Since leaving Galveston, TX in January 2023, we longed for the clear, turquoise waters of the Caribbean. We were fortunate to spend last winter in the Abaco Islands of The Bahamas. This season, we made the jump across the Gulf Stream again on January 27 toward West End on the Grand Bahama Island. It took us about 22 hours to travel from Fort Pierce, FL, down the coast until we ran into the Gulf Stream and then crossed over to paradise. We arrived at the Old Bahama Bay Resort & Marina on the morning of January 28th to get a slip for a few days and to clear into customs/immigration. Having already entered all of our information into the Click2Clear website and paid online, we were quickly approved for our 90 day cruising permit.
While enjoying the tiki bars, beaches and SpaceX launches at the resort, I was also watching the weather to determine our cruising route for this season. Last year, we spent our entire 90 days in the Abacos and this year we couldn’t decide if we wanted something new or if we wanted the comfort of going somewhere known and loved. There were 2 sailing options from West End, going north-east into the Sea of Abaco or going south-east toward the Berry Islands and possibly further toward the Exuma or Eleuthera Islands. So, as our time at the resort was coming to an end, we let the weather decide our course. With winds predicted to be coming from the southeast, the direction we would need to go to reach the Berry Islands, we turned our sites toward the north and into the Abacos.
With winds of 10-13 knots, we sailed the majority of the 49 nm to our first anchorage at the West side of Great Sale Cay. This was only a quick stop over for the night as we planned on leaving in the morning. We kept Nymeria in travel mode with the dinghy still up on the deck since we had more miles to cover the next day.
We were excited to get to complete the 30 nm trip to Allans-Pensacola West Anchorage as it was where we were finally going to take the dinghy off the boat and be “real” cruisers for a while. Since we typically stay at marinas when we’re in the States, it felt good to get our dinghy, Lady, off the bow and on her way to shore. The first thing to do on Allans was go and check out our sign that we made last year. We were pretty bummed to find it faded out but that meant that we could redo it and add ‘2025’ to it a bit easier. We were also invited to a bonfire on the beach where we met some of the folks that we had been leap-frogging with since Florida. It was also at Allans that we started to get into the rhythm of conserving water and power on the boat. Starlink and the TV take a lot of power, so when we’re not on the boat or when we’re sleeping, everything gets turned off.
While at Allans-Pensacola, we were starting to run low on power and on water. We can typically go about 3-4 days before needing to run our Honda EU 2200 Generator and can go about a week before needing to fire up the Rainman Watermaker. This would be our first usage of both since our trip to The Bahamas last year, which can always be a little scary. Knowing we did all the proper things to prep them both for long-term storage back in May, we were hopeful that everything would go smoothly. They both fired up and ran beautifully initially but then the watermaker started making a funny noise and was not pushing water through the filter anymore. When Justin started troubleshooting and taking things apart, he found that the impeller was not spinning and needed to be replaced. Low and behold, even through all of our spare parts provisioning, we didn’t have a replacement part on board. Luckily, we had met a couple, Mike and Karla on their Catalina 380 sailboat named Sirius, the night before at the bonfire who graciously offered us their only spare impeller. While our watermaker is back in action, if the one in their system goes bad, they would be stuck and unable to make water for their trip. I then started calling stores in the Abacos to see if I could find a spare impeller and no one had anything available. In theory, Amazon is now able to ship internationally to the Bahamas, so we exchanged contact information with S/V Sirius and we’ve ordered multiple impellers that will hopefully arrive to ease both of our minds. Fingers crossed.
It was a quick jump further down the Sea of Abaco to get to the Northern Anchorage of Nunjack/Manjack Cay (it can be referred to by either name, depending on the map you’re looking at, think Gulf of Mexico/America). We stayed in this location for a few nights while we enjoyed looking at the rays and sharks in the bay surrounding the boat. We also took advantage of the trails running through the island to access the beach on the Atlantic side. The only bad part of this anchorage is that it can get a bit rolly as the ocean waves tend to come in from the Atlantic and bounce off the rocks on the far side of the bay then crash onto the opposite shore. Making for big and often confused waves that can hit the side of the boat rocking you from side to side. This is not the natural motion of a boat and can be very uncomfortable. After rolling for a few nights, we moved south to the Crab Cay Anchorage which gave us a more restful night’s sleep. From here, you can easily access the “Art Walk” trail where boaters and locals have made “art” to hang along a wooded trail and take the dinghy through the mangrove trees to see rays and turtles as they scurry away.
Last year, one of the highlights of our trip to the Abacos was the extended amount of time we had at Green Turtle Cay. We were really looking forward to getting back there to enjoy the people and the food of the New Plymouth Settlement. We’ll probably be here for a bit as we now need to wait for our Amazon package to hopefully arrive, catch up on laundry and duck away from some rain and wind. But there’s no place that I’d rather be.
“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.”
Snowy winter this year in New Hampshire so really appreciate you sharing this. Enjoy and safe travels!