ADVENTURES IN PARADISE

by Steve Osborne

I was a young boy when the television series, Adventures in Paradise, ruined my life and the lives of millions of other young boys across the nation. Week after week we watched Captain Adam Troy (Gardner McKay) – the handsome, footloose owner of the schooner “Tiki III” – sail through sparkling blue waters from island to island and adventure to adventure.

It was the perfect life – so perfect, in fact, that it was impossible to achieve. We all wanted to be Adam Troy when we grew up. We all failed. So we sit in our offices day after day wondering why we’re so discontent, not realizing that in some recess of our minds lurks the torturing visions of a beautiful schooner, exotic ports and high adventures. The reality of our lives suffers by comparison.

There is hope for people like us, however – a way to set the Adam Troy within us free. It involves spending at least a week on a sailboat in a place called Abaco.

Abaco? If you’ve never heard of it, you’re not alone. Fact is, not many people have heard of this island-studded paradise, much less know where it is. But once you’ve been there, you’ll never forget it.

There are several reasons for this, but most of them revolve around the fact that Abaco is the perfect place to live the Adventures in Paradise dream.

Welcome to Abaco

Located less than 200 miles east of West Palm Beach, Florida, Abaco defines the eastern edge of the northern Bahamas. Abaco is comprised of the Great Abaco Island and a number of outlying cays. (A cay, usually pronounced “key,” is a small island.) Great Abaco Island looks something like a boomerang. The cays lie like a string of pearls of various shapes and sizes off the outer edge of the boomerang.

Between the big boomerang island and the outlying string of cays is the Sea of Abaco – the true pearl of Abaco. Protected along its southwestern edge by the big island and along its northeastern border by the cays, the Sea of Abaco is relatively calm, the depth is typically in the range of 10 to 20 feet, and the starfish-strewn bottom is often visible through the clear water. In short, it’s the perfect sailing destination.

Marsh Harbour, located centrally on Great Abaco Island, is the largest town in Abaco. It’s the jumping off point for most Abaco visitors. Its population is roughly 5,000. Most of these people seem to be occupied taking care of Abaco’s visitors in one way or another. Treasure Cay, a community to the north, is the second largest town in Abaco and is a growing resort destination, complete with golf course. Like Marsh Harbour, Treasure Cay has an airport.

The outlying cays come in a surprisingly varied assortment of sizes and flavors. Not far east of Marsh Harbour is Elbow Cay. Hope Town is its crown jewel. This quaint, picturesque community maintains its early British loyalist look and feel. Flower-lined walkways meander through the settlement. Some are just wide enough for a golf cart and others are not even that wide. Hope Town’s most notable landmark is its still functional red-and-white candy striped lighthouse, built to last by the British Imperial Lighthouse Service in 1863. Locals tried to sabotage construction of the lighthouse several times, knowing it would curtail the income of the wreckers there who made a living salvaging the contents of shipwrecked vessels.

Man-O-War Cay, a bit northwest of Elbow Cay, is another settlement with a distinctly British-Caribbean ambiance. It has long been the home of highly respected ship builders. The Albury name – very prominent in Abaco – is synonymous with well-designed, solidly constructed boats.

The next major cay moving northwest is Great Guana Cay. It reported just 95 residents in the 1990 census but has seen significant growth and development in recent years, though it remains largely pristine and rural. Guana Cay’s greatest attraction is its stunning, reef-protected ocean-side beach. It is one of the widest white sand beaches in the area and extends nearly the full 5½-mile length of the island. Notably, an environmentally controversial mega-development for the mega-rich is now being built on the northern triangular tip of Guana Cay at Baker’s Bay. Modest-sized building lots are for sale there, fronting on the ocean. The lots alone are priced from about $4 million to $10 million. (Yes, that’s U.S. dollars).

Even farther north is Green Turtle Cay and the small town of New Plymouth. Green Turtle is another cay that has seen substantial development in the past several years. It now offers a variety of restaurants, hotels, marine services, shops and anchorages.

The southern end of the Abaco islands has its own attractions and settlements. These include the spectacular Tahiti Beach, the Sandy Cay underwater wildlife refuge where snorkeling is fantastic, and Little Harbour, to name a few.

Little Harbour is a Hemingway-esque settlement south of Marsh Harbour on the main island, on the southern tip of the Sea of Abaco. Randolph and Margot Johnston came to Little Harbour in the mid 1950s and founded an art colony, living at first in caves on the west side of the harbor. Randolph was an internationally known artist, famous for his lost wax bronze castings. The Johnston’s son, Pete, now runs Pete’s Pub, a quirky open-air bar on the beach, and a gallery.

The Perfect Adventure

Reality rarely lives up to the dream. This does not apply to living out an Adventures in Paradise fantasy in Abaco. It’s every bit as good as the dream … if not better.

Here’s the perfect way to enjoy Abaco:

Charter a sailboat from a chartering company, such as The Moorings in Marsh Harbour. Other options are to own your own boat or get invited by a friend who does – preferably one who is a certified skipper, thus eliminating the need to hire one for the voyage. Fly in, take a 10-minute taxi ride to the charter base, check in and stow your luggage away. Then take a 15-minute walk to Abaco’s largest grocery store, Solomon’s. Buy all the groceries there you’ll need for your trip and take them back to the boat in a taxi.

Make sure your yacht is well provisioned and equipped. This including a dinghy for getting to shore and back from your anchorage or mooring in a harbor. Start the sailboat’s engine, cast off, leave the marina and get out of the harbor. Once out in open waters, turn off the engine and set sail for your first destination. Hope Town is a good choice for the first day. It’s only an hour or so sail away. You’ll love the visual feast that greets you as you enter the harbor: brightly colored homes, beautiful yachts and the candy-striped lighthouse.

Once you’ve tied up to a mooring (it will cost about $15 a night), take your dinghy into shore, tie it to a public dock and explore this small, picturesque community. You can eat here, but prices are steep at the few nice restaurants: $24 and $28 are typical for a fresh seafood entrée. Better yet, go back to your sailboat once you’ve finished exploring, enjoy cooking an unhurried dinner, then eat it as you witness the spectacle of an Abaco sunset. You will sleep well that night to the gentle rocking of the boat.

It’s easy to settle into life in the Sea of Abaco as you discover the true definition of laid-back adventuring. Sail between the warm sun and crystal waters from cay to cay and harbor to harbor. Explore. Snorkel. Lay out on a beach. Play in the waves. Go shelling. Swim with porpoises that pay you a visit. And eat, of course. Everything tastes better here. It’s a well-known fact.

Your days and nights will float by as if in a beautiful dream. And when it’s over and it’s time to return to the charter base in Marsh Harbour, it will seem like you’ve been gone forever; and at the same time, like you just left yesterday.

That’s the way it is with adventures in paradise.

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Facts and Tips

Weather: Average temperature range from 70^oF in January to 82^oF in August. Late winter and early spring are the most popular months for tourism.

Language: English.

Getting There: Most people fly directly to Marsh Harbour or Treasure Cay from one of several airports in Florida – most notably Ft. Lauderdale, Miami or West Palm Beach. (It’s about an hour flight and costs current vary from the upper $200s to over $300 round trip.) Several flights arrive and depart daily from the rustic Abaco airports.

Entrance Requirements: U.S. citizens need either (1) a passport or (2) a certified birth certificate and photo identification, such as a driver’s license. Citizens of other nations may need to secure a visa in advance.

Currency: The Bahamian dollar is the national currency. It is equivalent to the U.S. dollar, which is accepted virtually everywhere.

Electric Current: Standard North American 120 volt, 60 cycle.

A Very Brief History of Abaco

After its original citizens – the Lucayan Indians – were wiped out by Spaniard genocide and disease by the mid 1500s, Abaco became a haunt of pirates, wreckers and transient fishermen. In the 1780s, American colonists who remained loyal to England after the Revolutionary War left New York to settle in Abaco. Farming proved to be difficult and of the 2,000 colonists and slaves who arrived, all but 400 (200 whites and 200 blacks) had left by 1790. The same 50-50 racial mix prevails today. Since then, Abaco’s history has been a mixed bag of successes and failures in farming, fishing, sponging, boat building, wrecking, and establishing settlements. In recent years, tourism has become an essential mainstay for Abaco.

Owning a Charter Sailboat – a Fun or Fine Investment?

Gary S. has owned a sailboat in The Moorings fleet for years. He is a physician who loves to have a good time sailing. But he is also an astute businessman who hates to throw money away, even on fun. Consequently, he gravitates to investments that allow him to partake of the pleasures he enjoys without spending an arm and a leg.

His investment in a sailboat with The Moorings is a case in point. “Basically,” he explains, “it allows me to go on sailing vacations several times a year free.”

This is a significant benefit, since it would cost about $10,000 a week to charter his yacht, plus the cost of a captain if someone in the party is not certified to skipper the boat. Fortunately, Gary is certified.

His sailboat – a 47-foot Robertson and Caine catamaran – features a large central salon with a galley and dining area, plus four cabins that sleep two people each. Each of the four cabins has its own bathroom with a head, sink and shower.

Here’s the deal: Gary and a partner purchased their latest sailing yacht through The Moorings for about $500,000. The Moorings offers a variety of investor options. They opted for the option that gives them about nine weeks of personal use of the yacht per year and a 9 percent guaranteed return on their investment for five years. The Moorings charters the sailboat the rest of the time and maintains it. After the five years, the yacht can be sold and the owners will have the option to buy a new yacht under the same or a different investment program. Most of the 9 percent income Gary and his partner receive from the yacht is offset by the interest they pay on the boat’s mortgage.

Gary and other boat owners have the flexibility to take their weeks of personal boat use on other yachts at any of the other 41 Moorings bases around the world.

Tax advantages such as deductions against passive income and depreciation allowances are also available for this type of investment, depending on the owners’ tax situations.

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