A Birthday! And Exporing Man-O-War Cay, Part Two

Man-O-War Cay – 6 kilometres metres walked, 14 metres swam

Today was a strange repeat of yesterday, except with a birthday!

We walked the south end of Man-O-War island, visited the grocery store to pick up a few things (and were surprised at the selection and decent prices), stopped at a gift shop, a sail shop selling amazing bags, found the town library and used the self-service checkout (pencil and notebook) to borrow a book on the History of Pirates, then had another secluded swim on another perfect beach.

At 6:30 we met at sailing vessel Domino where Ana and Kevin were hosting a birthday party for Kate. Once again we stayed up late, eating snacks, having drinks, and visiting as the 25 knot storm winds finally arrived along with a northern sky full of sheet lightning, providing for a suitably sketchy dinghy ride back to our boats, which were pleasingly nearby.

It has been so much fun having friends here and just hanging out with them. This is a great crew who we enjoy spending time with and the conversation never gets thin. We know at some point we will go our separate ways, so we are simply focused on enjoying the time we have together.

Exploring Man-O-War Cay

Man-O-War Cay – 8 kilometres metres walked, 13 metres swam

Ana’s been telling everybody that Spanish Wells is the cleanest and nicest island in the Bahamas (of the ones we’ve seen). But after today, I think she’s changed her mind. It’s now Man-O-War Cay in Abaco.

We had a very slow morning, doing a few boat jobs, filling water tanks, and helping Stella research flights for a potential trip to Europe. We didn’t dinghy into Man-O-War Cay until early afternoon, but weren’t in a big rush as it was Sunday and everything is closed on Sunday as a day of rest.

The Queen’s Highway runs the entire length of the island, but the name projects a highly misleading mental image of the roadway. In fact, it is about six feet wide, paved in parts, sand in others, is bordered by beautiful two foot high rock walls, overhung by tree canopy in parts, and is suitable only for golf carts and walking. It is a gorgeous path and we walked as far north as we could go, being careful to avoid the lizards running from side to side, then stripped down to our bathers and went for a swim on a luscious, deserted beach to cool off from the heat of the day.

It was a moment of unbelievable peace and beauty. Just Ana and I, swimming in the crystal clear waters with gentle waves rolling in. The bottom was all sand. The sun peeked down between the clouds. We were all by ourselves, floating in the buoyant water, with nothing to do and nowhere to go. At the point of maximum peace, Ana thought she spotted a shark about half a mile away and bolted out.

We had a brief look around the town centre, but wanted to save that and the southern end of the island for exploring tomorrow. We need to pace ourselves as we have four days here as we wait out a big approaching wind storm.

In the evening, we had Kevin and Ana over for seafood paella (and authentic Puerto Rican tostones prepared by Ana), then were joined shortly thereafter by Kate and Ben, who had arrived mid-afternoon. SeaLight’s cockpit was full and joyous as we had drinks, shared stories, and once again made it damn close to real midnight.

Island Hopping, Snorkelling with Creatures, An Evening with Domino

Little Harbour to Man-O-War Cay – 21 nautical miles sailed, 3 miles in dinghy, 100 metres walked

I balanced on my paddleboard in the shallow and flat bay, staying as still as possible, carefully and deliberately processing the scene before me, trying not to disturb my dream and chance waking up, ruining it.

My eyes found six sea turtles paddling through the water, searching for food or maybe just having fun, leaving a slight wake on the surface trailing their movements. Further away were many more turtle wakes, interrupted by leathery green heads with scowling mouths popping up, gulping air, then disappearing with a splash. I listened for the turtle breaths and turned my head to watch them as they surfaced. There were so many of them. The grassy bottom was home to juvenile conch, little ones, the luckiest of the millions of eggs their mothers had released into the water months or years before, struggling to survive in a hostile underwater world. I saw bright orange starfish, motionless from above, but with a thousand tiny legs inching them across the sand and weeds ever so slowly. Scattered across the bottom like ancient treasure from a shipwreck were white sand dollars, perfectly circular, stamped with mathematically-perfect geometric patterns.

I eased the paddle through the water with my dream arms, startling the turtles and watched their front fin legs propel them, flying through the sea, away from the shadow of the intruder. The conch, starfish, and sand dollars were fearless and allowed me to pass over them, with grace, accepting their tacit forgiveness for briefly disturbed their world.

I was pleased to discover I hadn’t woken up as I watched my shadow contracting ever so slowly with the rising sun in the east and paddled back to SeaLight, 

It was a beautiful morning.

After breakfast we motored northwards, through the many shades of now green waters instead of the vibrant blues to the south, to the Pelican Cays Land and Sea Park. We found a sandy patch amidst the coral north of Sandy Cay and dropped anchor then took the dinghy around the east side of the island to the magnificent coral reef. There we found an orchestra of colourful, waving fans and massive growths of elkhorn coral, with limbs so thick and large they resembled beams from a long-sunken ship. In awe, we watched a massive school of horse-eye jacks, together in formation finning softly in the current, in no rush. A school of small, brilliant blue fish, joined them, and together they appeared as if they were maybe waiting patiently for a bus or train. A small reef shark appeared at the edge of the reef, passing through, and the fish seemed not to care. We saw chubby parrotfish of all colours, small groupers, squirrelfish that stared rudely, trumpetfish, angelfish, butterfly fish, white grunts, drum, and yellowtail snapper.

When the current grew too strong we returned to the dinghy, then SeaLight, and continued north past the Pelican Cays, around the Tilloo Bank, across the Sea of Abaco, took the corner around Lubbers Bank with March Harbour to the west, then to Parrot Cay near Hope Town, our intended destination. But after a thorough review of the strong forecasted winds coming Monday and Tuesday, analysis of potential anchorages, and weighing out the options, we decided to play it safe and join our friends Kevin and Ana in sailing vessel Domino in the well protected anchorage of nearby Man-O-War Cay.

We arrived at 3:30, picked up one of the two or three remaining moorings, then were visited shortly thereafter by Kevin in his dinghy. We first met Kevin and Ana in the locks of the Erie Canal, a lifetime ago, then later hung out in Annapolis. We had been tracking each other’s movements since then and staying in touch, hoping to meet up again somewhere along the way. Kevin is a northern Englishman, transplanted into the US, recently retired, and sharing his sailing dream with Ana, a vibrant and feisty Puerto Rican beauty.

Ana and I took a dinghy ride into the fuel dock to fill up on gas and have a quick look around the marina gift shop and dockside restaurant. We then got a call from Magnus and he toured around the harbour with us in the dinghy virtually as we flexed our greens and blues with the shades of gray through the window of his Edinburgh flat. We wished he could be here with us but were so proud of him living his European adventure.

We had just finished our spectacular meal of garlic lemon chicken, fried cassava, plantain tostones, and ginger blueberry kale salad when Ana and Kevin arrived, fresh from their lobster and conch dinner at the marina, and joined us in SeaLight’s cockpit for hours of visiting that felt like minutes and took us dangerously close to Real Midnight.

It was great to see them again.