Spanish Wells to Little Harbour, Abaco

Spanish Wells to Abaco – 50 nautical miles sailed, 2 miles in dinghy

We said goodbye to Eleuthera as we sailed cautiously into the Ridley Head Cut, through the Devil’s Backbone, and out into the open sea. The strong west winds of yesterday had shifted north and weakened substantially but large swells remained on the ocean, still full of power from the many hours of driving winds. Fortunately, the wave period was quite long so there was only occasional pounding through the closer waves as we motored north north-west directly into the slight wind.

Several hours later we were out of sight of land and in over 15,000 feet of water but not feeling alone as there were intermittent calls on the VHR radio and a number of large container boats and freighters, most likely on their way between Europe and the US. You learn quickly that there only real difference between ocean depths of hundreds and thousands of feet is a slight change in water colour. I spent a lot of time just looking out into the ocean but did not see a single flying fish or dolphin, and the fishing line that trailed behind our boat went ignored by the fishes. We did spot a balloon floating on the surface and went to retrieve it to practice our boat hooking skills, but were unable to because of the large swell and inability to do 360’s without tangling the fishing line, so we gave up reluctantly and let that balloon float its way down to Nassau.

We arrived in Little Harbour, Abaco after an 8.5 hour run and dropped the hook at an anchorage just north of Little Harbour itself as the entrance depths were far too shallow for our six foot keel. We immediately jumped in the dinghy to have a look around. The water here looked more green than blue but was still quite clear. We rounded the corner towards the entrance and saw many boats in the harbour, a few outside of it, and at least four other dinghies motoring around. Busy place.

The harbour itself was idyllic, bordered by rocky cliffs on one side and lowlands on the other. There were many private homes and docks here, with mooring balls lined up like soldiers throughout the bay, all occupied by boats, providing for a rather congested feel. We circled the bay, saw Pete’s Pub and Gallery (a local institution for cruisers), meandered through a small secondary bay, then returned to just outside of the harbour entrance and anchored the dinghy close to a sizeable coral reef.

I jumped in first to check it out and it was excellent – hundreds of fan corals, waving at each other, schools of blue fish, and brightly coloured coral, thick and stacked, hiding ocean creatures. Ana dropped into the water and we snorkelled around, both surprised at the quality of the reef considering its proximity to such a populated harbour. She spotted a huge sea turtle and we trailed behind it slowly. I then spotted a small shark, moving at high speed through the shallows of the coral, as if late for an appointment. I pointed it out to Ana and she shook her head then took off swimming at race pace back to the dinghy. She’s been spooked from her online reading about recent shark encounters in the Bahamas and beyond that have ended badly for the humans, so didn’t want to take any chances.

We returned to SeaLight, did a couple of minor boat jobs (rust removal, bbq removal, unclogging of toilet), decided not to go back in for happy hour at Pete’s Pub, then made ourselves leftover chili and cornbread and had a relaxing, quiet night at anchor, our first in the islands of the Abacos.