North, Back to The Bahamas

Yup.  It's end of February/first week of March and we are leaving the Virgin Islands to go north, back to the Abacos.  We had already decided that we were again going to bring Pratique back up to New England for the summer season.  And with the time limitations imposed on our cruising lifestyle by "full time employment," going any further south in the Carribean made no sense for this year.   Instead, with these next two weeks away from work we figured a nice way to add to our offshore "couples sailing" experience would be to start that long trip north, but stay in warm waters until the spring.  So without further ado, here's how we got from East End, Tortola to Treasure Cay, Abacos, Bahamas:

First, we invited the owners of Hull #50, Hippocampus, to join us for the first week.  Poor Lee and Cheryl!  Their own Outbound is sitting on the hard in RI, getting more than her share of weekly dumps of snow!  What better way to be neighborly than to get them to put down their snow shovels and join us for a week of warm weather offshore bliss, going first to Mayaguana, then jumping up to George Town, Exumas.  So the four of us met at Logan and flew down to St. Thomas, then took the ferry to Road Town (checking both in and out of the BVI's simultaneously), picked up our pre-ordered provisions from the big Rite Way, and the next day set sail for Mayaguana.

Lee and Cheryl, happy to be on any Outbound!



Gotta love those warm weather, downwind legs!

Lee calculates the ETA to Mayaguana

Midway there, I was all alone in the cockpit while the others were sleeping when I encountered a pod of dolphins leading us!  What a dilemma.  Should I wake them all up to see them, or let them accumulate the valuable sleep hours?  Tough decision but in the end I figured sleep was more important, so I took it upon myself to get to the bow and start videoing.  Here are a few screen captures:

Next day we all got to experience this sunset, so I felt less guilty!














Safe and sound with just one other boat in Abraham's Bay, Mayaguana

  We had a nice quiet overnight in Abrahams Bay in Mayaguana, and then the next day we headed north for George Town on Great Exuma island:

Elizabeth Harbor, George Town

What an amazing place George Town is.  So many cruising sailors make it their winter home, and not just retirees but also families with children getting their "home schooling" in paradise.  Every morning at 0800 you tune in to their cruisers net and you immediately feel at home hearing about every activity, from results of yesterday's bocci tournament to plans for the next day's pig roast at the Chat 'N' Chill.  I have not been the first to call Stocking Island an "adult summer camp."

It is also to see how the place get's the name "Chicken Harbor."  Each year cruising sailors bound for the Carribean via the Bahamas get as far south as George Town and decide that it is "far enough" for one year. Further south, the islands get spaced further apart and the sea is more open Atlantic rather than the protected conditions on the Bahama Banks.  However, we were northbound from the BVIs, so we had "immunity" from the chicken label, and believe me that had we not had the March 8 return flights from the Abacos already ticketed we would have stayed much longer than the three days we had here! 

Before leaving, we spent time exploring the town of George Town:

Regatta Point

Buying fresh conch salad!