1 Night in Little Harbour

1 Night in Little Harbour

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Stats for Thursday, April 11, 2019

Origin: Meeks Patch anchorage, Eleuthera

Destination: Little Harbour, Abacos

Distance: 63.3 miles

Speed: 7.8 mph

Time on the Move: 8 hours and 8 minutes

Thursday was supposed to be a great day to travel and we were anxious to move on up to the Abaco Island chain. You can see on the map below that we had a 70+ mile crossing, most of it very exposed to the deep water of the Atlantic Ocean. The white on that map is all open ocean. This is why we had to wait for just the right weather day to make this crossing. The swells coming in here were coming all the way from Africa.

This map shows us heading to Hopetown, when in fact we stopped at that little blue pushpin, Little Harbour. We never know where we’re going until we get there.
For reference, here is where we are in relation to Florida.

We snaked through the channels of Spanish Wells at low tide unfortunately. It was just bad timing of the tides.

Look at that calm water!!
Captain Tobin at the helm.
Tobin kissed the lure for good luck before Mike put the line in. We have had zero luck fishing on our crossings except for that baby barracuda who was mauled by the time we reeled him in.

The water looked super flat, but we had some 1-2 foot swells coming on the port side beam for quite some time. It was enough to keep us rolling, but we definitely couldn’t complain. We saw about a half dozen other pleasure craft and 2 large cargo ships on our passage.

Bro bros hanging out. (Tobin is laying down on the loveseat). If we are rolling or bouncing at all on a big passage, the kids don’t like being down below because they feel more sea sick. It is nice to have them up top with us.
I took “non-drowsy” dramamine for the first and last time.
This kid treats our boat like a jungle gym. He is always climbing and jumping on something!

At almost 7 hours of travel, Mike made the decision to stop about an hour early at Little Harbour (I had originally planned for us to go to Hopetown). He was sick of driving, the day was hot and sunny so we figured we should take advantage of some of it, and lots of people recommended a stop in Little Harbour. When you’re the captain, you get the final call in these kinds of things!!

Little Harbour is famous for the family that settled it in the 1950’s. They sailed out of Massachusetts, artists looking for a slower pace of life in which to raise their children, with no real destination in mind. Somehow they ended up at Little Harbour and lived in caves until they could build more permanent structures. Those who are alive still live on the island today. The story made us think of Swiss Family Robinson. One of the sons still has a bronze casting studio on the island and sells his art for obscene amounts of money. He also owns this little pub that everyone raves about, so after we dropped anchor, we had to go.

It was a fun, funky spot with ring toss and hermit crabs to boot. We loved it, though we didn’t travel much further than the pub.

Hermit crabs galore!!
A short trip across the boardwalk to check out the beach.
Heading out just as the dinner rush picks up. And yes, there was actually a dinner rush!!
A sign of days gone by.
Interesting plaque. People are so helpful and selfless here. There is a true spirit of working together for the betterment of the community that we just don’t see in the US anymore.

Thanks for reading and following along on our adventures!!

2 thoughts on “1 Night in Little Harbour”

    1. Well that’s a good point because they’re all dead now. 🙁 I think they got too hot. We tried to feed them bark, pine needles, and lettuce before we let them all go, dead or alive. We heard they eat anything, so that was the least of my worries. It was fun while it lasted, but it didn’t last that long, unfortunately.

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