One of the
common themes this winter has been the weather.
Here in the Abacos there has been a cold front coming through about
every week. Fortunately, most have not
had much rain or lightning, but the winds pick up from the south before the
front, and they clock west then north as the front passes through. That makes for short weather windows to cross
from the States or go through the whale (the passage from Marsh Harbour to
Green Turtle). It has made for extremely
pleasant temperatures, and most days have been sunny and mild. The wind, however, has been a nemesis. Yesterday the wind was mild, but the sea still
had 7-9’ rollers from the stout north wind from the past few days. Yesterday around 8:00 am we heard a Mayday
call on the VHF radio. A 40’ sailboat attempted
to cross the whale and the boat was swamped by the rollers as they crested when
hitting the shallow (10-20’) water in the whale passage. The sailboat did not have enough power to
battle the cresting waves and swamped. All
of us at the marina were glued to our radios as the rescue played out. At first a 60’ motor yacht spotted three
survivors in their dinghy. Due to the
rough seas, they could not transfer from the dinghy to the yacht, so the yacht
took the dinghy in tow. Then the tow
line broke and the yachtsman could not find the dinghy due to the steep
waves. Luckily a rescue boat set out
from Baker’s Bay, and found the dinghy and towed them to calmer waters. The sailors were brought to our marina and
had to book passage to Nassau to go to the American Embassy to get new
passports so they could re-enter the US.
What an ordeal!
With that thought
in mind, there is a small weather window opening April 1. We plan to cross to Ft. Pierce, FL that
day. We will reluctantly depart Green
Turtle Saturday and make our way to a staging ground to cross over. Hopefully the weather gurus are correct! If not, we will divert to West End on Grand
Bahama and wait.
Even though
we haven’t been able to take the boat out much since Ken and Allyson left, we
have made the most of our stay. We explored
the island by golf cart and went to many beaches where we were the only souls
there. One of the nice things about
boating is the comradery with other boaters.
We made new friends and enjoyed dock tails on each other’s boat. As usual we have met people with connections
to Houma/Thibodaux and have mutual friends.
It is a small world.
The boat to
our port is a Viking sport fisherman and it charters out. We made friends with the captain and mate,
and they told us it was even too rough for them to go out the whale this
morning. To our starboard is even a
bigger Viking. It is run by a nice
captain and mate who are employed by the owner.
They took his daughter out a few days ago and scored a big Wahoo in the rough
seas. They earn their money!
Alexis and I
chartered a bottom fishing trip during one of the calm days and scored a mess
of strawberry grouper. We have had a steady
stream of fish and lobster while here, and eating has been what we do….
We both have
thoroughly enjoyed staying in the Abacos for three months. In the past we have always gone south to the Exumas,
Eleuthera, and the Berry Islands. This
year staying in the relatively protected Sea of Abaco, we completely
unwound. I read over a dozen books, and
we enjoyed the slow pace of staying in one area. The Abacos probably have more nice
restaurants and bars than anywhere outside Nassau. We have sampled too many of them! It is time to return to the US!
Why I don't own a sailboat..
