The Abacos

Before we left Spanish Wells Dakota and I went for a walk around town to look a little more. We went all the way to the tip of the island and sat in a gazebo overlooking the bank and the ocean, also the main island of Eleuthera. This pic is of the ocean.

This is the cemetery in Spanish Wells and it is interesting because here they cannot dig into the earth because the coral rock is too hard so they build up with cement. They also decorate highly with plastic flower wreaths. Notice the men resting in the shade of the tree in the background. It was just past mid-day and quite hot.

We then sailed to Royal island and left early the next morning for the Abacos. It was an exhausting crossing with not enough wind and enough seas and way too much weed in the fishing hook! Charles caught a 48 in mahi mahi and I even saw it jump right before it broke the line and got away! Dakota was devastated! Pasta for dinner again!

We made it in by 5 PM and anchored near Lynyard Cay for the night. This morning we left again early for Marsh Harbor, our big motivation was propane for we were almost out and Alistair had asked for biscuits for breakfast and pizza for dinner for his birthday. It the least we could do, right?

He opened his gifts underway and is happy to be six!

Okay so this looks strange, except if you know that Alistair told me that he didn't want cake and we had gone to get ice cream earlier in the day. So he held the candle and we sang and he made a wish! The pizza was great!

We spent a little time walking around Marsh Harbor today. We had curried chicken patties at a local deli, cheap and yummy! We then went and found home made ice cream for Alistair's birthday cake. I found this beautiful Palm tree and the hibiscus flower around 5 in across.

Marsh Harbor is one of the largest towns in the Abacos and bustles with activity. The harbor is quite large with many cruising boats and restaurants, marinas and resort line the harbor. Cars racing around and people walking and talking and all that. We were in a little bit of a re-entry shock coming from the Exumas where a large island has a few houses and a bar and an average on has one or two houses or maybe just pigs or iguanas. Unaccustomed to the hubbub we weaved and stumbled into the deli and were saved by the curried chicken patties.

Tomorrow we will head to Man0war cay or to Great Guana cay for swimming, snorkeling and beach combing before we tackle ................the Whale. Just call me Ishmael.......

p.s. We want to thank our friend Lauren for her phone assistance when dakot sliced his foot open pretty badly on a conch shell. It was about 1 inch long and quite deep right on the pad of his foot. She directed us as to the proper care for best healing, thanks Lauren! Its all healed! See you this spring!