A is for Abaco

We didn't have much snow before we left Canada but just enough to remind us of what we would be missing. After landing at Treasure Cay, Abaco we took a few minutes to eat some snacks before heading to the grocery store for supplies. The beach at Treasure was all but deserted.

Our luggage is always quite interesting. This year we flew down Celebrian's new staysail along with a wind turbine, assorted other boat parts, and of course.....cereal. We are happy to report that none of our things were taken by security this year.

We had a good night at The Ramada in Fort Lauderdale....last of the creature comforts.

We used to fly with Yellow Air Taxi in a 7 seater vintage Cessna; however they are no longer in business. This year we tried a new airline called IBC Travel and flew in a 14 seater turbo prop. It certainly felt like flying in a tin can; however they took all our luggage and we made it safely so that is what matters.

After we land at Treasure Cay Airport we get a taxi to take us to the Golden Harvest Grocery so that we can pick up a few things to get us started in the boat yard. By the time we land at the Green Turtle Ferry dock we are quite the sight with all our luggage and supplies.

We were anxious to see how the boat was after Hurricane Irene. So far the only victims seem to be my Bahamian cell phone and our depth sounder. Gratefully we have a depth sounder on our radar so we can manage. As you might imagine a depth sounder is the most critical piece of equipment on one's boat. Some of the other boats were not as fortunate as Celebrian. She was incredibly dirty but dirt can be cleaned. There was salt and sticky grime were the sun don't shine.

The first few days on the hard are incredibly tiring and very busy. They don't call it life on the hard for nothing. We had a great flight with West Jet to Fort Lauderdale and even got to watch satellite TV. I find it hard to believe that the plane is receiving TV signals ...all this at 39 thousand feet. We must have been on a flight corridor because I saw 8 other aircraft during our less than 3 hour flight. We also watched the full moon rise over the clouds....it was spectacular. After a good night at the Ramada we had a fast flight in a 14 seater turbo prop with the new airline IBC Travel. All in all it was our best trip south especially after last year's horrendous journey. We were anxious until we saw Celebrian after last August's hurricane Irene but our only major damage seems to be the cover and our fish finder depth sounder which is full of water. Thankfully we have a depth sounder on our radar screen. The boat is extremely dirty with sand and salt crystals blown in where the sun don't shine?! I have had to spend far more time cleaning than I usually do and things are sticky not just dirty; however things could have been a lot worse. The guys in the yard said that the winds were up to around 140 mph when they hit Green Turtle. The locals close their cisterns off because there is so much salt in the rain that is coming down that it would poison their tanks. Four boats fell over in the yard damaging 3 others but considering how high the winds were it could have been much worse. Stafford, one of the men that works here had about two feet of water in his house but everyone else escaped with little damage, just a lot of cleaning up. We are polishing the hull and scraping the bottom of last year's growth. They are dirty and tiring jobs but they have to be done before she is launched. Rob is doing some epoxy work on Goldberry and then we want to paint her. It is always a busy week getting ready to launch. The weather is quite warm (high 70s F/mid 20s C) so it is hot work on the pavement but that is life on the hard. It cools down for sleeping so we are not suffering too much at night and besides we are so exhausted that not much would keep us awake. We plan on spending the weekend at the dock getting sails on and other jobs that require being on the dock. Next week it will be on to Marsh Harbour for provisioning and to get the parts for our new wind charger.