Crustacean Travels

 Day 14 We weighed anchor and retraced our steps through the harbor at Allans-Pensacola, back out into Little Bahama Bank to head south and east. Bill decided to put on his suntan lotion "War Paint". To the North, the series of barrier islands continue (Hog and Spanish Cays)  and the shores of Little Abaco reach way into the Banks at Angelfish Point.  This marks the transition from Little Bahama Bank to the Sea of Abaco. The water color is still turquoise and aquamarine with depths around 10-12 feet. As we pass the cut between Little Abaco and Great Abaco Islands, and begin to follow the shore line of Great Abaco Island about one-half mile off shore.  We have quite a few sailboats again keeping us company. Along the way we pass a quarry site with a freighter loading rock. But most of the shoreline was sandy beaches with limestone ledges and Australian Pine and shrubs further inland. A bit further on, we pass Fire Road village with its shore line of homes. Traveling t...

  Day 12 We left our anchorage at sunrise to head out of Great Sale Cay Harbor. Turning west and then north, we will cruise around Great Sale Cay toward Abaco's barrier islands, eventually reaching the eastern edge of the Little Bahama Bank today. As we turn Northeast, we get some spray.  Crustacean is quite salty now!   Winds are out of the east 10-15 knots with waves at one foot. We cruise past Little Sale Cay we see a steady stream of sailboats going both east and west.  I counted 15 total.  Nice wind for sailing. Halfway through our trip, you begin to see the outer barrier islands on the horizon to the north.  Five miles later you can see Little Abaco Island to our south.  Here is a chart of the area we traveled from Great Sale to Allan's-Pensacola Cay today. The further we travel east, the Little Bahama Bank narrows,  The winds pick up and seas run 1-2 feet. Crustacean got even saltier! As we approached Allan's-Pensacola the wind and sea...

 Day 11 We slipped our lines from the Old Bahama Bay Marina and Resort We left with eight other boats past the marina break wall and headed north and east to take the channel that leads into Little Bahama Bank.  The Bank is between the north barrier islands and Grand Bahama Island. See the chart below.  The first one shows the cut we had to negotiate and the second one shows almost all of the Northern Abacos -Bahamas. Following our waypoints, we navigated through the small islands and shoals just north of West End Grand Bahama to gain access to the Little Bahama Bank.  It is another sunny day with winds 8-12 knots and seas one foot or less. As we exit the shoal areas, we head East Northeast toward Mangrove Cay, water color becomes more aquamarine with depths of mostly 10 feet.  The waters are so clear, you can see the all the way through to the bottom. We are traveling with two navigational tools, Garmin and AquaMaps as we must rely on our electronics and compas...