Eleuthera to the Abacos

"Red sky at night, sailor's delight - - - that was last night's saying - - -

"Red sky at morning, sailor's take warning" - - - that is what greeted us as we awoke before 7 for our 60 nm trip across the big O on our way to the Abacos. We knew there were severe storms across north FL and the Bahamas weather forecast called for storms late afternoon in the Abacos, but we also knew we had a strong S wind that would get us there hopefully before any storms arrived.

We headed out early from our anchorage just outside the Current Cut and passed through the cut west or Royal Island between Egg and Little Egg Cay before turning due North headed for the Little Harbor Cut - - - the first entrance into the Sea of Abaco and good cruising grounds. We made the cut by 3:00 and we anchored in the "lee" of Lynyard Cay by 3:45, BUT the wind was from the West! The skies were very unsettled and Andiamo's satellite weather was showing us the progress of the storms approaching from Florida, but they were far enough away that we decided to all gather aboard Andiamo for a pot luck dinner. We experienced about 20 raindrops before we all headed back to our own boats to hunker down for whatever was to come.

Two separate storms passed over us during the night, but other than some rain and switching wind direction it was much less threatening than expected. Everyone experienced a bit of angst and sleeplessness, but all in all it wasn't bad.

Andiamo and Pekabu III left early to head into the fanciest marina in the Abacos - Abaco Beach Resort at the Boat Harbor - while we remained anchored until 10 or so trying to decide where to go for the next few days before Jay and Pegg arrive. We finally decided to head into Marsh Harbor and take a slip at Harbour View Marina to do all the mundane stuff like wash down, wash, clean, re-provision etc. We are very happy with the set up here and can't beat the $1/ft. price. Two loads down, two to go, and all the water we want! Quite a change from the Exumas in that respect. Lovely dinner ashore tonight. The rest of the CCYC crew came over to our side of town for dinner at Mangoes - - - their Mango Breeze was yummy and had several of us weaving on the way home! ~~~_/)~~~M&D

The red and white lighthouse reminded us of the famous one in Hopetown on Elbow Cay, but it is just a private home on Channel Cay, a private island we passed on our way winding through the shallows of the Sea of Abaco on our way to Marsh Harbor. The other house was at the entrance to Marsh Harbor and the bottom is the anchorage at Marsh Harbor - - - reminds one of several east coast hangouts!