The Abacos, Finally

We left early in the morning for Lynyard Cay, knowing that the crossing from Spanish Wells to the Abacos would be uncomfortable and that the weather was supposed to be better earlier in the day. It was definitely bumpy but tolerable, and the boys just went back to bed after they had breakfast. The waves were about 5′-6′ feet and were frequent enough that when storms blew in from all around, it got very messy. We don’t like to claim that we know the heights of the waves because that’s a difficult thing to judge from a boat, but I am confident that there were some 10′ waves. There was not much wind, and the little wind we had was on our stern, so these were just not good sailing conditions. After bouncing around for hours, going through lots of rain and waves, we heard from Grace that their engine went out. They had been to this island last year and were familiar with the cut, so they just asked that we go ahead of them, double-check the cut, drop our anchor as planned, and get the dinghy down in case they needed anything. I noticed a large tear in their mainsail when we were motoring past them and they called to let us know about that as well. Fortunately, Susie has experience with repairing torn sails, and they have friends coming up with a Sailrite machine for sewing sailcloth. The wind picked up a little bit which helped them sail, and they sailed into the anchorage, dropped their sails and anchored, and we all cheered. Our family explored the beach which had a lot of sea glass, and made it an early night.

The next day after Mike fixed their engine (hooray!) we took the dinghys to Pete’s Pub which is a favorite of many cruisers. We had lunch and checked out the gallery of beautiful artwork and sculptures, and took a lovely hike to some ruins of an old lighthouse. In spite of the drama and discomfort of the passage, I’m so glad we were able to make it to the Abacos for a final bit of adventure and fun with our friends. Next stop, Elbow Cay!