Elbow Cay - Little Harbour - Apr 16-18

Time to continue south just a little further. Tuesday morning we left Hope Town and cruised 16 miles to Lynard Cay.

As the crow flies, our anchorage for the night was only 12 miles away but due to having to zigzag around shallow banks, we put 16 miles under the hull.  The shoreline in the area is more ocean eroded rocks and caves than sandy beaches. In fact, we found many Sea Biscuits evidently deposited on the rocks during storms. Strange site! 

Wednesday morning we had planned to move 3 miles south to Little Harbour located at the southern most point of the Sea of Abaco. Upon reviewing depths and tides, we opted to leave the mother ship where she was and took the dinghy to visit Little Harbour.  The small harbor was very beautiful with both beach and caves surrounding it. Lunch was a hoot at the iconic Pete’s Pub. Toes in the sand, cheeseburger and coconut cracked conch in paradise. Favorite lunch stop of the trip! By mid afternoon we were back on PV2 and headed north.  We traveled a short 8 miles to Tilloo Cay.  As we were dropping the hook, a large shark swam up to help the captain check the anchor. No diving over this anchor! This cove also offered many ray, jellyfish and turtle sightings.

A sea biscuit stuck on the rocks

Fun stuff!

Little Harbour-Oceanside 

Pete’s Pub

Boater memorabilia hung everywhere 

Speed bump Bahama style

Rays in our anchorage 

Man-O-War Cay-Elbow Cay - Apr 13-16

Saturday we cruised a short 5 miles from Man-O-War Cay to Marsh Harbour.

Marsh Harbour is the largest town in the Abacos. It is located on Great Abaco Island. It was time for provisioning so we anchored out in the harbor for 2 nights. Besides stocking up on supplies, we enjoyed dining at the local restaurants and a small amount of shopping therapy for the first mate. The highlight of our stay here was a fabulous dinghy adventure to stunning Matt Lowe Cay and snorkeling Mermaid Reef. 

Monday we crossed back to the barrier islands to Hope Town located on Elbow Cay.  Hope Town is a picturesque settlement and is home of the famous red & white Elbow Reef Lighthouse.  This is one of the few manually operated, kerosene lit, fresnel lens lighthouses remaining in the world.  Climbing to the top of the lighthouse was great exercise and was well worth the climb. The panoramic view from the top was awesome! 

Cruising the shore of Matt Lowe Cay

Just outside Marsh Harbour

OK...which one of you guys bit Sheli’s finger?

Still got all 10!

Where’s Nemo?

Hope Town: Typical dinghy dock

View of Hope Town Harbour from top of Lighthouse 

Hope Town Inn & Marina 

Green Turtle Cay-Man-O-War Cay - Apr 12-14

On Friday morning we departed Green Turtle Cay with calm winds. Our next leg south required low winds as we needed to travel Whale Cay Passage. Traveling “ The Whale” demands cruising a short distance outside of the barrier islands around Whale Cay due to a shallow bank that extends all the way from Whale Cay to Great Abaco Island. (too shallow for our boat)  With the wrong winds, this area experiences conditions known locally as “a rage”.  No one should attempt to transit this area in a rage. Our passage was smooth and easy. 

Just south of Whale Cay lies Great Guana Cay where we pulled into a cove, dropped the hook and took the dinghy to shore. We walked across the island to the famous Nippers Bar & Grill located on the Atlantic for lunch. Upon returning to PV2 and reviewing the weather, the Captain decided to move 5 miles across the Sea of Abaco for better wind protection for the evening.

Saturday morning we crossed over to a beautiful cove on the northeast side Man-O-War Cay. Another great day! The turquoise waters continue to amaze us.

Checking the depths around our anchorage 

Nipper’s Beach Bar & Grill

View from lunch at Nippers

Dinghy dock at Great Guana Cay

Great swimming day

Such clear water!

Our backyard at Man-O-War Cay 

Moraine Cay-Green Turtle Cay - Apr 9-11

After a somewhat rocky night on anchor at Moraine Cay, we waited till mid morning for the rising tide to follow our track back around the island to deeper water. Success! We never touched bottom! The weather forecast was predicting some rain, so we decided to bypass a couple of planned stops and head to Green Turtle Cay, 35 miles southeast.  Green Turtle is a larger island with a sheltered harbor and a few marinas to choose from. We took a slip at the Other Shore Marina where we spent 2 nights. Tuesday night and Wednesday morning we had a good hard rain that gave the PV2 a much needed fresh water bath. After the rains cleared it was time to explore the area by dinghy. We toured the harbor, shopped in the town of New Plymouth, swung through Gilliam Bay where we followed some rays, and......went to No Name Cay.  No Name Cay is an uninhabited island except for a bunch of friendly pigs who will swim out to your boat in search of food. We showed up empty handed.... sorry pigs!

Typical views in New Plymouth, Green Turtle Cay

New Plymouth 

Visiting the swimming pigs on No Name Cay

Bacon, bacon, bacon!

Exploring Gilliam Bay 

Great Sale Cay-Moraine Cay - Apr 8-9

Monday morning we departed Great Sale Cay and traveled 30 miles east to Moraine Cay. We made our way to the well documented anchoring area on the east side of the island. After inspecting our anchor on the bottom we found our hold to be marginal and would not want to spend the night. Anchoring in the Bahamas can be somewhat tricky so it’s important to snorkel or dinghy over the anchor to inspect its hold.  Hard bottom-under a thin layer of sand - not good. Grassy bottom - marginal. Sandy bottom - the anchor digs in and the Captain sleeps well.   East winds were expected through the night so we took the dinghy around to the west side of the island to see if we could get the mother ship to this uncharted area.  It was skinny and it was shallow but we found a route we were comfortable with.  We moved the PV2, dropped and inspected the anchor on a nice sandy bottom, then settled in to enjoy the afternoon and evening. We were all alone in this piece of paradise.

We’ve said it before and may say it again - Best Anchorage Ever!

Drone view of anchorage 

Paradise 

A well set anchor makes for a good night sleep.

Crystal clear water

Our own private beach 

Captain Relax

Love it!

Freeport-Great Sale Cay- Apr 6-7

The Ocean Reef Marina in Freeport on Grand Bahama Island was the home for Pura Vida for a month. While the boat enjoyed sunny skies and warm waters, the Captain & First Mate returned to Michigan. On Saturday, April 6 we flew back to Freeport to continue our Bahamas adventure. PV2 was in ship-shape as had been reported by our boat neighbors, Lane & Tina from Nova Scotia, who watched the boat while we were away.

The next morning we were ready to head out for the Sea of Abaco which is located 70 miles east of Grand Bahama Island.  After gaining local knowledge, we determined we could shave off 20 miles and avoid rougher open water by taking the Grand Lucayan Waterway rather than cruising around the west end of Grand Bahama Island. This Waterway was an eleven year project completed in 1978. It is a 9 mile weaving man-made canal cutting across Grand Bahama Island from north to south surrounded by hundreds of residential homesites most of which remain vacant lots to this day.  We transited the canal during high tide and had no problems with depths. After exiting the canal we traveled 40 miles across Little Bahama Bank to Great Sale Cay. Great Sale is an uninhabited island and a good protected anchorage half way to the Abacos. We shared this anchorage with about 20 other boats as this is the only good stopping point for cruisers traveling between Florida and the Abacos.

Lowest of 2 bridges on the canal - 25 foot

Blue dot shows our progress thru the canal.

Narrow channel exiting Grand Lucayan Waterway 

It ain’t rocket science, but some days it’s close to it.