Wednesday morning began our game of chess with the wind. Though it was still a week & a half until Greg & Sheila Cobb meet us in Marsh Harbour, Abacos, our weather forecaster was indicating there may be some ugly weather headed into the Abacos the middle of next week. That meant we needed to figure out timing to get into the Abaco island chain earlier than anticipated.
It's the 50 mile ocean crossing that is the main concern.
A this point,the weather for Sunday appears to be the best day to make the crossing as the winds are expected to nearly disappear. We like light & variable conditions, especially when making a significant deep ocean crossing.
With that in mind, we decided to skip a couple of islands we had previously planned to visit and make tracks to Highbourne Cay, 30 miles away.
High winds are in the forecast for Friday so we decided we had better get to our staging area prior to the wind. Thursday, we made the 50 mile jump from Highbourne to Current Cut which is near Spanish Wells - - a place we've been a number of times.
HOWEVER, the only way to get there from Highbourne Cay was to traverse an area we've always avoided. It's littered with lots of coral heads and cautionary notes for boaters. Here is a screen shot of a 12 mile stretch of this route. The blue line is the route we travelled. All of the little +'s are ocean floor anomalies that indicate potentially significant obstacles. Ughhh.
Through much of this area, Carol posted a lookout on the bow & Jim steered us in and around the coral. Fortunately, most of them were pretty large and easy to spot. The good news - - we didn't hit anything & the water actually was deeper than the charts indicated. Phewwww!
The Current Cut anchorage was a welcome place to drop the hook. However, it was a bit rolly and so it was apparent we needed to move to a more protected spot on Friday when the winds jumped up.
Friday morning first thing we raised the anchor and moved about 8 miles to Meeks Patch. By noon, the wind was cooking. We were mostly shielded from swells which was our main goal. The wind-driven chop was substantial but we did OK. There were maybe 15 other boats anchored here.
Much of the afternoon we were entertained by a kite surfer who was taking advantage of the high winds. Sometimes, the wind would pick him 20 feet into the air. Wow!
This morning (Saturday), we moved just a few miles west to get out of the wind and to prepare for our crossing on Sunday. We anchored in a small, enclosed harbor at Royal Island. Once inside the harbor, the water flattened right out. 
According to the forecast, the wind is supposed to gradually lessen throughout the day and be down to light and variable by early tonight. We'll let you know how that goes.
