so we made it out of eluthra sound (i may have used a few other names for it on previous posts) with no trouble. its a reasonably deep but not very wide pass and we went out just an hour after low tide and there was already a 3 kt current. with us fortunatly, we had the headsail up for more “power” in case we needed it but where doing 8 kts with the engins back.
shortly after we exited don made us been and rice buritos finally taking us off the mac and chease and raman diet! we had a magnificent sunset before turning north for the 60nm sail up to abaco. we had the wind on the beam which i am discovering on a tatmaran is not near as pleasent as a monohul. the sail was fine bot lots of banging and slapping and jerking.
as a result on my off watch i was up every hour convinced don was clunking around the boat working on something but every time i got up he was happily reading our last book in the salon.
we had to slow down and extend our offshore passage to the next pass to wait for the sun rise, another beutiful red sun rise. what is that saying red sun in morning sailors take warning. did not seem to apply.
in any case once through the reef we had to navigat about 20 miles with no navaids to avoid reef and shole and get to marsh harbor the center of civilization in abaco. it was nice but a bit tedious as i wanted to check all the depths to make sure we could get palapa in. good news we never say less than 8 feet so we should be fine.
we found a fuel dock straight away and loaded up on 5.90 diesl. the good news is we only took 40 gal to top everything off! that is after 10 days of motor sailing. don was extatic at the sight of civilization and the throught of internet. he got this great plan set up with tmobile for roaming data and voice in the bahamas so far niether has worked!
after the fuel we went and anchored off the dock in a nice protected anchorage in 6 feet of water and had a few celebratory beers before deciding we needed a nap if we where going to make it to dinner.
after about 3 hours of rest i dragged myself out of bed got the dingy launched pumped up, made contact with our friend joe, got a few essentials on the connivence store (2 bags of chips and eggs for 16$ yikes). i also got some books swaped out but alas no propane. i even got a cruising guide to abaco for 15$ so now that we have already navigated through the hardest parts.
i had made plans to meet joe at the jib room at 8pm for ribs which is way after our bed time but fortunately the nap helped as does the fact it does not get dark until almost 8pm here. after some rum and cokes with actual ICE (yes we splurged on a bag) and a tuna appetizer we headed in to meet joe.
we had a good time retelling joe and don stories and enjoying the delicious ribs (don had fish). joe and i made some tentative plans to come meet back with aimee and nina in early july perhaps for the 4th to spend some more time exploring the rest of the island. is always great to have local knowledge so hopefully we will be able to make this work out and we can have more margaritas together!
the place has a very cool vibe, a bit expensive but lots of local expats. the deal apparently according to one of the locals i was chatting with is it is too shallow for cruise ships and there is no gambling so the place is not overwhelmed with tourists.
joe talked us into taking a tour of the island on his new boat tomorrow so will get to check more of it out if all goes acording to plan.
cheers
roger
Good news. No calamities today. Glad to hear you made it.