GUEST BLOG: A Visit to the Abacos on LIB

We were greeted by Frank and Mary Grace in Marsh Harbour, Bahamas.  They picked us up in their dinghy, Day Tripper, and took us to Let It Be.  We brought some essentials that Frank and MG needed, like charts for the Bahamas! Plus a few extra goodies that we figured they hadn’t had for a while.  Can you say USDA steaks?  (Thank you guys! They were fabulous!!!)

Although we are usually pretty good about traveling lightly, this time we had supplies for LIB, food and snorkeling gear, so it took two dinghy trips to get us and our luggage to the boat.

Treasure Cay in the background.

We set sail immediately for Treasure Cay.  The wind allowed us to sail part of the way, but after entering Wale Cay, we were nose into the wind and dropped the sails.

Wow! Treasure Cay was beautiful with its’ white, soft, sand beaches!   We swam to shore, then walked along the beach as evening arrived.  

The winds were forecasted to start from the south and west early in the week then come from the east so we planned our stops based on wind and anchorage protection.

Clouds and rain didn’t stop our adventures.

The next morning we sailed to the northern part of Manjack Cay where Frank had read about some excellent snorkeling.  The Atlantic side of the island was too rough for the dinghy to get us to the mooring ball, so we headed back into Manjack Bay. 

Luckily, a day charter group was in the bay feeding the sting rays near the beach.  We joined the crowd and waded in the water to see the rays.  They swam right up to anyone standing in the water and would rub our legs as they glided past.  They were so soft and slippery it felt like silk gently slipping against your skin.

Of course, some sharks had to join the party and they swam very close to us as well.  

Not our favorite sea life.

The wind and weather were very changeable while we visited.  The first 5 days we had rain and clouds but we still managed to have fun and explore wherever we stopped.

Very strong southwest winds with rain were predicted one evening so we anchored in White Sound, Green Turtle Cay. The rain subsided around sundown so we decided to throw out some fishing lines.  The only lures on board for the light reels were fresh water and we didn’t get one bite.  I guess salt water fish like salt water baits?!

No fish, but we caught a rainbow

Next, we decided to head back toward Manjack Cay but this time we anchored on the southern end. This was a perfect place to paddle board and the visibility was so good that we could spot turtles, conch and starfish while paddling.

Only a few people live on Manjack, and they have cleared two very pretty walking paths that are open to the public.

The foliage is beautiful.

One path leads to a dock overlooking the ocean.

See how we braved the rain.

The other, longer walk, leads to the Atlantic side of Manjack.  Like Treasure Cay, this beach was stunningly white and soft but there were some rocky patches that added a bit of elevation.

Whispering Pines litter the southern side of Manjack

Great Guana Cay was our next stop.  We anchored in The Settlement, grabbed our snorkeling gear and hiked over toward Nipper’s on the Atlantic side.  Sunday is a very busy time at Nipper’s so we decide to skip it and walk to the southern end of the beach where there was supposed to be another excellent snorkel.

Frank and Mary Grace are way more comfortable snorkeling a distance from shore so we waited for them to check out the reef before going in ourselves. 

They took us to reefs that we never would have been able to snorkel!  (We would’ve been too scared.)

Captain enjoyed the hikes and made friends with a few chickens (kind of).  She wanted to join in on everything we did.

We made sure she got plenty of attention while we were on LIB.

Let the spoiling begin!

Even when sleeping Captain got some lovin’.

The weather kept us from seeing the fabulous sun sets that MG and Frank share on their blog but they served great gin and tonics, wine and food, so we didn’t miss them too much. We ate some of the big wahoo Frank caught during their passage and even those who are picky about fish enjoyed the fresh catch.  

Steak dinner deserved fine china!

One thing we really wanted to do was sail with the spinnaker. On our previous trips to LIB, the wind didn’t work for it, but this time we were able to see her fly. Sailing the red spinnaker up was really peaceful and we made good time in light winds.

Preparing the spinnaker.

We cannot possibly cover everything that we did in 6 days but it was amazing. We really enjoyed our visit and we want to say a special THANK YOU to Mary Grace and Frank for sharing this adventure with us!

Missing our sailing friends Nancy and Tanya!

Blog post by Anneva, Dana, Cathy