Spanish Wells to the Abacos

We arrived in Spanish Wells a little late in the day so our first stop was to the fuel dock to fill the tanks. While Brian dealt with the fueling I took a run down the street to the grocery store. We were lacking in a few essentials like eggs, bread and ORANGES! That was the first thing I looked for.
When I returned to the boat the tank was full and paid for and the fuel docked closed. We called the marina where we had a reservation without any luck. They too apparently closed at 5. Well, we could just go grab a slip or maybe stay where we were.

Nobody seemed to care that we were there, so we stayed tied to the fuel dock for the night. Fishing boats came and went and I was sitting in the cockpit catching up on emails when I heard a familiar voice. Glancing up I saw Mirella who owns Pasadena Marina where we had spent the previous summer. I'm not sure who was more surprised! Mirella, Wade, Kim and Bill had been out on their boat, experienced engine troubles and had just made it to the fuel dock. It's funny when you run into someone you know in the most unlikely places.
The next morning we were up early expecting to be kicked out at the crack of dawn. The fuel dock didn't open until 8 so we enjoyed a leisurely coffee then moved just a little jump down to Spanish Wells Yacht Haven. It's a small marina, nothing fancy but everything we needed.

This boat moored beside us belongs to Lenny Kravitz

The next day...on to The Abacos.
We had a couple of choices on which way to go. We could go around the point which would take a couple of hours or navigate through The Devil's Backbone which is strewn with coral heads.

Coral heads can be deceptive. Usually they are well marked on charts but that doesn't really tell you how far under the surface they are. On a well lit day with polarized sunglasses you can see them quite well as a black blob in a sea of green. With a name like the Devil's Backbone we opted for a nearly sure thing and hired a pilot boat to guide us through. There were 3 boats and we ended up being number 3 in line. The directions that came over the radio were "boat 3 over to starboard". "number 3 pick it up a little" "Blue Moose stay right in line". Yes, it was a little hairy but we made it through just fine. A $30 charge for a sense of security.

We had an all day motor sail across to Great Abaco in deep water so of course we fished. We borrowed a lure (pink and white of course) from Don. One fish, two fish!



The big one!

Diner for us, Cricket and 20 of our closest friends

I had the honors of reeling this one in and it was touch and go who was going to win. I had my feet braced on the side of the boat and the end of the rod jammed into my stomach. I would gain 50 feet and it would turn and run. Brian ended up bracing the rod on his shoulder because we were afraid it would snap. A sweaty 30 minutes later it was relaxing in the cockpit with a shot of whiskey. For those that don't know this, if you pour alcohol into a fishes gills it subdues it immediately. Good thing, because when they flip and flop I jump too!

What I didn't find out until the next day was that we were in over 12000 feet of water. Isn't that staggering? That's over 2 miles!

We spent the night kind of in the middle of nowhere and continued on the next day to Marsh Harbor.

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