Abacos Magic

Cruising the Abacos was like living in a dream world. Water as clear as a swimming pool. The prettiest houses in pastel pinks, sky blues, buttery yellows, lilac purples. Conch fritters. Snorkeling. Boat life at its best.

S A N D Y C A Y

I had been putting off snorkeling throughout the Exumas (hello, sharks?) but finally decided I needed to try it or else I’d be missing out on a full Bahamas experience. The day after I returned to the Bahamas, we dropped the hook at Sandy Cay and dinghied over to a tiny mooring ball right next to the reef. I hopped overboard, mask and snorkel in place, and was amazed at what I saw. Above the water it had been windy, bouncy, wavy, yet just below the surface, it was calm and peaceful and... silent. Fish everywhere, shimmering in all colors and patterns. It was both terrifying and beautiful at once.

M A N - O - W A R

We decided to anchor at Man-o-War for lunch the next day. We dinghied around, looking at pretty rocks, water in all shades of blue, and rays who were minding their own business, and then we ate our pb&honey sandwiches and celery on the bench of a gazebo on a white-sand beach looking out at the Sea of Abaco. I sat between two of my favorite humans (Grace and Lynn) and wondered to myself, not for the first time on this boat trip, if life could ever get better than this.

J I B R O O M A T M A R S H H A R B O U R

With Lynn’s departure date arriving soon, we found a surprisingly cheap marina that was both a quick sail from Man-o-War and a short cab ride from the airport. There were showers, conch fritters, yellow bikes to ride around town, and the cutest restaurant whose tables had conch shells with flowers planted in them for centerpieces. Our new friend Justin joined us for Lynn’s going away festivities, and we borrowed bikes to take to the Abaco Beach Resort I had so fatefully been stranded at in the previous blog post.

The jib room was also a short walk from Mermaid Reef, one of my favorite places we snorkeled. Swimming over the coral heads, practicing diving to the bottom… at one point I was even the leader of a school of fish that followed me wherever I swam. I couldn’t stop giggling. Grace would try to identify fish for me under the water. “Grouper!” she’d say, gesturing to a pretty ugly fish, but as it’s difficult to understand people under water, it was kind of like playing a guessing game. We had the best time!

sister friends

A quote from Lynn that applies to boat life

S N O W B A L L F I G H T

We have learned that making friends with fast powerboats is very advantageous. Thanks to Justin’s center console, we were able to get quickly over to Hope Town for drinks or to Firefly resort for conch fritters without having to worry about moving Elpis anywhere. Being friends with people who worked on a fishing charter also meant that we got gifted ice and fish! Once we had so much ice that we began sending packed handfuls of ice across the deck at each other in what was possibly the first snowball fight in the Abacos, ever.

Engine maintenance while waiting out weather in Marsh Harbour

Pro tip: don't drop the oil filter during the oil change

H O P E T O W N

After waiting out a few days of nasty storms in Marsh Harbour and being glad we weren’t in the snow storms at home (we laughed when we saw snowy Michigan on the Abacos news channel), it was finally time to leave. We sailed Elpis over to Hope Town, the settlement well-known to most for the red-and-white striped lighthouse but to Grace and me for Cap’n Jack’s delicious conch fritters.

Grace went diving for a bowl she dropped and found a starfish! (It's okay to hold a starfish, I googled it.)

Laughing that Michigan is on the Bahamian news channel

Lighthouse views

"I can see my house from here!"

Tacos, the best food, second only to conch fritters

F O W L C A Y A N D G R E A T G U A N A

We dropped anchor near Fowl Cay in the clearest swimming pool ocean water. We dinghied to the ocean side and found reefs alive with colorful fish. We couldn’t swim over the coral heads because they were too close to the surface, but we saw a lot of yellowtail snappers and even a barracuda.

Fowl Cay

The prettiest water

Nippers just after sunset

Beach bar

Honorary bartender

G R E E N T U R T L E C A Y

We had a perfect weather window to cross Whale Cay Cut, which is surrounded by reefs and is something you don’t want to mess around with. We spent a few days sailing back and forth between Green Turtle Cay and Manjack Cay and then hopped our way up the rest of the Abacos island chain, dodging rain and storms, showering in the ocean, experimenting with making brownies in a frying pan, and eating ramen for nearly every meal. Morale was low. At this point, we had run out of fresh food and friends to cruise with, and we knew we couldn’t quite afford to keep buying the expensive Bahamian groceries. It was time to go home.

Whale cup in Whale Cay Cut!

N I G H T A D V E N T U R E S

One of our last nights in the Abacos was one of the most magical nights of our trip. Halfway through watching Mamma Mia, we decided to go night swimming. The air temperature was warm, the water was clear, and the sky was full of stars. We went halyard swinging off the bow, watching phosphoresence sparkle around us as we splashed into the water and kicked our feet around. The moon was bright enough that we could see right down to our toes, almost to the bottom of the anchorage. I backstroked around, staring up at the stars, feeling grateful for that night and for everything I learned in the Bahamas. We left the Bahamas feeling like it was the end of an era, of the best times of our lives, but also feeling happy and refreshed and bold and alive.

Bye Bahamas, thank you for everything