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"Doug Dotson" wrote:

We went last winter and had a good time. We took a
mooring at Man-O-War Cay as our home base and
went on short trips to other places in the Abacos.

More comments below.
Doug
s/v Callista

I have not been to the Abacos yet, but I'll add the comments.

"George C." wrote in message
news:UcqEb.7681$PK3.5907@okepread01...
We plan to go around the 10th of January, but I have a couple of
questions.

1. Cash: Everyone says bring a lot, but how much assuming we'll be there
about a month and use marinas and restaurants about every other day?

Most of the marinas we stayed at had winter specials of
around $0.65 to $1.00 per foot per day. Electricity is
around $5 to $8 per day (Treasure Cay was $17/day).
Water was metered at $0.15/gal or flat rate at $5 to $8.
The Green Turtle Club had a deal going where anything
you spent at the resaurant or bar was deducted off of
the slip fee. Treasure Cay was the most expensive.

We didn't use cash much. We charged almost everything, except on
Highborne Cay in the Exumas where they preferred a personal check to a
charge card and Frazier's Hog Cay in the Berry Islands where they
would only accept cash. There were no winter specials at marinas
because the marinas etc were full and they didn't need to do the
specials.

2. Abaco: I've read that Abaco in Jan-Feb is chilly. Others, however, have
enjoyed visits there in Winter. How good or bad is it in Jan-Feb?

It took us until Jan 22 to get a decent weather window.
It was generally in the 70's to low 80's during the day and
in the 60's at night. Might have dipped into the 50's once
or twice.

This depends a good bit on what you want and what you consider chilly.
It's way warmer than Canada - about what it is like in St. Augustine
or Ft. Pierce in the winter. The water is too cold to swim for any
length of time without thermal protection.


3. Gulf stream crossing: How does one find boats to buddy up with for the
crossing? Where would we want to hang out waiting to depart from either
Lake
Worth or Miami/Ft Lauderdale?

Most folks going to the Abacos leave from Lake Worth. We
left at 4am, crossed onto the bank south of Memory Rock and
continued directly to Great Sale Cay. We just talked to folks
anchored in North Lake Worth and managed to get a group
of 6 boats.

Even the first time, we always went alone. We did not want to have to
depend on other folks ideas of what was the proper window - i.e. we
wanted to make the decision and go or not go without waiting for a
committee. We are quite a bit slower than most boats and we also
didn't want to hold the others back.

We did not go over from either Lake Worth or Ft. Lauderdale. I know
folks who go from Ft. Pierce but we don't like fighting the Gulf
Stream - we are slow enough without that. Both times we went to
Bimini because it is the closest and we like it - since it is close we
don't need quite so big a window. We left the first time from the No
Name Harbor area south of Miami, and the second time from Rodriguez
Key.

4. Reservations: Guide books say to make reservations for popular marinas.
Since the cell phone won't work, how do we do that? Will VHF reach
adequately?

Some folks cellphones work and some don't. One of our
group have an AT&T phone that worked fine and to top
it off he never got charged for any calls. That was 2 winters in a row!
Nobody else we came across could use their phones
though. Marinas monitor CH 16 if I recall correctly.

One thing you can do is call before you leave to the first place. My
AT&T phone never worked although my Verizon bag phone did. I don't
know what the deal is now - I suspect no phones work there now. We
used the VHF radio quite a bit and also SSB (although not for
marinas).


grandma Rosalie