Sandy Point Settlement, with Government Dock at left, Marina dock at right
Today we left Little Harbour Cay at 7, with Sandy Point Settlement,Abaco as our destination. Abaco is the second largest island in the Bahamas (about 100 miles long) and is on the eastern edge of Little Bahama Banks. This is similar to the Grand Banks with shallow clear waters, but separated from it by deep ocean waters. So we had deep ocean to cross. With the water being deeper we again had several tankers along our path, and a Coast Guard vessel criss-crossing the area around us. We think it was a U.S. vessel, but can't be sure. Sandy Point Settlement is on the west side of the southern part of Abaco, and only relatively recently got a road to it. Until then it was quite isolated. Few cruisers visit it as it is on the very shallow side of Abaco,and not part of the more popular cruising grounds which are to the north and east of the island.
We arrived at low tide, with just a foot and a half of water under the boat. On the way we had engine problems with the engine losing power very noticeably and the revs going down and we were hoping to dock at the marina there. With the low tide the marina dock looked really high off the water so we decided we would anchor out until morning.
Sandy Point is certainly a fishing settlement, with small local boats coming to the marina dock all day for fuel, then zipping off again to set their nets or look for conch and fish. Larger U.S. sports fishers seem to be fairly common here too. We saw two or three during our stay.
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