Linyard Cay

5/24/2021

Finally after almost two weeks of high winds we departed Hope Town harbor.  It was good to be in a safe spot during those winds, but we’re ready to be moving along again.  Today we are moving to an anchorage near the south end of the Sea of Abaco, and plan to anchor on the east side of a small island called Linyard Cay.

Along the way we passed a number of small islands, some of which formed barriers to the ocean, and others just were high points in the sea floor.  The photo below is one of the latter types of small islands, this one being Parrot Cay.  There are many such small islands in this area.

When we got near the ocean entrances we had a good view of the reef between some of the barrier islands.  A photo of this is shown below.  The waves are breaking on the reef, a sure sign a boat can’t go through that way.  In spite of there being many openings between the barrier islands, only a few are actually open enough for us to transit through the reef.  The second photo below is of the North Bar Channel, the spot where we plan to cross through the reef when we transit.

Just past the channel we arrived at Linyard Cay.  This is a remote island with a few houses on the north end, and no development on the south end of the island.  We anchored off a great beach, shown in the photos below.  Sinbad had lots of fun running around and digging in the sand.

While we were walking on the beach we found a conch shell (pronounced Konk).  This one had a very pink color.  The queen conch is a common shellfish in the Bahamas, and it is shown on their national seal.  We have eaten it repeatedly in restaurants, though we haven’t caught one ourselves. 

Tomorrow, if the weather is similar to predictions, we plan to cross the Northeast Providence Channel.  This is a 60 mile transit through the ocean, and we always take this seriously.