March 18-27, 2018 Exploring the mid to southern Sea of Abaco

After St. Patrick’s Day we anchored out for 2 nights to do some dinghy exploration as well as a visit to Pete’s Pub in Little Harbour.  The first chart below shows all the tracks of our recent outings with guests and then on our own.  We are currently docked in Marsh Harbour  (MH) – center of chart where all the green triangles are piled up on our boat’s red icon.  It’s approximately 40 miles from Treasure Cay (NW  upper most track) to Pete’s Pub (Southern most track).   We came back into MH for three days of wind and rain, then went out again to the Bight of Robinson, Sandy Cay and Snake Cay for more dinghy exploration.  In the next two charts you can see lots of little dots along the eastern shores where there are plenty of uninhabited sandy beaches and mangrove channels.

 

March 18 – Our back yard when anchored out at Snake Cay.

Found a beach littered with discarded conch shells.  This is pretty typical.

Found a cluster of sea stars – one for each of our grandchildren.

Mega morning.  Mega yacht Short Game (100+feet) makes a nice backdrop for the sunrise.

Bob checking out a conch for conch horn potential.

Islandia is a long way off across the turquoise Bight of Old Robinson.

Took a mooring in Little Harbour to visit Pete’s Pub.

Pete’s Pub is known for its open air restaurant and personalized hanging teeshirts.  We found one to commemorate our niece Lindsay’s upcoming birthday.  Happy 25th to Lindsay in advance!!

Further south of the restaurant is this beach that goes on for miles.  I found several pieces of sea glass here.

Heading back north to Snake Cay one travels by this welcoming home and tower on Channel Cay.  It has an outstanding view of the ocean to the east and the Sea of Abaco to the west. Would love to be in that tower on a Full Moon rise night.

Sunset off Snake Cay.

March 23:  Back to the other shoreline of the Bight of Old Robinson.  Bob enjoyed reading while I went beach combing.

Then we went out looking for blue holes.  You can see the abrupt change in color.  It’s not very wide, but at one point our depth sounder read 60 feet.  It is said that there are underwater tunnels way down deep that connect with the ocean.

Bob looking back at the blue hole while I looked for a plaque.

Sad plaque – unfortunately 3 young men lost their lives in the tunnels here.  I’m happy to just look at the blue holes from the dinghy.

Took advantage of the flat seas to explore more beaches.

Low tide scenes.

Next day we explored some of the channels through the Mangroves near Cormorant Cay.

We saw dozens of turtles and one small shark.

March 26:  Calmest morning yet.  We are anchored in 10 feet of water but it looks like only one foot.

Out on the paddle board I discovered a grouping of coral heads with 4 turtles on it.

This turtle actually came over to me, maybe he thought the paddle board was an exotic turtle?

And off they go – they swim really fast.  Aesop’s fable would have been quite different if the hare and the tortoise were in the water.

Sting ray dead ahead!

Turns out to be a pretty big spotted eagle ray.

Reaching for the stars.

In two feet of water – you have to be careful where you paddle so you don’t disturb the sleeping rays.

Headed back to MH after lunch to get ahead of the next cold front.  Within hours it went from no wind, hot and sunny to gusts of over 30 knots and nasty skies.  Noticed this boat in the harbor.  Fun name.  Can’t identify the flag country (second boat we’ve seen with the earth from space on it). Maybe it’s just a universal flag?

At just about sunset we were surprised to see a pelican!  No big deal to see pelicans in the US, especially Florida, but we’ve never seen a pelican in MH.

This sea gull landed on its head when it was scooping up some fish.

But the seagull quickly flew off when the pelican tried to scoop him up.  We will be dockside for a few days waiting out the weather, then back out for more exploration.  Next up – first week April flying to Fort Lauderdale for our niece Riva’s wedding.