tide.
Tuesday 06 April - Saturday 17 April Hopetown, Abacos 0 Miles.
Hung out in Hopetown to recharge the batteries (ours, not the 4D AGM’s)
Jorgen’s project: Hack sawed the dinghy motor lock of – lesson learned – do not leave your dinghy motor lock on for 4.5 months in the harsh salty marine environment of the Bahamas. No amount of WD40 will undo the damage done. We need to get the lock off so we could put the Beast on the foredeck for our return journey
After 1 hours of hectic sawing in the blazing sun, three (all I had) hack saw blades later the lock came of and the neighboring boat came over in their dinghy and gave me a well deserved cold beer.
Our pals on catamaran Boomerang host a wedding ceremony abroad. The exchange of vows took place underway in the Sea of Abaco and as the bride and groom returned to harbor we all blew our horns, conchs or anything that made significant noise, as the newly weds were paraded around the harbor – congrats guys
We decided to blow out some cobwebs and rented Bicycles for the day. We cycled all the way to Tahiti Beach some many miles away over hilly terrain – now folks these bicycles only have one gear- we were so ready for a beer by the time we reached the southern tip of the island. So we bar hopped our way back and enjoyed Long Island Ice Teas at On Da Beach.
More projects: Changed oil in dinghy motor and Honda generator.
Jorgen’s project: Hack sawed the dinghy motor lock of – lesson learned – do not leave your dinghy motor lock on for 4.5 months in the harsh salty marine environment of the Bahamas. No amount of WD40 will undo the damage done. We need to get the lock off so we could put the Beast on the foredeck for our return journey
After 1 hours of hectic sawing in the blazing sun, three (all I had) hack saw blades later the lock came of and the neighboring boat came over in their dinghy and gave me a well deserved cold beer.
Our pals on catamaran Boomerang host a wedding ceremony abroad. The exchange of vows took place underway in the Sea of Abaco and as the bride and groom returned to harbor we all blew our horns, conchs or anything that made significant noise, as the newly weds were paraded around the harbor – congrats guys
We decided to blow out some cobwebs and rented Bicycles for the day. We cycled all the way to Tahiti Beach some many miles away over hilly terrain – now folks these bicycles only have one gear- we were so ready for a beer by the time we reached the southern tip of the island. So we bar hopped our way back and enjoyed Long Island Ice Teas at On Da Beach.
More projects: Changed oil in dinghy motor and Honda generator.
Tuesday 06 April – Tilloo Cay- Hopetown, Abacos 20 Miles.
We successfully wriggled into Hopetown and picked up a mooring ball in among the many boats moored there. Hopetown harbor is one huge mooring field in a beautiful setting. We moored up ahead of a minor cold front and when it came it blew hard enough that we were glad to be in the protected harbor. Hopetown’s famous landmark is the red and white striped lighthouse at the entrance. The lighthouse is still manually operated and is open to the public. We climbed to the top and got a great view of the islands below us.
Sunday 04 April –Man O’ war Cay – Tilloo Cay, Abacos 20 Miles.
Our pals on Innisfree were cooking up a storm for Easter Sunday Dinner aboard. We had starved ourselves especially for the occasion and headed over for drinks and dinner at 5pm – Gwenn what a feast, very yummy tucker
Well there weren’t any Easter eggs anywhere so no chocolate eggs were had – note to self I must remember this next year and make up for lack of chocolate eggs
Before leaving Tiloo we headed over for a beer at Cracker P’s, another famous watering hole in the Abacos – fun spot but arrived at opening hour so the place wasn’t really rockin' yet. We had leave so we could enter Hopetown at high tide
Well there weren’t any Easter eggs anywhere so no chocolate eggs were had – note to self I must remember this next year and make up for lack of chocolate eggs
Before leaving Tiloo we headed over for a beer at Cracker P’s, another famous watering hole in the Abacos – fun spot but arrived at opening hour so the place wasn’t really rockin' yet. We had leave so we could enter Hopetown at high tide
Thursday 01 April – Marsh Harbor – Man O’ war Cay, Abacos 10 Miles.
After having re-provisioned and taken care of chores such as extending our Bahamian visas we were ready to get out of Marina Land and go anchor off a pristine beach somewhere. So we headed to Man-O-war Cay.
The holding wasn’t great so we reset the anchor a little closer to shore. We were all settled in when our neighbor dinghied over and informed us that he had anchored in the same spot and had snagged a submerged power line, well go figure we had snagged the same one! So here we are head by 220 volts wrapped in plastic yikes!
We bobbled about in our dinghy with our look-see bucket and surveyed the situation – there was the anchor with power cable and coral head combined – not fun stuff – Jorgen came up with the brilliant idea of using our dinghy danforth anchor to trip our main anchor – we just wanted to get off this cable ASAP!! The trick worked great and we reanchored Querencia in trouble free waters.
s/v Dana joined us the following day and we went walkabout on the island – very quaint places with great golf cart roads. Dinner celebrations aboard Querencia before Dana headed north on their return journey to the USA – safe travels Jim and Bonnie!
The holding wasn’t great so we reset the anchor a little closer to shore. We were all settled in when our neighbor dinghied over and informed us that he had anchored in the same spot and had snagged a submerged power line, well go figure we had snagged the same one! So here we are head by 220 volts wrapped in plastic yikes!
We bobbled about in our dinghy with our look-see bucket and surveyed the situation – there was the anchor with power cable and coral head combined – not fun stuff – Jorgen came up with the brilliant idea of using our dinghy danforth anchor to trip our main anchor – we just wanted to get off this cable ASAP!! The trick worked great and we reanchored Querencia in trouble free waters.
s/v Dana joined us the following day and we went walkabout on the island – very quaint places with great golf cart roads. Dinner celebrations aboard Querencia before Dana headed north on their return journey to the USA – safe travels Jim and Bonnie!
More From Marsh Harbor
Hitched a ride from our friends Jim and Gwenn on sailing catamaran Innisfree and headed over to Great Guana Cay to the famous Nippers. We heard the Pig Roast was a big to-do!
Nippers looked like a spring break gone wrong, we were surrounded by wasted amateurs- but a least we can chalk it off the list. Innisfree stayed at the Orchid Bay Marina so the crew from Q and Dana took the ferry back to Marsh Harbor.
Nippers looked like a spring break gone wrong, we were surrounded by wasted amateurs- but a least we can chalk it off the list. Innisfree stayed at the Orchid Bay Marina so the crew from Q and Dana took the ferry back to Marsh Harbor.
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