Sunday, June 11, 2017

May 31, 2017 Little Harbour and Lynyard Cay, Abacos

Yesterday, I had noticed that Dave’s left eyelid was swollen and some irritation on his forehead.  This morning, I noticed a rash over Dave’s left eye.  He said his eyebrow had been itching for a couple days.  The only thing he did different lately was change the zinc on our prop.  While he was in the water, he saw a Portuguese Man of War.  It didn’t touch him, but maybe it left something in the water.  We’ll see what happens over the next few days.  Plus our cockpit was full of bugs in the morning back at Spanish Wells, a flying ant that could be termites.
 
 
We decided to spend the day going into Little Harbor.  We usually arrive here in the late afternoon and take off the next day, either north or south.  This time, we could take another day to explore. 

Here’s the interesting thing about Little Harbour, which I have mentioned before.  Abbreviated version of the Waterway Guide:  In the 1950’s, Smith College professor, Randolph Johnston, one of the great sculptors of the 20th center, his wife and 4 children left Northampton, Va in a schooner to escape civilization in pursuit of a free life and devotion to art.  They settled in Little Harbour and lived in caves, built thatched huts and eventually constructed a foundry for Randolph’s work.  He did in 1992, but his 3 sons maintain the foundry, a gallery and a restaurant, Pete’s Pub.
sculptures at Little Harbor

I had read that the cave they lived in was at the west end of the harbor.  We took our dinghy over by it on the way in.  We toured the gallery, but the foundry was closed.  Knowing how dental crowns are cast, it would have been interesting to see it on a large scale. 
Cave where the Johnstons first lived


We headed to Pete’s Pub for lunch.  When we were off shore yesterday, and as we were coming into the harbor today, we could see this large yellow/orange object above the trees.  It was a large scale wind scoop that you see on boats to direct the sea breeze into the pub.  It was fantastic.  You even had to hang onto your napkin and plastic cups. 
orange wind scoop above the trees
We shared a table with other people and had some interesting conversations.  A couple in their 40’s were on a 27 ft boat, living aboard for the last 6 months and had sailed it here from Florida.  They are able to keep their jobs working online.  They had all kinds of questions for us.  Another family from Florida sat by us.  The couple, a little older than us, own a home about an hour from there and live there in the winter.  Their son, wife and 2 kids were visiting.  All walks of life.

After we left, we stopped at Lynyard Cay.  We left our dinghy at the beach, a little off shore because of the changing tide.  They we hiked to the ocean side of the island, just up over the hill.  The tide was high, so not much beach, but there were crashing waves. 


 


ocean side of Lynyard

land bridge, but we didn't test it

can't ever trust Dave with the camera

 

 We hiked back to another beach rather than back tracking.  Dave ended up swimming around a point and out to our dinghy.  We weren’t surprised.

along the path back to the beach

path back to the beach

may as well get started

our boat in the opposite direction
swimming to the boat
my rescue from a deserted beach


May 30, 2017 Eleuthera to Abacos

OK, we had a little excitement last night that I need to add today.  On the way to our anchorage, we saw something floating in the water.  As we approached it, we could tell it was a fender from a boat larger than ours.  We decided to pick it up.  It had a nice cover, nice lines attached at both ends, and 2 leather wrapped rail hooks with sheep’s wool cushions to protect the rail.  Dave put a notice out on the radio to see if any boats in the area were missing one.  He even called a boat directly, once he found their name on the AIS.  No one claimed it.  Dave googled the parts and figured the set up was worth about $800.  He deflated the fender to stow it and let all the parts dry out.  We can use it ourselves or as good trading booty. 

 
On Tuesday, May 30 we left for the Abacos about 7:00am.  We had a bit of a rough night, so decided we may as well take off and nap along the way if need be. 

We had an uneventful passage from Eleuthera to the Abacos.  That’s always good.  We didn’t catch any fish :( We sailed about 1/2 of the way before our wind died.  We had Beverly bring us 2 new “birds” from the US.  We put them on the line to attract the attention of the fish. 

We anchored at Lynyard Cay about 3:30 and had a peaceful evening at anchor.