Sailing Abaco, Bahamas - Great Guana Cay

Thursday, April 4

Andi, Shaun, Laura and I woke up early Thursday morning. We planned to sail south to Little Harbor today. Due to the area’s shallow waters, we’d been advised to enter into the harbor at high tide. That meant that today, we’d need to sail into Little Harbor between 7am - 9am.

The sunrise was beautiful in Hope Town. I worried the harbor would’ve been noisy last night being close to town, but it really wasn’t. We all slept great. I like looking out from our boat in the mornings and seeing everyone else waking up for their day. Lots of other sailors are sitting on their decks drinking coffee, checking their sails, or sometimes doing yoga like me. There’s even a morning “cruiser’s chat” on the CB radio every morning at 8:30am for sailors to check in with one another, report weather conditions and share information.

On our sail to Little Harbor this morning, we also planned to stop at Sandy Cay Park to do some snorkeling in the clear, blue Caribbean waters. There’s lots of coral reef along the Abaco and we’ve already seen lots of star fish and sting rays swimming around the boat, so we’re anxious to get in the water to see what else we can find.

Our journey south to Little Harbor was a peaceful one. The wind was in our favor this morning and we sailed on a broad reach most of the way there.

Our group decided to anchor at the nearby Lynard Cay instead of Sandy Cay because of the direction of the wind. It didn’t look to be the best snorkeling conditions this morning as, frankly, the air was cool with cloudy, overcast skies. We found a quiet anchorage, made lunch, and decided to check out the beach at Lynard Cay instead.

I love feeling like we’re on our own private island! The six of us rode the dingy to the shore and walked along the sandy beach as the tide waters rose. We found tons of sea creatures washed up on the rocks — sea stars, slugs, conch, sand dollars, and some transparent green-colored blobs we think were turtle eggs. The ocean is one big science discovery lab - it’s so cool!

The cloudy skies were turning dark gray. We hopped in the dingy and motored back to our sailboat when raindrops started to fall.

Back at the boat, we showered and changed into dry clothes. Laura came into the cockpit and said, “Uh, did we run out of water?” Uh-oh! Sure enough, we were out of fresh water which meant no more showers. We also wouldn’t be able to flush the heads. Andi called the captain back at the charter company. He advised we fill up with fresh water in one of the harbors tomorrow. Until then, we’d have to use salt water for washing dishes. Luckily, we had plenty of fresh water jugs left to drink.

Before our trip, Andi, Shaun, Laura and I wrote a meal plan for the week and shopped for groceries accordingly. We had enough food on board for the week, but we’d hoped to catch fresh fish to add to our rotation. By Day 4, our grocery supply was dwindling. For dinner that night, Laura made spaghetti with meat sauce and toasted kalamata olive bread. The kids loved this dinner the most! Laura joked that if we didn’t catch some fish tomorrow, we’d have to trade in our planned grilled fish tacos for canned tuna.

Friday, April 5

Today’s mission: replenish the boat’s freshwater supply. After accessing the winds and the number of days left of our trip, we decided to sail north to the harbor in Great Guana Cay. Once there, we’d be able to get water and either anchor or moor for the night. It was a long six-hour trek covering 26 miles to Guana, with the highest wind speeds we’d seen all week. Andi, Laura, Shaun and I all took turns at the helm, enjoying the beautiful scenery along the way.

Some things never change. The life of a sailor agrees with Aden.

Tory and I did some of her school worksheets and I also whipped up a platter of deli meat, cheese, crackers, and baby carrots for everyone to help themselves to while we were underway over lunchtime.

We arrived in Great Gauna Cay to find a huge yacht parked at the fuel dock. Andi radioed the Guana Cay Harbor, and the lady informed us that the powerboat had been at the fuel dock all day. Not sure what we should do (it was already 3:00pm and we really didn’t want to go somewhere else), we decided to grab the last mooring ball in the harbor and wait out the powerboat. If it moved, we’d scoot over to the fuel dock to fill up our tanks and if it didn’t, we’d get by without fresh water for another day.

Andi and I lowered the dingy and we all hopped in to check out the little town on Great Guana Cay. We’d heard Nippers was a fun restaurant on the beach which sounded like the perfect spot for dinner.

We walked along the sandy, tree-lined road to Nippers Restaurant. As we got closer, we could hear loud music playing and the roar of a party happening. It seems we’d just missed a concert by The Barefoot Man, a local island musical celebrity, and walked into spring break for senior citizens. We stood in the entrance way taking it all in before deciding this was NOT an appropriate scene for children. It was pretty rowdy.

We met a nice couple from Norway on our way out of the restaurant who told us Nippers is normally a great restaurant for dinner except on Sundays and during Barefoot Man concerts when it turns into a raging party on the beach. They recommended we check out Grabbers restaurant on the other side of the island.

Grabbers was busy, too, but not quite as crazy as Nippers. We found a table, ordered beers and conch fritters to start. Tory and Aden entertained themselves with giant-sized Jenga and Connect Four by the pool. Sailing in the Abaco is definitely an older crowd — there weren’t any other kids there and the restaurant was packed with people.

Our food at Grabbers was just OK. Andi ordered lobster in a bag which was fried lobster in tinfoil. Laura and Shaun split a chicken salad and fish & chips, and I ordered a tuna poke bowl which came as tuna with stale tortilla chips. We people-watched from our perch in the restaurant for a while, and then decided we liked the comforts of our sailboat better — a quiet place with better food and our favorite cocktails. Tory and Aden wanted ice cream for dessert, but there wasn’t an ice cream shop to be found on Great Guana Cay. Actually, everything was closed in the sleepy town except these two restaurants.

Believe it or not, tomorrow is our last day of this trip! Our week of sailing in the Abaco flew by quickly. The weather is suppose to turn warmer for the weekend, so we hope to get some snorkeling in before it’s time to leave the islands.