After a few more days in Marsh Harbour, this time at the Abaca Beach Resort Marina, restocking and gathering the various bits and pieces for ongoing repair work we headed back down south to our exit point at Little Harbour on the south end of Abaca Island.  Along the way we had a failed attempt to visit Hope Town, which is famous for its kerosene lighthouse.  We’d planned to dinghy into the harbour after anchoring off the east side of Lubbers Quarters, a private nearby island, due to the shallow depth of the channel into the harbour.  Strong winds and choppy seas, and an hour of getting drenched by waves splashing over the bow saw us return without touching land or even getting near the harbour entrance.  We were all a little bit touchy by that time (to say the least!), so we stopped at the well-known pub on Lubbers, Cracker P’s.  This pub had a nice garden with lots of games to amuse kids – oversized Jenga, boules and a great game where you take turns throwing small bean bags into a hole into a platform from about 10 feet. I must remember this for next St Andrews fair as preparation for this would take nothing in comparison to those Jelly Fish Cups which I’m still having nightmares about!

Our last night was spent anchored outside Little Harbour, which is famous for its pub – Pete’s Pub, so we made sure that we visited it for our final drink in the Abaca’s.  The pub looked out over the harbour which is surrounded on 3 sides by hills dotted with about 40 private homes.   Originally settled in the 1950’s by a sculptor Randolph Johnston, the small town boasts of an art studio, gallery and museum (all unfortunately closed by the time we got there).  We did peak into the window of the gallery and got to see some of Johnston’s work.  The pub itself is now run by his son Pete, and is built in the sand – a very laid back and fun spot for tourists and the few locals that live in the harbour. Tom turned out to be a bit of a legend playing a game of ring toss which is common in all the drinking spots in the Bahamas  –  he had quite a few people cheering him on!

Next morning it was up at daylight and out through the bar for a 9 hour sail to the Eleuthera group of islands, which was due south all the way.  We had a north easterly behind us, and although the sea was a bit swell for most of the day, we made good time anchoring up in a very protected land-locked harbour on Royal Island, well in advance of sundown.