The Kirby Abaco Adventure
June 2010
Compliments of whoever gets here first...

The Kirby Abaco Adventure Group began arriving at our start off point - West Palm Beach on Friday, May 28th.  The "starting" group consisted of Doug & Teri Willis with 18 mth old Morgan; Rick & Fawn Chandler with 11 yr old (ALMOST 12) Granddaughter Jaimie; Kerry Houghton with sons Andrew, age 17 and Cody, age 6??; Jim and Shirley Hetterly; Commodore Ken Sr. & Diane Kirby, and their family Ken Jr. and bride Susana (sp?) along with their 3 children Hanka, age 10, Kenny, age ??, and little Ben, age 3.  As the kids met each other, there was an immediate bond that I cannot explain.  They all became fast friends, and this would be the case throughout our two week trip.  (During Week 2 of our journey, the Houghtons were joined by Justine Houghton, daughter Kourtney & granddaughter Jayla,  the Hetterlys were joined by their friends Bill & Andrea, and the Kirbys also had friends come in, I believe the Jones'?) 

We all put in our boats at Lake Park Marina, which in itself was a source of amusement as the ramps are very slimy and slippery at low tide; some of us docked there and some opted to go across the ICW to Sailfish Marina just inside the Lake Worth Inlet.

We met for dinner Sunday evening for a last minute "Do we think we're going to head out in the morning or not" pow wow.  It was determined that Commodore Kirby, being the brave soul that he is, would head out in his boat first thing Monday morning to check out the seas, then report to us on whether it was a GO or not. 

The general feeling of the group was that we might want to wait a day or so, as the seas were supposed to be "laying down" a bit the next day, and even more the next.  SO we were a bit surprised to get a call Monday morning to GET READY, we're leaving now!  We all disconnected, some of us turned in our marina bathroom keys (ok I kept mine) and off we went, into the wild blue yonder...

What would normally take about 2 1/2 hours to reach West End, Bahamas I believe took us approximately 6 hours (correct me if I'm wrong?)  However it SEEMED like 24 hours!  The seas were predicted to be 2 - 4', however the captain on MY boat estimated a wee bit higher than that.  I know our bow went under a few times, and there was plenty of spray coming up over the bow for the whole trip.  It was also "sloppy", like a washing machine - so there was no riding the waves, we were pretty much banged on from all sides.  I think at least 1 person in every boat got sick and some even requested we turn around.  We slowed down a few times for various reasons (no, I'm not going to tell you why or who!)  But, we made it.  Everyone was so tired when we got there that we all with the exception of Jim & Shirley decided to stay right there at the very expensive marina owned by Ginn.  The kids and some adults went to play in the ocean while the rest of us chatted at the dock.

The next day we were up and moving on to our next stop, which at this moment escapes me... so I will stop here and pick up later today.

We had planned on trying to make it to Double Breasted Cay, but due to the time lost (and unmentionable other circumstances) we ended up anchoring out for a bit at Mangrove Cay, then some of us stopped at Fox Town on Little Abaco Island for gas, and then we continued on to Allens-Pensacola Cay.  We almost didn't make it together due to a very thick rain storm, but we all managed to find a spot in a semi-protected area.  The rain continued through the night, and so there was not much chance to visit. 

I am a little foggy on what islands we visited when, so I'll update this after speaking with the Kirby clan; I believe we headed to Green Turtle Cay next but might have stopped at a small island along the way.

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