Exumas to the Abacos

We made the crossing over from Spanish Wells to Lynyard Cay, which is the southern end of the Abacos with good anchorage.  There are other cay’s further south but they are all surrounded by steep cliffs and no beaches with coves that you can tuck into.  It was about 52 miles and it took us over 11 hours because the wind seemed to change direction on the way over and it started coming more from the north which made it so we were going almost directly head on with it blowing around 15-20 knots.  Our cat does not sail very well directly into the wind, which from what I understand most cat’s don’t.   This was probably one of the worse crossings we’ve had so it was a very long day.  The water in the Abacos sure isn’t as nice as the water in the Exumu Cays.  I think the water in the Exumu’s is the prettiest water I’ve ever seen.  It’s so clear and full of beautiful coral, conch, starfish and rays.  I’m glad we got to spend a little time in Spanish Wells, which I thought was on Eleuthera but it’s actually on St. George’s Cay right next to Eleuthera.  We only stayed one night but we at least got to walk around the island and have dinner at Buddah’s, which is an outside bar with a school bus made into a kitchen but the food was pretty good.  The best I’ve had coming out of a school bus. The people in Spanish Wells are some of the nicest people we have run into.
They have quite a few marine parts stores and hardware stores in Spanish Wells, which is a good thing because the transmission cable on the starboard engine busted so we could only go forward with that engine and one of the connectors going into the hot water heater busted but we were able to find both of those on the island.

One good thing about the horrible crossing is Wes caught another Mahi Mahi just as we were heading into the anchorage.  It wasn’t as big as the last one but we at least filled up the freezer again after eating all of the other one at the beach fire.     

Now we are cruising up the inside channel of the Abaco’s heading to Hope Town, which is on Elbow Cay.  The inside channel isn’t as smooth as you would think though.  The wind is still blowing around 16 knots and the islands here are so low the wind just blows right over them into the channel.  

The pier leaving Spanish Wells

One of the beaches in the Exuma's

Another beach in the Exuma's

A fish Wes caught but a bigger fish got to it before he could reel it in

Sorry for posting all the sunsets but they are unbelievable down here-nothing like Colorado's

George Town, Exuma

We are back in George Town which is on Great Exuma.  It's the place where cruisers chicken out from going further South because there isn't really any civilization in the Bahama islands further South until you get to Turks and Caicos.  We actually got here on Tuesday after spending a couple of nights at anchorages on Plana Cay and Acklin Island.  We were able to get the dogs checked in after a couple of issues.  I don't know what I would do without having Amanda back home to help us out getting paperwork faxed and emailed down here. 

When we were on Acklin Island we met three other cruiser boats.  Two from Canada and one who actually lives on Spanish Wells in the Bahamas.  We had a huge bon fire on the beach and Kelsie who is sailing with Chris from Spanish Wells cooked up the rest of Wes's Mahi Mahi.  She also made some potatoes and she cooked it all over the fire.  It was pretty cool and tasted amazing.
 
We'll probably stay here until tomorrow than head a little further North. 

Potatoes Cooking

Left The Dominican Republic

(I actually wrote this post on the 15th but we haven't had any wifi until today 5/19 so hopefully I can catch up on the blog)

We left Puerto Bahia, DR at around 5 pm on Tuesday the 10th and we sailed straight through to the Bahamas. We got to West Plana Cay at around 6 pm Friday so it was a long 3 days. The dogs were very glad to see land. The sail wasn't bad and we had ok wind most of the way. We hit a couple rough spots but for the most part it was pretty calm with the wind coming from the east so it basically pushed us along and we could sail without engines averaging around 5 knots. Hopefully that is our last multi-overnighter. We'll probably work our way to Georgetown over the next couple of days, which is on Great Exuma. There really isn't much on the Acklins, Crooked and Long islands other than some beautiful anchorages. These islands are known as the Bahama Islands south of the Tropic of Cancer.

Wes caught a pretty big Mahi Mahi on the way over. Probably about 40 lbs. It took him a good 30 minutes to reel in and he was pretty exhausted after. So now our freezer is stocked with some real good fish.

It's nice to be back in the Bahamas with gorgeous beaches. The dogs are glad to be back crab hunting. Lexie caught four crabs today so she's getting to be quite the hunter. She even shared one with Max. Maybe cause she felt sorry for him because he hasn't caught any.

Stuck in the DR

We left St. Thomas Friday the 22nd as planned and since the wind was so good we decided to skip Puerto Rico and go straight to the Dominican Republic.  It took us about 2 and a half days because about 50 miles out of the DR the wind completely died.  We pulled into Puerto Bahia Marina Monday morning and got settled in a nice slip.  We stopped here on our way down and really loved the marina.  Then on Monday afternoon Wes started the engines and the port engine would not start.  Yes, again we had a starter go out.  So Wes got on line and ordered the starter from the same place he got the last one, paid extra money to have it fed ex'd down here.  The guy was a little skeptical sending it to the DR but he went ahead and did it.  We really didn't have a choice because there is no place to get it on the island and we weren't going anywhere without it.  I also read stories about it taking weeks and sometimes months to get parts here.  The dock master even said it is a challenge to get parts shipped here.  Well, Wes tracked the package and it got to the fed ex office here in Santa Domingo on Wednesday but it hasn't moved since then and it is now Monday May 2nd and it's still stuck.  Wes has tried calling fed ex and from what we can figure out, it is because customs is holding it up.  You also can't call the local office to and talk to anyone and if you could, they only speak Spanish so it wouldn't do us any good.  He was able to send an email and now we are just waiting for a response. 
We've been here a week and we are getting a little bored here.  We would really like to get to the Bahamas too.  Even though it's a beautiful place, it still gets boring after a week.  Last week we rented a car one day and ran around the island with another cruiser couple that we met here and then we were able to hitch a ride into town yesterday with a couple that has a car.  There isn't a lot right around the marina other than a couple restaurants, a couple pools, and a mini market.  And nothing really in walking distance.  So, I guess we have no choice but to wait for the part.  There are definitely worse places to be stuck though.

Our boat in the marina

The beautiful infinity pool and marina

The bridge to no where in Samana.  They built this and they were going to build a casino on the island but they never built the casino

Down town Samana