Man-O-War Cay, Abacos

Sunday, June 18, 2006

026-35.940 N
077-0.900 W

June 18, 2006

Ahoy from Man-O-War Cay in the Abacos!

We moved over here yesterday after finishing up some last minute things ashore. I had changed the oil in the engine and needed to return the used oil to the Shell station so that it could be recycled. Sue wanted to pick up some more veggies. We were off the boat for at most 30 minutes and while we were gone a thunderhead decided to wash the boat. Of course the hatches and portholes were open, so we had a mess to clean up when we got back. The weather charts had shown that the low pressure trough which had brought rain on Friday would have dissipated, but I guess that they were wrong as we had strong thunderstorms all day yesterday.

Speaking of things that are wrong: the guide books show that you can anchor in Man-o-War harbor. You can't as it's all tightly packed mooring balls which are $15/night. We anchored outside of the N channel entrance with a bunch of other boats in 12' in sand. Great holding. The biggest problem is that lots of large powerboats steam by a mile or so away and throw up huge wakes that arrive 5-10 minutes later, thus making it hard to find the offender. The boats coming in/out of the channel are only slightly better, but probably only due to the fact that the N channel is so skinny. At low tide while planing through the channel I could feel the motor skimming along the bottom!

We hiked though the island and I must admit that I didn't find anything of great interest. Most of the nice houses are set well back from the road where you can't see them and the town is just a town without any real character. We went into the Man-O-War Marine for dinner and my ribs were good. After we were eating we saw their steaks and they looked wonderful. Warning!!! The town is dry, so BYOB. I had to run back to the boat to grab a bottle of wine.

There's supposed to be good snorkeling/diving in the Fowl Cays which are just N of here. We're going to move BlueJacket over there and check it out. If it's too surgey we'll just move on the Green Turtle Cay.

-- Geoff & Sue
Log ID: 870