We had not planned to stay at West End this long. We have a long ways to travel to get to the Abaco Islands, and we need good weather to get there since it is nearly 90 miles to the next marina. Most boaters stop half way at Great Sale Cay and anchor out overnight, which we planned to do. But we aren’t seeing two good days for travel. The wind direction has been from the south- southwest, which Great Sale Cay does not provide good shelter for, and we sure don’t want to be on an anchor in big wind. Monday is looking promising, but windy again by Monday night. So, we decided to make a run for it all in one day. Our One Eye Dog friends decided the same. They have much more limited time in the Bahamas than we do before they head north, and they are anxious to see more than this.
So up-and-atum on Monday 3/13/17 with the sun. We pulled out of Old Bahama Bay at sunrise, as did several other boats with this good weather travel day. The sunrise was so pretty. So long West End! We had to go west, then north, then northeast, then southeast to get to our destination: Spanish Cay.
The water and weather was beautiful! The color of the water was absolutely amazing traveling across the Little Bahama Bank. It seemed a surreal unnatural blue for ocean to be this color for this Pacific Northwest girl. We went 87.5 miles, and I’m pretty sure we never saw water deeper than 25 feet.
One Eye Dog cruises faster than us, so they would pass us and get way ahead, then we’d kick Island Girl up from 8 knots to 16 to catch up. We did this 3 or 4 times during the trip, which we needed to do anyway in order to travel the 90 miles and arrive before 6pm to check in at the marina.
Captain & Admiral enjoying the day!
We went from the very west tip of Grand Bahama Island (the island Freeport is on) to the blue spot, which is Spanish Cay in the chain of Abaco Cays off the east coast of Great Abaco.
We went northeast from West End, up and around the north end of Great Sale Cay, which is about half way. The wind and waves did pick up some at that point, but not uncomfortable. We arrived at Spanish Cay about 5:00. A full ‘work day’ on the water.
The marina had very nice docks, but a terrible excuse for a break water. You can almost see the big rocks they called a breakwater, at high tide. By now the wind was coming from the west, and this marina is wide open to the west – which made for beautiful sunsets, but not so great in a westerly wind. Per instruction from the dock master at the marina, Captain pulled us in bow first, as the wind was a little too feisty at this point to try to turn around and back in. Didn’t want to take the chance of smashing the dinghy.
Spanish Cay Marina had a nice pool, although it was too cold in this cool weather! And nice decks with chairs and such for sitting, reading, visiting, and enjoying beautiful scenery.
As the sun was setting, the wind settled a bit and it was time for a reward for a day well done.
We explored the island, which didn’t take long. It isn’t a very big place; only 3 miles long. It is all privately owned including just the marina, some lodging, and an airstrip. In its heyday, it was probably quite the happenin’ place. It was once owned by one of the Dallas Cowboys owners. Now, it is still privately owned and I think it is quite a popular place during sport fishing tournaments. Over time, it looks like the economy and weather have taken their toll. This was a bar on the east side that is run down and currently abandoned due to too-muchy-wind-blow.
They had some really nice beaches, not maintained or manicured – just natural.
I liked this gnarly old tree with teeny tiny snail shells all over it. Maybe these are infant conchs!
The wind picked back up and blew like crazy from the west for several days, and our boat rocked and rolled like crazy in it! Thank goodness neither of us gets seasick easily! The wind was hitting us in the stern, and would just wha-WOMP! under the swim-step where the dinghy sits. It was splashing up into the dinghy and into our back cockpit area under the transom door. Captain was a little worried about the beating the swim-step was taking with the weight of the dinghy on it, but there wasn’t anything we could do in the wind! We were dealing with 25+knot winds, with gusts up to 40! Island Girl was cross tied between the pilings and the dock to keep her from hitting the dock. Even though Kenny & I both have long legs, it was not easy to get off of the rocking boat to the dock or back on the boat! Adding to the challenge was a 3 foot tide change, and a fixed (not floating) dock. So sometimes it seemed like it was a 2’ step down and 4’ stride across from dock to rollicking boat! I couldn’t do it alone, so it wasn’t easy to come and go! There wasn’t much to do on the island, since the wind was strong, and the temperatures were cool in the high 60’s. We didn’t go snorkeling and there was no way to get our bikes off the boat. In an 80 slip marina, there was only about 6 boats there suffering with us. We were ready for the wind to quit, and to move on! It looked like we might get our break on Thursday. Yep- that’s white-caps in the marina.
A beautiful sunset! At least it wasn’t raining with all this wind!