2019 Abacos Trip

Another trip to the Abacos, one of our favorite places. Last year we didn’t cruise as the first 6 months of the year was tied up in a remodeling project (house not boat). This year, we snuck in a 3-1/2 week trip, returning slightly early than planned to take care of some family matters. Some system issues, mainly the house batteries starting to fail, also pushed us to take a crossing window as it presented itself. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable trip.

Abacos in 2017

Last year, we planned another Bahamas trip, but discovered an engine issue during our sea trial. Power was reduced and speed was limited, even with a freshly painted bottom. While in retrospect, we probably could have completed the trip successfully, instead we used the time to do some extensive work on the engine and transmission, fix some leaks in the refrigeration system, and attend to a few other items. As a result of that effort, this year’s trip was great and the boat performed flawlessly for the most part.

2015 Trip to the Abacos and Berrys

With 5 or 6 weeks to spend, we planned a trip to the Bahamas that would be laid back, but perhaps visit some new spots. An oil analysis at the last oil change showed some high level of wear components a couple of hundred hours after performing a top overhaul to repair some water ingestion damage to the forward cylinder, so we wanted to closely observe its performance prior to going anywhere too far away. As is our nature, we worried about it for a couple of weeks but everything was really OK. Compared to many trips, our maintenance issues were minor.

After a quick stop at West End, Old Bahama Bay to check in, we transited the Indian Channel on a falling tide and spent a couple of nights at Great Sale Cay. For the first time, we went ashore there and spent time on the lovely beach on the west side. Active Captain tipped us off to the small landing in the anchorage that made it easy to get ashore – something we had never noticed before in spite of many nights here over the years.

Leaving Great Sale, we hung out for a while at Allans-Pensacola, then moved around between Powell Cay and Tahiti Beach over the next weeks, making several transits of the Whale in both directions, and exploring Green Turtle, Manjack, Powell, Man-o-War and other favorite stops. The weather for some of the time was iffy, and we moved around a lot as the anchorages became difficult with different wind directions. Thunderstorms and torrential rain were a feature of the trip, but we also had a lot of sunny days and good snorkling, including a calm day where we dinghyed over to the Sandy Cay marine park from Buckaroon Bay.

When conditions permitted, we headed south from the North Bar Channel along the east coast of Great Abaco, rounding Hole in the Wall and stopping at the Sandy Point anchorage before getting to Great Harbour marina in the Berrys. Our first visit to these islands, Great Harbour was a good spot for almost a week of hanging out, eating well and taking short excursions to various points on the island.

When it was time to return home, a day on the banks followed by an overnight across the gulfstream got us back with good speed.

During the trip, we got good use out of the AIS receiver built in to our VHF, and were surprised to see how many cruising sailboats have started using active AIS transponders. As we experienced a partial failure of the helm mounted chartplotter on the trip (a 14 year old Raymarine 520), and the intermittent nature of the radar of the same vintage, some upgrades are in order now that we are home.

Please follow the links in the box at upper right for our the photo albums, daily logs and itinerary of the trip.

2013 Abacos Trip

After a few years of mostly land-based activities, it was time to ease back into cruising a little, and a month in the Abacos seemed like a good way to test out our recent repairs and upgrades.

From our base in the Palm Beach area, West End is only a short 50 mile hop across the gulf stream (weather permitting), but for some reason we haven’t made the trip in 10 years.

As you can see in the following chart, from West End we followed the Indian Cay channel to Mangrove Cay and Great Sale Cay, thence to Allan’s-Pensacola where we planned to stay a few days. Need for a new generator charging battery altered that plan though and we made the trip through the Whale to Marsh Harbor the next day, staying in the area south of the Whale and north of Little Harbor for a couple of weeks.

Although we have been there many times before, this trip was unique in that the weather conditions (including days of west winds), let us visit some anchorages like Cormorant Cay and Buckaroon Bay that were new to us. Old favorites like Powell Cay, Allans-Pensacola, and Manjack Cay were as great as we remember them, but significant development has altered the experience at once-idylic places like Baker’s Bay.

The Abacos appear to be thriving, with many more houses on the shoreline and lots of cars in Marsh Harbor. Cruising traffic for May seemed light though, and most of the boats moving around seemed to be Sunsail and Moorings charters – mostly catamarans.

Please follow the links in the box at upper right for our photo albums, daily logs and itinerary.

Repower Project – 2008

Starting in June 2008, we upgraded Windwalker with a new engine. After a lot of dockside work, 37 days on the hard, and another several months of finish-up work at the dock, we declared victory just prior to New Year’s of 2009. An extensive sea trial to the Florida Keys in the spring of 2009 completed the project.

The new engine is a Westerbeke 44B, replacing a Volvo 2003T. Because the new engine is longer (4 cylinders versus 3), lower, and with a V-drive down-angle of 15 degrees instead of 20, the old beds had to be significantly modified. Other incompatibilities included a smaller exhaust size (2″ vs 2-1/4″), electrical connections and control cables on the opposite side, and interference with the bilge pump and fresh water systems components, to name a few. As you may expect – there was a bit of engineering involved. The space was modeled using Drafix CAD, and drawings were made for the beds and engine setup, and a template was constructed from plywood to insure engine alignment before committing to glass.

Cabinets and bulkhead components were removed, and work got started, but we didn’t haulout until everything was ready so as to minimize the yard time which was going to cost $80/day after the first month. All in all, the haulout and engine swap went fairly smoothly and took only a week longer than planned. With temporary plumbing, electrical hookups and instrument panel, we splashed in October and made our way back to the dock (5 miles) under our own power. At the dock, we completed final plumbing and electrical, mounted the panel in the cockpit (which required the casting of a new fiberglass insert), mounted the refrigeration compressor and new hoses, hooking up the hot water heater, relocated the bilge pump, fresh water system, and oil change pump, and put all the woodwork back together.

It was an extensive and complex project as you might expect, but by doing all the work ourselves, it was not as expensive as it could have been. The engine was purchased from Valiant in Texas at a good discount, and drop shipped to us in Florida from the Westerbeke plant in Massachusets. Setups and measurements, as well as custom fabrication of the compressor bracket and other parts was done in our garage, while much tear-down was done at our dock prior to entering the yard.

For a step-by-step description, photographs, and an accounting of the costs involved, please see our project page.

Voyage 3 – 2006

After a couple of sailing sabbaticals from IBM, including the initial trip in 1999-2000 from Texas to Maine and the Caribbean, and then a similar trip in 2003, Fred finally retired for good in 2006. Planning some longer trips, we did some equipment upgrades and a haulout, then headed north in July of that year.

After a couple of days offshore in the Gulf Stream from Palm Beach, we made landfall at Wynah Bay in South Carolina, chased inland by a series of squalls and forecast for worse. Making our way up the ICW, we visited with Bob and Kay of Rima in New Bern, NC, then on to Norfolk, Virginia. Weather was still not great so we took a liesurely route to the Chesapeake Canal and through Delaware Bay and then offshore to Newport, RI, Provincetown Massachusetts and finally to Maine where we spent much of the summer hanging out at Mt. Desert Island and the islands around Penobscot Bay.

As the weather turned colder, we headed south through New England, New York, New Jersey and were in the Chesepeake again in time for the Annapolis boat show in October, then returned to Florida through a series of ditch runs and offshore hops, arriving home November 8.

The plan had us spend Thanksgiving and Christmas at home, then head down island in January, but engine problems over the latter part of the trip intervened and we decided to begin a series of repairs that ultimately led to repowering in 2008. See the project pages for a synopsis of that undertaking.

Although we had made the trip north twice before, there are so many places to visit in 1500 miles of coastline that we had a lot of adventures in new places and learned some new things about old favorites. Some of the highlights included the more rugged trails in Acadia, marine museums in Bristol, RI, St. Michael’s Maryland, and Solomon Islands Virginia, the Charleston Naval Museum, and our favorite Maine place for lobster – Boothbay.