Chapter 9
Footloose in the Abacos
July to Aug 1992
We left you last time in Little Harbour where we
spent a busy week completeing and framing
paintings for the grand opening of Pete's new gallery
on July 18th. The paintings were hung that morning
and in the evening there was a big cocktail party
followed next day by a pig roast. The day after that
we took over our new job, running Pete's Pub.
We enjoyed the work immensely. We put the pub on
regular hours: ten in the morning until sunset with
food available at lunch time. We put all the stock
control and finances on our computer so we did not
run out of things. Word got around that Pete's was
operating on a reliable basis and business grew.
With tips and our share of the profits we were
making excellent money, but it was too good to last. After less than two weeks on the job the police started to take an
interest in the harbour, not because of us but because of rumours of smuggling in the area. Where no policemen had been
seen from one year's end to the next they started dropping in a couple of times a week armed with search warrants to go
through peoples belongings. The fact that it was less than two weeks before a national election and that the local area votes
openly for the opposition can have had nothing to do
with it of course. In our not legal position we had no
choice but to keep away from the bar. There were only
three weeks left in the tourist season (all the Americans
go home by Labour Day) so we decided to head out,
hoping that things will have quietened down by winter
and we can pick up where we left off.
We planned to head back to Florida the same way as last
time, south and west around Abaco and the Berrys but
the weather did not cooperate, blowing obstinately from
the southeast. We spent a few days anchored off Linyard
Cay where our friends Dana and Nicky live in a bright
pink beach house. We sat on the
verandah sipping our drinks as
the cooling trade winds blew
right through the house and
whispered in the casuarinas
above. Tiny yellow finches and
curly tailed lizards went in and
out of the house unafraid and the children played with Wily the dog on the beach and in the blue,
blue water. Just off the beach Oborea rolled gently in the reflected swells coming in the North Bar
Channel. In front of us the sun set between banks of golden clouds over the Abaco mainland,
while behind us the full moon peeped through the palm fronds. Dana picked up his guitar.... Just
another day in paradise!
We finally gave up on the wind changing and decided to sail around the north sides of Abaco and
Grand Bahama, and a fine fast sail it was. The first night we spent at Powell Cay and the next at
Mangrove Cay, runs of forty five and sixty five miles. After we anchored a summer storm blew up
and we had a view of a waterspout that was quite close enough for my peace of mind. Afterwards
we were treated to a spectacular display of lightning that continued well into the night. Next
morning winds were light as we crossed the last twenty miles of the banks and on into the Gulf
Stream. Off West End we got a call on the radio from Jens Paserow on Sand Cay. They were in
the marina and had seen us pass. They were planning to cross the next day. Our crossing to West
Palm Beach was a slow one, in fact we had to motor the last third of the distance before we were
swept north by the current. We stayed a couple of days at West Palm, joined the next day by Jens
and Lisa. The marina had a summer special on: a week's free dockage to anyone who cleared customs there. We took full
advantage with showers twice a day and we got all our laundry done. On the short wave radio we tracked Tropical
Depression number 3 as it drifted across the Atlantic and then turned northwest well offshore. No threat to us even though
it had been upgraded to Storm status. We finally said goodbye to Jens and Lisa who were heading for the west coast and
motored south for two days through twenty six drawbridges of the Intracoastal Waterway to Miami. The storm was now
eight hundred miles due east of Miami and heading north-northwest—it had passed us, or so we thought until it came up
against a strong high pressure ridge and turned due west, building in strength to Hurricane Andrew.
Pete’s Pub
Linyard Cay
Pelican Harbour