2023 Bahamas - Nov 26th: Anna Cay to Man O'War Cay

I got up at 5:30, cooked and ate a quick breakfast, and hurried to grab the paddleboard before the kids got hold of it. It turned out I didn't have to worry --- they were feeling too lazy to fight me for it. I paddleboarded around the area, visiting houses along the shore as well as Ana Cay, where a huge mansion was under construction with piers already there marked "Private".

The plan today was to visit Fowl Cay and make another attempt to snorkel there. The book listed no less than 16 mooring balls, with 6 of them marked missing to give the air of confidence. We started motoring and then realized that the wind had stiffened to about 15 knots, which meant we could sail! As we sailed we passed Man O' War Cay and started scouting locations to spend the night.

Anchoring at Fowl Cay, things looked promising as there were already two Catamarans anchor'd out there. The dive checked felt good as well, there was still surge but nowhere as bad as what we felt a few days earlier.

Getting out the dinghy, we loaded everyone and the snorkel gear into the dinghy, coaxing the kids as well. We turned the corner on the island after passing all the anchor'd Catamarans and discovered that the waves were still so high that the dinghy started taking on water. We looked for mooring balls but didn't see any. Eventually we took on so much water that we gave up and turned around. One of the other Catamarans had weighed anchor and was leaving, but at the other one which looked like they had a professional crew, they told us that all the mooring balls were gone. "You have to go all the way out to the reef where the big waves are and drop a dinghy anchor. If you wait, we'll go out there and you can follow us." We didn't have a bailer so we had to go to the Katja to get bucket out to bail the dinghy sufficiently to the point where we could get it onto the davits! We were discouraged, as it didn't seem like it would be safe to do this even with a professional crew out there to mark the way. I also had no confidence in the dinghy's puny anchor holding up against the surge.

The kids were elated as they had decided they didn't enjoy snorkeling. We raised the dinghy, taking the time to drain it out as much as possible while we debated what to do. We still had time to go to Snake Cay or Sandy Cay, but that wouldn't leave much time. We were all pretty tired. I proposed we visited the main town (XXX) in Man O'War Cay. It being a Sunday everything would be closed, but there was a path to the Atlantic side where we could take a look.

The habor entrance was incredibly narrow, requiring precise alignment with the "No Wake" sign inside the harbor. There were no depth concerns as the approach was deep, but this was not something for a novice --- fortunately in my youth, docking in narrow Sausalito slips in difficult conditions at night on a monohull had given me confidence.

We made it into the harbor, picked up a mooring ball, ate lunch, and then dropped the dinghy for a visit. This town was nowhere near as picturesque as Hope Town, but there was a street to the Atlantic, and we took it. Once again, we had the beach all to ourselves, walking the length of it and back. The town had a big shipbuilding business, and had been one for more than a couple of centuries.

After the walk, we made the call to just anchor in the northern most cove of Man O'War Cay, where we had seen a beautiful beach at the narrowest point ono the island. It looked like it could be a good place to spend our last evening with a Beam Reach back to Marsh Harbor to return Katja the next day, There were 3 other boats anchor'd out at DIckie's Bay, but there was nothing in that location to do, so we opted for the difficult cove instead.

Doing all this was easier said than done, of course. First off, the exit from XXX harbor was just as difficult as the entrance, and at close to low tide, more than a little harrowing. I relied on Arturo and Mark to help guide me while exiting. The northern most Cove on Man O' War Cay was difficult because there were powerlines that you had to avoid hitting with your anchor, which was why you had to be inside the cove before laying down the hook.

Even laying down the hook once I was done with difficult manuevering was not easy. We tried 3 times in 2 different anchoring spots before the anchor caught. However, Arturo had so little confidence that he told me not to join him in the dive check. "This feels like that time at Witch's Point!" he said. "Then if it doesn't work out, swim around and identify good anchorages. "How far in can we go?" "Not that far!" Arturo swam out to the anchor and immediately crossed his hands in the air. He swam around the cove and identified a patch of send that could serve as good anchorage. I waited for him to come aboard before we weighed anchor one last time. Arturo's judgement was sound: this time the anchor caught with no ado.

I noticed that the other side of Man 'O War Cay was marked with reefs. "Maybe it'll be good snorkeling there!" Katie and Mark went first, swimming to the beach and then walking over. By the time I got to the beach, Mark had scoped it out. "No good. Surge too much and there's really nothing to see." We settled in for some relaxation. Boen first paddleboarded to shore, then Bowen did. There was a bunch of shells that had been polished and left in the shelter straddling the Atlantic and the Sea of Abacos. One of them could be blown like a trumpet and Boen succeeded in doing so.

Once Bowen heard about that ashore he decided he would paddle to shore and pick up the conch to bring home. He actually succeeded in doing so but not without help from Arturo. The wind and waves were just strong enough to make maneuvering and pointing the paddleboard challenging.

We all made the best of our last full day, relaxing and eating the rest of the food aboard. We started sorting out all the stuff in the salon according to who owned what and started backing up photos to the laptop we had brought for that purpose.