Small boat travels

 So with Rich's vacation winding down we figured getting out into a run-about would work well towards the goal of capping his vacation with a good and different experience. The Atlantic has been stirred up quite a bit and a window of calm weather approached that meant we had the opportunity to either move Freedom for a weekend, or rent a boat and travel about the Sea of Abaco. The dink is ok for two when it is flat calm but unacceptable for three even then. It only takes a light breeze to turn a few miles in the dink into a very sour experience. Little Harbour was on the plate, and North Bar Inlet was in between us and Little Harbour. It can get damn ugly there. Souls have been lost trying to enter it, and experienced freighters have run ground there in foul weather. All of this as recently as this past year.
 Regardless, all along we had been hoping to get to Little Harbour and other spots during the vacation. Since the Atlantic and Sea of Abaco were rough, and hearing of the reputation Albury Brothers boats have, I picked up a 20 foot center console from Island Marine on Parrot Cay. http://www.islandmarine.com/ They have a great operation going and they offer several models and sizes to work with every one's budget or preference. I had called every boat rental shop over here within easy access of Hope Town and all of their boats were out! With good weather approaching everyone else had the same idea. But Island had a 20 footer instead of the 23 I hoped for so given it was close to what I was looking for we jumped on it because this was the last boat available in the area. That, and I figured a smaller boat with a low center of gravity and plenty of pep is going to be better than Freedom in the rollers and chop that North Bar can present. Deb and I have been thrown around in Freedom down there and were up for some change given all the circumstances.
 So with what was supposed to be a calm forecast we hopped into the Albury and went over to Man O War from Hope Town to check out Dock and Dine. The ride North was smooth and the boat performed very well. Upon sitting down, we observed that they had just finished seating a table of about 20 people and many others followed us in. In spite of this and very fortunately for us our waitress had mercy (we didn't need to ask) and pushed our order into the kitchen. The large table was full of fussy patrons that had many questions and they were going to chew up all the staff resources. So we had a great lunch, one of the best Mahi burgers I've ever had. No beers, since Man O War is dry but since we were boating it was all for the better.
 And we left the restaurant and proceeded out of Man O War into the Sea of Abaco and met 1 or 2 feet of chop. At this point I decided to see what the boat was made of and pushed the throttle forward. The bow rose up a bit and the chop disappeared in spray to the sides of the boat leaving us dry. Wow, this is a good thing I thought, and the ride stayed that way all the way back to Hope Town except for one point when everyone tried to talk to me. Since I could not hear anything, I slowed, and they got soaked with the change in the boat's attitude. Needless to say they encouraged me on. You know, never mind? Bwa ha ha! Anyway upon entering the channel into Hope Town we were greeted by a float plane banking steeply to pass around the point with the Light House. Yep. It was going to land and it did, right next to us. It was far enough away to be safe yet close enough to be cool. So day one on the Albury went very well.
 Day two was predicted to be the calmest water day we had the boat so we (not really we, but in hind sight everyone agreed it was an ok call) decided to try for Pete's Pub in Little Harbour. The notion was that if North Bar was acting up we could always turn around. Once aboard we set out, and went to Snake Cay which is sort of on the way. The sun was up and the tide was changing making for a possible good experience there and the gamble on the detour paid off. Spotted eagle rays were all over the place and they treated us to several jumps right out in front of our ride. Yet again, we have disturbed Ray. Having determined Ray has had enough of us we moved on towards Little Harbour and our entertainment at North Bar Inlet. Moving around Tilloo Bank and then heading East towards Pelican Cay I had suspicions that things were a bit sloppy at North Bar and when we approached Sandy Cay my thoughts were justified.
 We ran into what some minds will call 4-5 foot seas that were quite closely spaced. It's not like they were 4-5 immediately. As we moved closer to the inlet they grew. This is when I realized the Albury was making life easy for me but only to a point. Everything has a limit. I found the crew's limit after launching off two waves. After the first wave I was able to yank back the throttle in time to keep the engine from over revving when we completely left the water off the second wave.
 Slowing down turned out well and we moved on through this with relative ease finally arriving behind Lynyard Cay where things settled down substantially, leaving us with a smoother ride to Little Harbour. With our goal in sight and relatively calm (yuk!) water we rode on into the Harbour knowing it went much better in the Albury than it could have ever gone with Freedom.
 I settled into diet Coke and the crew enjoyed Pete's Pub's signature drink the Blaster followed by beers. I guess they were anticipating the ride back North to Hope Town. But we forgot about that for the time being (their task at forgetting having been booze enhanced) and enjoyed walking around in the foundry there, as well as checking out the light house and light that are no longer functional. The light house was blown away many years ago, but the modern light was knocked out by Irene. Once back from the light we stopped in for a quick visit with friends and then made our way back to the boat.
 Once outside the harbour we learned that the water calmed down significantly so we stopped in at Lynyard for a bit of beach combing and then pressed on to Sandy Cay hoping to pick up a mooring ball for a few minutes. Once there, we learned North Bar was not going to be as cooperative as the Little Harbour inlet so I gave up on the mooring and we shot North to Hope Town and the relaxing view offered up by Firefly on Elbow Cay. It wasn't long before we capped this day off on Freedom! Looking back on the day and others with the Albury I'd say the mission was accomplished and we had a great time using the run about instead of Freedom. But the excitement wasn't over.
 We took Rich over to Marsh Harbour the day before his flight left and spent the night at the Harbour View Marina. This is (as well as all of the others around here) a good stop in town that offers access to restaurant row as well as shopping and other services. After a great dinner out at the Conch Inn we conched out on Freedom. Somewhere around midnight I woke up because Freedom was bouncing up and down like she was doing 15 knots in rough water.

 A super cell had formed and moved just North of us. We were fortunate to be tied up at the dock as some folks on the hook learned the hard way that Mother Nature can be quite the adversary. In fact at least two boats only yards away from us lost their enclosures and one over in Hope Town was blown ashore into the rocks. Supporting the notion it was windy one station recorded winds in excess of 70 miles per hour.
 It's all part of It's Da Bahamas Mon....