St. Petersburg, FL to Marsh Harbour, Abacos Islands

ABACOS SALING TRIP

3/26/10 5:00 am

My alarm goes off and I crawl out bed. It’s adventure time again! My family and some friends are headed to the Bahamas for a week of sailing, snorkeling and good times. Breakfast, close up the house and my stepmother’s car is out front for a ride to the airport. Pippa (my stepmother) doesn’t like boats so she is staying home. My father and I get through security and onto a Southwest flight to West Palm Beach.

We have a long layover so we ask a security guard for a good place to eat. We take his advice and hang around and stroll through the shops and then lunch at and Irish place then check - in with BahamasAir and discover that we are outside the guard directed us outside the secure zone! GRRR! So we go through security again. We make it through intact and rush down to our gate and end up waiting and waiting. Finally 1.5 hours late we walk out the plane jump on and are in the air.

A hour later we touch down in Marsh Harbour on Great Abaco Island. Todd Lipphardt is waiting for us. We grab a taxi to the Conch Inn and Marina. We check-in to Sunsail and are told there will be a captains briefing upstairs in 5 minutes. I thought we would have to wait until tomorrow morning. It will be good to get it done. We turn around and there are Michele and Katherine sitting on the sofa. They are the wife and son of my sister-in law’s brother Richard. We say hello and determine that Richard is food shopping and go upstairs for the captain’s briefing. About 10 minutes into the briefing Randy and company show up. The briefing covers all the anchorages and danger areas, radio frequencies, rules etc. After it’s over we say hello to Richard and my brother and family then Todd, Pop and I walk up to the Price Right and buy a weeks worth of food. My father and I checkout and Todd heads for the liquor store which will be closing soon. $200 later we grab another taxi, load the groceries, stop for Todd and some beer and wine then back to the Marina.

The sky id looking ominous as we haul our gear and food out to our home for the next 8 days. Her name is Land Escaper and she is a Jeanneau 36. The Sunsail crew are just finishing cleaning her and some rain drops are falling so we hustle our gear and supplies on board. We stow all the food and gear and I start my checklists and paperwork. We request a few more blankets and other items and start checking out the systems on the boat. Soon Todd’s father Dave shows up and we get him on board and finally Simon from Sunsail comes onboard and we get a preliminary checkout. My brother and his family and Richard’s family are all checked out on Tranquility a Jeaunneau 40.3 and then a bunch of us walk to Jamie’s Restaurant for dinner. It’s late and they are very crowed, but we get seated to find they are out of almost everything. My father and I split a Broiled Snapper and a salad. They are delicious.

Some of us get a mocha ice cream cone for the walk back. Back on Land Escaper we finish settling in brush teeth and crash to the sound of the local reggae band from the club across the way. This is my first time captaining a sailboat and I am a bit anxious but we are off to a good start. Pictures will be posted on my pictures site at http://picasaweb.google.com/allenloyd/AbacosSailingTrip32610#
Enjoy,
Allen