West End to Man-O-War Cay

—Blogpost written by Bob

This blogpost covers our journey from West End on Grand Bahama Island to Man-O-War Cay.  Unfortunately, it was a 100% motoring trip.  Our transmission cable which we replaced in West End operated very smoothly, even better than the original.

West End to Great Sale Cay

We woke up at 7 AM to be sure we were ready to top up our diesel tanks when the marina opened at 8 AM.  It was December 24, Christmas Eve.  We finally got out of the marina around 8:45 AM. Fortunately, the state of the tide was a little above mid-tide and rising.  We motored about one nautical mile northward and entered the Indian Cay Channel.  We motored 4 or 5 miles through this natural channel, seeing water depths as low as 6.2 feet and as high as 8 feet (at mid-tide).

The Indian Cay Channel starts at the lower left of this chart
image and ends at the upper center.

All day we had light and variable headwinds—so, today was a 50 nautical mile motoring trip. It was a beautiful day and we were surrounded by the beautiful turquoise water of the Little Bahama Bank without a lot to do but gaze into the water.

Taken from the bow, this image is typical of us
motoring across the Little Bahama Bank.

The color and clarity of the water on the Little Bahama
Bank is unforgettable.  I found myself always
looking at the sea bottom as we
motored along.

After passing just to the north of Mangrove Cay, we decided to motor to the south end of Great Sale Cay and anchor out in the middle of the bank about 5 miles south of Great Sale. (We pretty much kept on the north side of Great Sale on our previous trips thru the Little Bahama Bank.)

On Christmas Eve at anchor Maggie and I exchanged a home-made Christmas present, shared a bottle of champagne, grilled steaks for dinner, and watched the sun go down over the Little Bahama Bank.  Christmas Eve couldn’t be any more peaceful than this.

The sunset on the Little Bahama Bank on Christmas Eve.

We anchored between Great Sale Cay and Grand Bahama Island in the middle of the Little Bahama Bank.  There was little to no wind and the desolation was beautiful as well as being a little scary because we were so vulnerable.  I slept outside in the cockpit—we were 5 miles away from any land and I thought that mosquitos and no-see-ums simply couldn’t get out this far to bite me.  Fortunately for me, I was correct.

Great Sale to Manjack Cay

We pulled up anchor and started motoring at 7:30 AM on Christmas Day. There was not the least ripple on the water’s surface.  As we proceeded, we played instrumental Christmas music while Maggie sang along.

Since we arrived at West End I’ve been thinking about just spending this winter exploring more of the Abacos since there are so many cays we haven’t visited.  In addition, I’m not interested in making any risky nighttime passages here in the Bahamas.  Maggie agreed. We also thought about taking a slip one day every three weeks, making it easier to empty our composting toilet’s solids container.  In fact, at the end of last season we learned to work around the tides on the ICW--this season we are learning to work around the wind in the Bahamas.

At 3 PM we started cooking our Christmas dinner on the grill, we were still underway when we started it.  We cooked a turkey breast in an oven bag along with some seasonings.  After we anchored (about 4 PM), I checked the grill and the turkey seemed to be cooking fine but the oven bag had melted around the turkey breast.  We added some carrots wrapped in tin foil to the grill and decided to keep cooking another 45 minutes. 

After we anchored, Maggie put on her snorkel gear and swam over the anchor to check it. The anchor was set fine but she noticed an accumulation of brown seagrass clogged around our anchor strut (just ahead of the prop)--this explained why our speed was reduced about 1/2 knot during the day. She pulled the brown sea grass off in clumps.

We have no temperature controls on our grill—we simply used a setting for cooking the turkey breast that seemed adequate. At 4:45 PM (after 1 hour and forty-five minutes cooking time) we removed the turkey from the grill and peeled off the melted oven bag and a netting that held the turkey breast’s shape. It was cooked perfectly! We had turkey, carrots, and home-made cranberry sauce as our Christmas dinner in our boat’s cockpit while the sun was setting, an absolutely beautiful Christmas dinner! For dessert we had a bowl of apple crisp, also cooked on the grill.

The sandy beach on the lower end of Manjack Cay, complete
with palm trees and even a palapa.  There are a couple
of (native) homes on Manjack Cay,
accessible only by boat..

This image is looking west after sunset from Manjack Cay.
Great Abaco Island is in the distance.

Layover Day on Manjack Cay

The weather forecast was for rain today, along with 10 to 15 knots of wind from the northeast. Since the wind direction would make the Whale Cay Passage rough, we decided early on that we would stay in our Manjack Cay anchorage today.

Today was a lazy day. We did some reading, some minor cleaning, and some more reading.

It rained lightly several times during the mostly overcast day. There were about two dozen boats in the anchorage all day-this anchorage is large enough to accommodate many more.

When we arrived at West End we flew our bright yellow quarantine
flag until we cleared Customs.  Then, we replaced it with
the Bahamas courtesy flag, which is not the
same flag as the Bahamian flag.

Manjack Cay to Man-O-War Cay

Last night we decided to change our travel plans a little by going from here to the north end of Man-O-War Cay where there is a beautiful beach on the Sea of Abaco side of the cay. This is in lieu of going directly to Marsh Harbour.  We made this decision because we have plenty of supplies at this point and we have plenty of time to make it to Marsh Harbour by December 30 when Penn State plays Washington in the Fiesta Bowl. We want to watch the game at Snappa’s. 

I'm usually up and about before sunrise.  Images like this one
at our Manjack Cay anchorage on December 27 are my reward.

With a very favorable (light and variable) wind forecast for today’s transit of the Whale Cay Passage, we departed our anchorage near Manjack Cay at 7:30 AM.

The Whale Cay Passage involves going out into the Atlantic Ocean
around Whale Cay and then re-enterning the Sea of Abaco.
This passage can be rough under certain conditions.

We were completely around the Whale Cay Passage (commonly called “The Whale”) by 9:30 AM with no unusual events to report.  The ocean was a little rougher than I expected, swells leftover from last night’s rain storms.  We went through Loggerhead Channel and back into the Sea of Abaco.

Towing our dinghy through the beautiful turquoise
water in the Sea of Abaco.

We published this blogpost from Corn Bay on the north end of Man-O-War Cay. We expect to stay on Man-O-War Cay another day before proceeding to Marsh Harbor, a short trip of about 6 or 7 nautical miles.  Stay tuned for more of this season’s adventure...

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