Neil to make a map
In late March Neil and Helen rejoined Milvina in Palm Beach, after two months at home, and sailed to Nassau, where Michael and an old school friend, Bobby Hughes, joined the crew, and Helen flew home.
The boys sailed from Nassau up to the Abaco Islands in the North East of the Bahamas, with stops in Royal Island, Little Harbour, Hopetown, Marsh Harbour and Green Turtle Cay. We also stopped at several snorkeling spots, some well known and one rarely visited.
Sailing in the sheltered water of the Sea of the Abacos was mostly quite relaxing, with flat water and pleasant winds. Michael and Bobby took the dinghy for some shots of Milvina under sail.
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Until at least April 2008, you can see Google Earth pictures of all stops and many intermediate spots at the ShipTrak site.
Pete's Pub in Little Harbour, the SE point of entry to the Abacos is well known, and was accessible only by boat until a few years ago, when a road to Marsh harbour was built.
Little Harbour was developed, initially in pioneer fashion in the 1960's, by Randolph Johnston, a sculptor, who built a bronze foundry there. In the 1970's we met a couple of sailing sculptors/artists who were planning to stop and work with him for a few months.
Hopetown is a beautiful village on Elbow Cay. The entry is tiny, and the "anchorage" inside is so busy that the only way to stop is to go to a dock or take a mooring.
It is a very popular spot for vacation homes, many ownge is less fun that when they came as kids, and the only water supply was rain, there were no flush toilets etc.
Today, like most of the developed Bahamian inlands, there is lots of excellent water available, extracted from seawater by a reverse osmosis plant. It tastes like the best bottled water.
Another sign of the times, here we are talking on the phone over the Internet, using Skype, in a dockside bar in Hopetown. Milvina is one of the boats moored in the distant background
Tom Johnstone, a very generous American semi-resident in Green Turtle Cay, took us out fishing one day.
Bobby liked this barracuda best of our catch.
This was typical of the weather we had in the Abacos.
We had considered heading North to the Chesapeake, but weather further up was very bad. Bobby had a deadline to be back in Montreal, and once at sea heading North, finding an airport would have been a nuisance.
We spent an enjoyable couple of weeks in the Abacos waiting for the right conditions to sail North.
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