We left from Spanish Wells on Thursday, April 7th with 4 other boats and a pilot boat to pilot us through the reefs off the north shore of Eleuthera. Our pilot, Little Woody, showed up with a small carrot cake for each boat that his wife had made, so for $15 per boat we had a safe trip through the reefs and dessert for the next 2 days. Quite a deal! The crossing went well with lots of sailing and manageable five foot waves, which sounds scary, but waves in the ocean are rollers and much easier to sail in than Lake Erie waves.
We arrived in the Abacos just outside the small village of Little Harbor, which is fairly shallow, so we anchored for two nights outside the harbor and took our dinghy about a mile to the harbor to enjoy the village. The village was home to artist sculptor Randolph Johnston,who settled there in the 1950's from New England as he wanted to get away from the rat race. His studio and bronze casting foundry is still there and run by his son. We had a tour of the foundry to see how the bronze pieces are cast. It was fascinating and some of the work that he had done is present in the museum and for sale- the Nine Lives of Men, one of the best pieces is for sale for $120,000. We lunched at Pete''s Pub, an open air beach restaurant, decorated with t-shirts and shorts from years past in the rafters.
We have enjoyed traveling with Carol and Paul on Odysseus the past 2 weeks, sharing meals and sightseeing together. They have been to the Abacos before and will be traveling faster than we will the next few weeks as they have plane tickets from Charleston, SC to Colorado the middle of May. As we are parting ways after traveling with them through Eleuthera and over to the Abacos, we are thankful for their friendship and safety and sailing tips that they have shared with us.
Joy
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