Back To The Wild Side

Light winds made for a quick trip back to the shores of Great Abaco Island today. We went south further than the last time and ended up in the spot where a sailboat was washed up on the rocks a few years ago. We anchored but didn't see any trace of  the boat.

That was until we launched the kayaks and headed into the shallows. This is all that is left of the hull...

Further away was the remainder of the deckhouse.

It still had its winches and a sandpiper living on it (I think it's a plover).

We continued on and were really surprised to see an osprey up in the Casuarina trees. It is a pretty rare sighting in Abaco.

We thought this was the remains of a dock to nowhere...

Until we looked really hard and found an abandoned house all overgrown with foliage.

The tiny rock out islands gave us some lee from a bit of a northeast breeze and the ocean swell, and I found a bunch of old conch shells high and dry.

This queen conch had the biggest 'bell' I have ever seen. That is a good sign because the younger conch called 'rollers' shouldn't be taken until they are mature and grow that bell.

Neither one of us was sure what this structure once was on the island. Perhaps it was part of a range marker leading into North Bar Channel from the ocean.

It's hard to tell in the photo, but when we got back to Walkabout, it was starting to jump around in the building wind.

 The hitchhiker that we discovered when we launched the kayaks was hanging on for dear life.

We raised anchor and headed across the Sea of Abaco, skirting the northern shore of Tilloo sandbank, and entered Tilloo Pond where it was flat calm with lots of turtles swimming around.

Serenity now...

Dave cleaned the bottom of the boat, scraping off all the hard growth. What a great way to end this season's adventures. Walkabout will be hauled out of the water and stored sometime in the next couple of days. I would say that we definitely "went out on a high note."