We’ve had a nice week of continued Abaco cruising, this time with Jacob aboard. It’s been great to have him as a guest, and nice for him to see what his Dad and Anne have been up to all this time.
We started out the week waiting out some high winds at the marina on Man-O-War Cay. Jacob enjoyed the coffee shop / island museum, and once again we really enjoyed the people we met in the marina.
Man-O-War is so named as the cay has long been a center for boat building. In the past, they built wooden boats, but of course they’ve moved on to fiberglass. Albury Brothers boats are still well known in the area, and we enjoyed seeing the boat building process as well as shopping for beautiful sail cloth textiles.
Once the wind moderated, we had a few days of enjoying some sailing and time at anchor. Jacob loved the feel of swimming in salt water (he was amazed he floated with his shoulders out of the water). We also took a dinghy excursion to find sea turtles and eagle rays. On windless days, Anne had time for more scrubbing the boat bottom. She also tried out pretzel buns, and they were well-received.
We had a bit of (unwelcome) excitement on Jacob’s last morning. While raising anchor, the pin holding the bow roller in place snapped. The bow roller helps the chain and anchor make the 90 degree turn from raising to coming onto the boat. This break has happened to other Antares owners, so we knew it was a possibility. Nevertheless, it was a shock!
In retrospect, the timing couldn’t have been better for several reasons:
- The wind was low and the water calm, so maneuvering was easy as we figured out our plan. We had to launch the dinghy while the boat was underway so Jim could attack the problem from the water.
- Jacob was with us, and it was nice to have his brawn. He helped to lift the 85 lb anchor to slacken the chain and allow Jim to remove the broken roller pin from his perch on the dinghy. Anne stayed at the helm.
- Our new friends, Dani and Jamey on the Antares Leap of Faith, had the spare part we needed! We were able to reattach the bow roller easily and quickly once they motored up to our anchorage and we zipped over in our dinghy to retrieve the part.
- Because we’d gotten an early start (until the bow roller broke), we easily got Jacob to the ferry dock in Hope Town. There, he hopped on the ferry to Marsh Harbour and on to the airport in plenty of time for his flight home.
It was sad to see Jacob off to the ferry, but we were so happy to get to spend this time with him, and look forward to the next chance.
