Abacoes and on to Fl

May 31st
Marsh Harbor
Our plan for this AM was to snorkle on the coral gardens at Sandy Cay. Once again a sunny morning quickly turned into stormy skies so we sailed on to anchor at Marsh Harbor staying just ahead of the storms. Managed a trip to town in late afternoon for wine and groceries. At dinner time I flagged down a passing local with a boatload of conk and we bought enough conk for the freezer along with 4 lobsters for dinner.

June 1st-2nd
Treasure Cay 
With more nasty weather approaching we took advantage of a break in the rain to sail north to Chris' favorite anchorage at Treasure Cay. This is a very protected harbor where we can anchor and still have wifi, pool, showers and a great beach. major storms passed during the afternoon and again late night but the few boats here rode out the weather safely. A break in the rain Sat afternoon let us spend time on the beach.

June 3rd-7th
A pleasant morning with calm seas found us transiting the whale passage and heading to Green Turtle Cay. We are planning to keep moving north as the weather permits to be ready to cross to Fl when we get favorable conditions. With a full moon we have to wait for a rising tide to enter Black Sound so we spent the afternoon anchored off Abacoe Island exploring the remains of yet another failed development. Acres of mature coconut palms and flowering tropical vegetation lining the roadsides made for a pleasant walk thru these deserted woods.    Picked up a mooring at Donnies, one of our favorite stops, and we will be here a few days waiting for the strong NW winds and squally weather to improve. Monday found us spending the afternoon at the nearby beach on the lee side protected from the winds. The nights have been hot and buggy with not a lot of breeze on the mooring but with storms passing regularly moving to an anchorage with more breeze isn't an option. Hung out the next few days putting up with the no-see-ums at dusk. Hazy hot and humid, spent time at beaches and exploring on bikes. Storms about each day.

June 8th-Fri
After a morning shower decided to move north to Allens-Pensacola Cay. Spent a quiet night in an old favorite anchorage.

June 9th-Sat
Finally some good sailing wind. Moved on to Great Sale Cay where we anchored along with 8 other boats all headed back to the US. Caught 2 big Barracuda both to big to eat and a nice Spanish Macarell we had for dinner.

Sun- Off early with plans to stop and anchor at West End. We have never stopped there and have been told that anchoring is limited to fair weather only. Have heard that the marina charges $100-150 per night so we have never stopped. This is the first place for power boats from FL to stop to fuel up and clear customs.
        As they say "the best laid plans..." Around 11 AM noise started in engine and after some checks found the coolant pump on the engine had gone bad. Radioed West End and inquiring about chances of getting a new pump in a timely fashon was told our chances were "slim to none". With a decent wind we decided to sail on and made for Memory rock to anchor for the night.

Mon- Memory rock is just a small rock marking a spot where the water is deep enough to cross onto the banks. It is totally exposed in all directions but is the last place to anchor before the ocean depths. We spent a very rolly night azt anchor with winds about 15 kts. At 4 AM we set sail for Stuart figuring if we kept a speed of 5 kts we could enter the inlet on an incoming tide. "Wrong again" wind died to lite and we slowly made our way across. Thankfully we have Seatow (AAA for boats) or we wouldn't have attempted this crossing or the sometimes hazardous St Lucy Inlet. Called Seatow from 5 miles out and they met us outside the inlet to tow us in thru the 2 knt outgoing tide. It turns out that our friend Fred was the Seatow Capt and we enjoyed a smooth (even if a tow is a bit embarrasing) end to our 3 month journey.

Back at our dock and moved ashore we waited for our new water pump which the engine rebuilder replaced under warranty. In the meantime the St Lucy locks closed for maintenance so we had to wait to take the boat to Indiantown for summer haul out/storage.

We had a great trip visiting many new places and meeting lots of wonderful people. Traveled a total of 1106 NM over a period of a little under 3 months.  Now its time to head north to our summer  home and camp in NY's Adirondacks.