Heading to the Abacos!



Pete's Pub - a great little hangout!

Mahi Mahi for dinner tonight!

On Wednesday, April 18 we left the marina about 8:30 heading across the NW Providence Channel to Sandy Point. About 40 miles – planning to anchor south down by the southwest tip of the Abacos but it was too windy and all rock. We had to go back up north a bit along the west coast toward the Sandy Point Settlement. We found a good spot but it was still a bit "rolly". Is that a word? It is – when you spend a year on a boat! 

Hole in the Wall
This was just beautiful although we were really
out by ourselves in over 10,000 ft of water

Ahoy!  There's land!!

Pete's Pub

Beautiful sunset from Pete's looking out at Little Harbor

Little Harbor is absolutely beautiful

Sandy Beach

Mike must be telling Pete a fish story!

Yeah, this is a little weird!  It's painted on the wall in the Ladies Room.
Hmmm!   Peace!

We dropped a hook about 1/2 mile out from shore but moved in to about 1/4 mile - we still rocked and rolled. It was weird because we had east winds so we faced into the wind but the waves were from the southeast so we kept getting beam waves which would jerk us around a bit. We enjoyed another beautiful sunset. And the anchoring wasn't so bad – slept like a baby – at least I did! Oh, and we saw our first starfish! They were everywhere!
Also when we had gone up past the Stirrup Cays on our way to Sandy Point we saw two more cruise ships anchored out -  Norwegian Gem and Majesty of the Sea.   And from Sandy Point you could see the huge Disney Ship. I imagine we're in some of the crowd's vacation photos. Now that's funny………

I must say that when we were making our crossing today – no land in sight for most of the trip – water a deep dark blue almost black – over 3200 feet deep - you begin to feel very small and rather insignificant. It was a time of reflection. I might say that we were both a bit out of our comfort zones. We were the only boat except for an occasional freighter a long way away – the water wasn't rough but Mike had to pay attention to keep NautiNell on course. It would have been a nice time to have auto-pilot. We have it – but it's still not working. L

Willie, the intern back at Great Harbor, told us that there are whales out a ways from Sandy Point. In fact, he is going there next week to study them when he leaves the Berrys. I kept my eyes opened - but saw no whale. There were some large USOs though (Unidentified Splashing Objects)! Who's to say whether it was ORCA or a "Freed Willie"! I'm just saying…….

We left our "rolly" anchorage about 7:00 a.m. wondering what that day would bring. We had heard several stories and read even more about how the Atlantic can be as we round the tip of the Abacos near Hole in the Wall. Again I think we both were a little apprehensive but looking forward to the adventure. It turned out to be fine – waves and wind did pick up for a bit but not for long. In fact, once we had rounded the tip
and was headed north Mike decided that he wanted to troll a bit. 

Now here's a great story - - - He put out two lines and must have read the signs well because in about 20 minutes both reels were spinning! We had just gone through a bunch of sea grass so Mike thought that was what we had tangled into - BUT…. Glad he only had put out two lines because BOTH of them had fish on! Two fish on! They were way out there and jumping high in the air. I know we must have looked like a couple of "Keystone Cops" trying to figure out what to do. Mike's yelling – put it in gear – take it out of gear – get down here and see this – we've got two fish on! And so on – you can imagine the rest. LOL! The bigger one of the two did get away though by breaking the wire leader and taking off with the lure and all. The other one wasn't quite so lucky. I didn't realize just how strong a fish can be until Mike told me to hang on to the pole and keep his head up in the water. It turns out we had snagged two beautiful mahi (dolphinfish, dorado) whatever you want to call them. They are beautiful and iridescent when they're in the water. Finally Mike got the gaff and brought in the HUGE fifteen pounder! We had just landed our FIRST big fish on NautiNell! All the others Mike had caught from the dinghy. This was so cool! We put him in the cooler and off we went. We still had some miles to go and now we were about an hour behind. No worries! We were all smiles! J

We had no problems – another beautiful day without the difficulties that we let worry us earlier. We got into Little Harbor without a problem although it was getting close to low tide – grabbed a mooring ball and let out a giant sigh of relief. We were now in the Abacos! We'd gone the long way around with lots of deep open water – wind – rain – but we'd made it!

Now let's go to Pete's Pub for a Dark 'n Stormy – drink that is! We plan to stay here for a couple of days. $15.00 a night for a mooring ball is more than reasonable to get a good night's sleep. And Pete's Pub is a great place to hang out!