May 3, 2021 Moores Island through the Bight of Abaco to Big Cave Cay

By Lois May 04, 2021

Earlier in our trip we thought it would be fun to exit the Bahamas from the Abaco Islands area that makes up the northern archipelago of the Bahamas. The primary reason for this being we have never been there before.

From the Berry Islands there are two conventional routes to the Abacos. But being us, we chose the third way, braving a passage through the very remote Bight of Abaco. After pulling anchor at the little community of Hard Bargain in the morning we transited roughly 40 miles across the Bight without seeing a single boat or any other sign of human presence. All you see in every direction is this:

This is the place for those that want to be very much on their own. The wind was good to us and we had good sailing.

At the northern terminus of the Bight is a single shallow passage from this isolated wilderness into the more frequently visited areas of the Abacos. The charts basically say to do an S-curve turn around the big rock and the shallow shoal and you're there. We reduced sail area way down here to slow the boat before navigating the twists of this channel.

A few miles later we were anchor down behind beautiful Big Cave Cay. Spoiler alert: It's not big, and there's no cave. But it is a lovely isolated anchorage. There are several large rocks scattered around that look promising to swim on; we'll do that a bit later.

After dark there is zero artificial light to be seen anywhere on the horizon in this remote place; just our own anchor light. The stars were simply spectacular tonight viewed from the coach roof.

May 4

This is still remote country. We have seen one speed boat in the distance our whole time here. No one else. About 15 miles distant is the small community of Foxtown. We thought about visiting there today but opted instead to enjoy this place. The thought of groceries and dinner in a restaurant was insufficient enticement to cause us to leave this place.

This morning we watched 2 adult and one very young dolphin cruising around the shore at a very relaxed pace. We had the watermaker running, but despite the humming noise, they either didn't know or didn't care that we were around & watching them.

Off the back deck we watched tiny little pipefish- 1" to 3" long- working hard to swim into the current to snatch up whatever even smaller edible things were going by.

This is how we pass our time, enjoying being out here.

We find ourselves in the final stages of our time in the Bahamas. We are watching weather forecasts on the lookout for good weather to cross back to the US while also choosing carefully how we spend what days we have left in the Bahamas. A plan has formed which will be revised daily as we make the best of our time.