We spent a month in Bahamas visiting a number of anchorages with beautiful turquoise clear water in the Abacus Islands.  We also had some boat jobs to do, when do we not!  We had to paint some of the windows and polish the boat.  We took ourselves off to Green Turtle Cay where there is a small lagoon which can only be accessed at certain times of the tide so were out the way doing our jobs. 

Here is where we saw a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket which launched 29 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites into low Earth orbit. The first stage booster, landed on a drone ship in the Exhumas, Bahamas. We were between launch (about 200miles) and landing (150miles).

The main town was a 10 minute dinghy ride.  We had a walk around and came across the “Loyalist Memorial Sculpture Garden”.   The garden is a tribute to those who played a important role in the history of The Abacos, the Loyalists and their slaves, who despite hard times, survived and made a new life in The Bahamas. 

A short walk from where we anchored in Green Turtle Cay was a beach where stingrays will swim around you which was pretty special.

Next stop was Marsh Harbour, which is a bigger town but still small.  We did the usual chores of shopping, laundry and visited one of the colourful restaurants for lunch.  We didn’t venture any further south as it would have been more difficult to get back up again with the forecasted winds and we only had two weeks. 

We next visited a small anchorage called “Allen’s Cay” where we went ashore and took a trail which has all sorts of bits and pieces hanging in the trees, across to the other side where there is a Signing Tree.  People who visit leave their boat names on pieces of wood.  The other strange thing here was the mounds of sands, hundreds probably thousands of them.  We couldn’t find out what they actually were.

We went back to Green Turtle Cay to finish off our jobs, then onto Old Bahamas Bay to check out and head back to the USA.  It took us 10 hours to get across to Fort Pierce as we were able to pick up the Gulf Stream which helped us along.  We then meandered from here up to St Augustine to meet Cousin Susan before heading north. 

We arrived at the public dock at Seven Sisters, just outside Jacksonville, staying for just the one night.  Getting ready to cast off the following morning, uh oh, NO GEARS!!!  This is going to be challenging.  Thankfully we had tow boat membership, who we called and they towed us the 21.8nm to Lambs Yacht Centre which took about five hours.  Best fuel consumption we are ever going to get.

The transmission needed a rebuild but that takes time.  The best place to get this done was in Fort Lauderdale.  So, to speed things along, we hired a car and drove the 664 miles there and back in 10 hours.  Then the same again to collect it and bring it back to the boat for fitting.  Three weeks and two days later, we say goodbye to Lambs YC, who were fantastic and start off again heading up to Oriental, North Carolina where the boat was being lifted for more work.

We stopped off on the way at Jekyll Island where we met up with some fellow Brits, Lucy and Tim, who we’d been chatting to but not met before.  The dolphins were out in force here with dolphin watching boats milling about.  I wanted to shout “they’re over here”!

It is a busy time along the ICW with many people now going north as it starts to get hot in the south and to get away from the hurricane belt.  Obviously, there are the loopers who are also all heading north.  There are people who take photos of boats passing along the ICW, which is really nice and we were fortunate to have someone contact us with some photos. 

Now to the next boatyard for the boat to be lifted at Sailcraft Services in Oriental.  We anticipated being here for about two weeks for the work to be done and get our jobs completed too. 

So here’s where it was my turn to have a bit of a hiccup instead of the boat.  After a week of pain which wasn’t going away, I decided I really need to see a doctor, so we visited a medical drop in centre who recommended I go to the Emergency Room at the local hospital.  We arrived at 10am where I had various blood tests, three different types of scans, ultrasound, CT and HIDA, culminating in surgery by 8.30am the following day to remove my gallbladder.  I wasn’t expecting that!  The surgeon’s verdict was it was “horrible, horrible and it was testing getting it out”.  It is at times like this, although we do have insurance, thankfully, that you realise how fortunate we are to have the NHS in the UK where you don’t have to consider or worry about the financial side of things.  Anything medical in the USA is very very expensive.  The bill is eye watering!.  Well on the bright side it was no more boat jobs for me for a while.  

Oriental is a lovely town but we didn’t get much chance to experience it with me being out of action for a while.  The local brewery had bands at the weekend and we managed to get there once. 

Eventually after three weeks and four days we are off, keeping everything crossed that we’ve got all the major jobs out of the way for the rest of the season.  We have spent quite a lot of the last couple of months in boat yards, so nice to get going again.

March/April2026