Back in The Bahamas

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Linda and Lawrence at their home in Vero Beach with their friends Tom & Carol and neighbors Pete & Nancy. They all had great stories to share of their adventures this summer and enjoyed hearing about our travels too. Also thanks to Linda and Lawrence we have fully provisioned Moosetracks, in fact we need to leave before we buy anything else that might weigh down the boat!

Moosetracks at Lawrence & Linda's dock

So we left Vero Beach the day after Thanksgiving and headed to Fort Pierce to re-fuel ready for the Bahamas, more to do with price than necessity as diesel is much cheaper in Florida. We found a nice anchorage at Jensen Beach and as we dropped the hook we were hailed by s/v Blue Dog who we had last met in Fort Jefferson on Long Island.

We left the following morning for Lake Worth north anchorage and settled in for the night. Since we wanted some new furling line we took a trip to West marine for some last minutes items and on the way back made our last Ice Cream stop in the US. So finally we have the weather window and are ready to leave the USA!

We left via Lake Worth inlet at sunset and at Memory Rock we crossed onto the Bahamas bank in darkness then continued on to Great Sale by lunch time the next day, a bit rough and more on the nose than forecast but nothing terrible.

Sunset at Great Sale Cay

the Q-Flag goes up!

We then had a light wind day sail to Crab Cay where we had a wonderful sight of a satellite launch before we retired for the night (sorry we forgot to photograph it!). The Next day we motored over to Green Turtle to check in the following day. Check in at Customs and Immigration there went really well and they gave us 180 days on our visa! So we celebrated with Ice Cream at McIntosh's :-)

Checking in at Green Turtle

Dressed for Check-in

When we returned to Moosetracks we had lunch and decided since the notorious Whale Cut looked so calm we would go now. The surf in the cut did pick up over the next hour or two but it was a piece of cake and we were easily through both cuts. So we anchored by our friends Tom & Sandy s/v Ananya at Bakers Bay on Great Guana for the night. The following morning we moved a few miles to visit Nippers Bar for lunch. After lunch we walked off the food with a long walk on the beach and really appreciate how fantastic the beaches are here with the spectacular turquoise water. A group of nice folks we had talked with at lunch invited us over to their charter catamaran and we had a great afternoon chatting with them. They dream of doing what we are doing so they had a lot of questions!

Great Guana Administration ready for Xmas

Atlantic Beach at Nippers

.. and looking south - WOW!

Great to be back in the Bahamas

Nippers of course!

We spent the night at Great Guana and sailed across the bay of Abaco to Marsh Harbor on Friday. It was a few tacks to start then an easy 6nm reach in 12 knots, oh what bliss! Well the first day in Marsh harbor was a work day as we still had anchor light issues since Vero Beach so the diagnosis now was a failed wire inside the mast. So again it was time to climb the mast and replace the wire this time. Thankfully that found the issue, as one conductor of the wire pair was totally parted, at least this was conclusive evidence and the new wire did finally solve it!

After the climbing the mast we needed some R&R so we decided to attend the Christmas festival this afternoon in Marsh Harbor with Frank & Patti s/v Dream Weaver and Floyd & Fran s/v Prior Ties. It was a nice event primarily for the kids with music, dancing, fashion shows and a Junkanoo rush out.

Patti & Frank, Liz, Fran (+Bailey) & Floyd

School kids singing

Just gorgeous!

Well we soon start heading out of Abaco's as winter fronts often reach here so it’s better to be further south. We are going on to Royal Island before jumping to the Exumas Island chain for Christmas and New Year if the weather holds to forecast.

We hope you are having a wonderful holiday season.