Little Harbour, Abacos to Royal Island, Eleuthera

We awoke to some passing thunderstorms and rain before daylight. It was nice to get a good freshwater rinse for our salty, salty boat.

I listened to the weather on the SSB, as I do almost every morning, and decided that today was the best day to jump across the 50 mile stretch to Eleuthera. We moved the compressor from the roof to the cockpit, and pulled the tanks out of the Whaler, to place in the cockpit as well. It proved we didn't need to move the compressor, as it was a gorgeous, smooth crossing, but, better safe than sorry!

The Atlantic Ocean was calm, with barely a gentle swell. We saw two ships in our crossing, and a couple of sportfishing boats.

We entered the reef at the cut between Little Egg and Egg Island. As I puttered on to our anchorage a couple of miles away, Allen took the Whaler to look at the wreck. The freighter had a galley fire in 1970, that quickly spread, until her fertilizer cargo combusted. The captain ran the ship on the reef, and evacuated the crew. The cargo smoldered for months, and I'm told it killed much of the surrounding reef.

For the next 22 years, she sat upright, looking like an anchored ship. Hurricane Andrew broke the ship into, and sunk her, making for an interesting shallow wreck, and we may dive it tomorrow.

I brought the MERCY into a great holding anchorage at Royal Island, where you could find protection from almost any direction. I've heard a couple of boats rode out Andrew here.

After supper we sat on the bow and watched lightning in distant clouds of a front line. The clouds never made it to us, so we never got rained on, and it was just far enough away to be enjoyable to watch!