Man-O-War Cay – Sailing Windara

Man-O-War Cay, named after the bird also known as a frigatebird, is a quiet, quaint little spot that’s often overlooked. It’s a dry island, originally settled by Loyalists, and shipwrecked sailor Benjamin Albury found himself on the island in the early 1800s. He settled down, and many of the island’s current residents can trace their history back to him.

We spent two days anchored off the island in water so blue it almost hurt to look at, but with weekend winds building over 20kts, we decided to take a mooring. The mooring field is really well protected, and the moorings are super cheap. We only intended to stay a couple days, but at $20/day or $70/week, we figured it was worth paying for the week and figuring it out later.

Dorian destroyed most of the businesses on the island, but as with everywhere else, they’re making a comeback. We were sad to find that the Hibiscus Cafe is permanently closed – with its closure, there are no restaurants on the island. There is an ice cream shop (although we only found it open once), and if you wander around, you’ll find locals who occasionally sell food – there’s a woman who makes conch chowder and conch salad every Friday, and someone sells ice cream in their driveway on Saturdays. Everything on Man-O-War is closed on Sunday, except the churches, and I’m really glad to see that.

The coffee shop/heritage museum was a wonderful find, and we had a nice long chat with the owner, Anne, and one of her regular patrons who’s a pilot and has a house on the island. We learned a bit about the history of the island and the effects of Dorian, and we wandered through the museum which has an eclectic range of island artifacts that range throughout the island’s history.

The Albury Brothers still build boats here – the center consoles are everywhere and while there’s a factory in Florida now, they’re all still hand-made and some are still built here on the island. The shop is alive with the sound of grinders and the smell of resin kicking. They also still build wooden sailing dinghies and make beautiful, hand-crafted half-hull models.

We visited the Sail Shop and had a lovely conversation with fifth-generation island resident Aurelia Albury. She’s still making the beautiful tote bags they sell by hand, and you can only find them here on the island. They used to have a big shop on the dock across the street from their current location, where back in the day, they also made sails by hand. Unfortunately that was destroyed by Dorian, but they found a smaller space to continue operations out of until someday they can rebuild a bigger shop. It was so interesting to hear about her family history and pick up on all the connections between this island and Plymouth back home.

Man-O-War has the best grocery store we’ve found so far in the Abacos, and we were like kids in a candy store. Since we’ve been here, we’ve grown accustomed to shopping for what’s available and meal planning around that, rather than thinking of what we want to make and looking for specific ingredients, and it was nice to be able to do that again. We also discovered these incredible coconut chocolate chip cookies… I bought them when we were having people over with the intention of having them to share, but they didn’t even make it to the boat.

There’s a shell shop here that sells conch shells, so I was finally able to find my blowing conch. I’ve wanted to get a conch shell since we got here, but given that they’re a sensitive species, I didn’t want to take one, even though I would have only taken one that was dead. I question whether or not I should have even bought one, but it was one that had been taken for food and repaired to serve as a blowing conch, and it’s a small way of supporting a local. I’m still practicing, but I’m getting the hang of it!

Island Dream is in the mooring field with us – we’ve become unofficial buddy boats/official mutual stalkers, and I’m glad we’re able to travel in the company of friends.

I could absolutely see myself buying a house here someday – it reminds me very much of the Cape, from the architecture to the dependence on the water to make a living, to the way everyone knows everyone else.