Cooper Town

Great Abaco, Bahamas
26.52.442N
77.30.554W

Today was a nice day but still a little windy for anchoring in any other harbor. In fact, Toucan Dream hailed us on the radio and said that they would be coming for a visit later in the morning. Just before noon, they dropped by in Bobcat, their very nice and very large tender that they fish from. They were headed into town to the grocery store and dropped by to say hi. They relayed that Angelfish Point was getting choppy but they thought they’d ride it out.

We joined them in town later for lunch and while Bob, Caron and Dale enjoyed fried conch, I had baked chicken. It was a pretty good meal and we enjoyed their company.

After lunch, they headed back to Toucan Dream, Dale went down for a nap and I picked up another book. Pretty soon, Pixy Dust and Naked Lady came into the anchorage. We’d last seen them in Marsh Harbor. Not too long after that, Sand Dollar, who shared the anchorage with us in Manjack came in from Angelfish Point. Earl said that when his wife gave him that look, he knew that it was time to leave. So Angelfish and some of the other anchorages open to the west wind must be getting pretty uncomfortable. We thoroughly figured that Toucan Dream wouldn’t be far behind them but it looks like they gutted it out.

Things seemed to be calming down by the end of the day but we’ll give Toucan Dream a call before hoisting our anchor and heading north to more exposed anchorages tomorrow. In the meantime, we’re sung as a bug in a rug in Cooper Town. In fact, 5 teenage boys swam out to the boat, touched the bow and swam back, hootin and hollerin the whole way. Probably some dare to see if they would do it. We’re becoming a regular fixture to their water view property.

Great Abaco
Cooper Town
26.52.442N
77.30.554W

We forgot to turn on the trip log.

The first thing Dale said to me this morning (after he said good morning) was: do you think Belezia is getting closer? That’s certainly one way to wake someone up in a hurry. Yep, it was. They were still at a safe distance away but they had halved the distance that had once been between us. Dale hailed them about 8am and the captain said that he was watching the situation.

Now you’re probably wondering how we knew that it was them and not us. Well, it’s hard to drag upwind and since they were upwind of us, that means it was their boat that had changed positions.

Once the clouds that had threatened rain and a possible change of wind had passed, we lowered the dink and took a spin around the island in the opposite direction. We saw a good sized ray in the shallow sand but nothing that looked like a good snorkel. We continued around the island to the ocean side and pulled onto a sandy beach to go beach combing. Surprisingly, we didn’t find very much in the way of sea shells. We did see a dead porcupine fish, a dead sea gull and what appeared to be the nose cone of an airplane but little else of interest. We finished our circumnavigation and returned to the Palace. By this time, Belezia was past us dragging toward the beach.

We had lunch and called Toucan Dream to see how the weather was in Allens-Pensacola; it was looking rather cloudy in their direction. Bob said that there was quite a chop in the anchorage and that they were moving to another anchorage at Angelfish Point.

Well since we’re not going to Allens-Pensacola today, we decided to check out Cooper Town as we’ve never been there before and they were supposed to have two grocery stores. We hoisted anchor a little later and motored across the channel. We found one of the two grocery stores but they were sorely missing most of the fresh vegetables that I was looking for. They were very kind and even called the second grocery store to see if they had any other fresh vegetables. Nope, only frozen. OK, then I’ll just take a head of lettuce and 2 green peppers and call it a salad.

The Palace is the only boat in the anchorage here in Cooper Town and it’s a lot calmer than it was over in Powell Cay. If the wind does pipe up during the night, we’ll be a lot more protected over here. And if we drag, we’ll just drag out onto the bank.

Marsh Harbor
Great Abaco Island
Bahamas
26.32.859N
77.03.453W

9.4 NM
1.56 Hrs.
4.8 Kt. Avg.
7.0 Kt. Max

Current Odom: 7923.7

Another rainy, gray day dawned but we hoped that since we were waiting for a high tide at 2 pm before leaving, that perhaps it would clear out by the time we had to move. No such luck came our way. We ended up lifting our anchor about 2 hours before high tide so that we would have a rising tide in case things didn’t go as planned. We hoisted our skirts, thought light thoughts and tippy toed through the shallow areas to the “deeper” water leading to Marsh Harbor. We found 10-12’ depths and thought we were in hog heaven and even let out our jib to look a little more sailorly on our transit. Toucan Dream was right behind us as Annabelle II had left a couple of hours before (they have a 5’ draft as opposed to Toucan Dream’s and our 5.5-6’ drafts.)

We were half way there when the skies really opened up and the visibility closed to about a half mile. We furled the jib, slowed our speed and once again hoped that the rain would clear away before we entered the channel. Although the rain did ease, it never let up completely. We rounded the point and followed the commercial channel in until we passed the small islets to the southeast before turning again out of the commercial channel and into the yacht channel leading to the anchorage.

We spotted Annabelle II anchored nearby. Toucan Dream peeled off to anchor in the general vicinity but we continued on until we spied the fuel dock in the mist. We radioed ahead to let them know we were approaching, then made our way in to line up to the dock and finally to secure ourselves to it. We took on 80+ gallons at 3.85/gallon. It’s a good thing our credit card is paid off.

It continued to rain for the rest of the afternoon at varying intensities. Toucan Dream’s mail hadn’t arrived and since Marsh Harbor isn’t one of their favorite spots, they lifted anchor and moved over to Fisher’s Bay. We called Annabelle II over the radio and suggested that we modify our plans of going to the Junkinoo parade. It’s a hike to get to the park where the parade was to be held and neither crews were interested in hiking in the mud and rain. We decided to go to Snappa’s instead, where they advertised free appetizers between 5-7pm.

Snappa’s is another seaside bar & grill overlooking Marsh Harbor. It’s well built and had a nice dinghy dock on the harbor side. The appetizers were plentiful and delicious. Bob & Karen and Dale & I spent the late afternoon enjoying the food, the people watching and the conversation.
The skies finally cleared and although we couldn’t see the space shuttle lift off or soar overhead, we were mesmerized by the resulting brilliant white vapor cloud that hung in the air for hours. The pictures don’t really show the detail of the intricate swirls and drifts that the cloud displayed.

We heard from Gerry & Nicky on Orpailleur today. They say that they are sailing at 7+ knots and should be in the Galapagos on Sunday. Thank heavens things are going well for them.

Little Harbor,
Great Abaco,
Bahamas
26.20.292N
77.00215W

55.6 NM
9.57 Hrs. Min.
5.6 Kt Avg.
7.3 Kt Max

Curent Odometer: 7895.4 NM


It was a blissfully quiet night during which we got some restful sleep. We got up about 5:45am, unfurled our mainsail and lifted our anchor at 6:15am. We were somewhat surprised to see that the little sailboat that had been inside of us was also a Hunter and left just ahead of us.

We exited the Royal Island harbor and rounded to the west before turning north and finally northeast toward the Abacos. It looked to be a fine day dawning. About this time, Escape with Tom & Babette (originally from Vermont) hailed us on the VHF to introduce themselves since we were clearly taking the same path. By this time, we had determined that our wind indicator had indeed quit working and since we were traveling in the same direction, we asked them to let us know when the wind picked up to over 15 kts as we were preparing to fly our spinnaker. Babette teased that she knew that at some point we would blow past them but with the spinnaker, it would be sooner rather than later. However, as in the past, Mother Nature had other ideas.

We were pleased that we were able to sail as long as we did but Escape was motor sailing and pulled far enough in front of us that we could no longer see them in the haze. Eventually the wind died to the point where we were having problems keeping the giant, however lightweight, chute open. Clouds were getting thicker to the west and when the first raindrops found their way to our position, we decided to bring it down and put it away for another day.

Each time we fly the spinnaker, we learn something new and its been getting easier and easier to bring out the monstrosity and put it away. This time, for some reason, we must have forgotten a step. We had already doused the chute into its sock and I had loosened the spinnaker halyard leaving several wraps on the winch before running down below to hold the big bag that it is stored in. Dale pulled the spinnaker down a little at a time and we were in the process of stuffing it into the bag when it suddenly collapsed half on the deck, half off and in the water. Dale was able to quickly pull it back on board but now we needed to dry the part that had fallen overboard. About this time, Escape radioed back that it was starting to rain where they were.

We decided the best place to dry the chute in the rain was snaked through the interior of the boat. You can’t truly appreciate how big this sail is, even in its sock, until you stretch it out. Thank goodness, the rain let up and we were able to hoist the wet half out of the forward hatch and up high enough to allow it to dry in the wind. We certainly didn’t look very Bristol but it was effective. We had just stuffed it back into its bag when the next rain shower came through. So much for the anticipated good weather.

With the engine in gear, we soon pulled close enough to see Escape on the horizon, caught up to them and eventually passed them before sighting land. A few more showers passed by but no nasty winds were associated with them. You really don’t need wind instruments but it makes it a lot easier to see a change in pattern. I put a couple of lengths of Christmas ribbon on the standing rigging to show direction and we have a mop standing next to the arch that starts blowing in about 20kts so we have secondary instruments until the other one can be repaired.

We arrived at the entrance of Little Harbor on Great Abaco at 3:00pm and were anchored by 3:30pm without any drama entering onto the bank. There is a little roll to the boat where we’re anchored but Dale wants to go to Pete’s Pub tomorrow and this is the closest anchorage to the famous watering hole. I’ll take pictures to prove he’s been there in case anyone has any doubt.