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week-long sailing trip.
It had been four years since that cata‐
strophic event and I saw evidence of de‐
stroyed buildings that had not yet been
repaired. And while the Abacos have re‐
bounded somewhat since Dorian struck,
Burns said the recovery has been uneven
throughout the archipelago.
So, besides getting away from Wiscon‐
sin’s chilly winter weather, it felt good to be
helping the islands’ economy, more than
half of which is based on tourism. Navigare
Yachting (navigare-yachting.com), the
charter company we used, looked like it
employed at least a dozen locals.
Burns, who has sailed around the globe
and had chartered in the Abacos before
Dorian, said the nine cats he booked
through Navigare was the largest group
he’d ever assembled. Which made for a fun
progressive dinner one night when we shut‐
tled from boat to boat. But we were never
herded together. Each day, we sailed our
own courses to reach the next bay, arriving
at our leisure.
It turned out that I actually knew some
of the others in our small navy, including
three Minnesotans with whom I’d sailed to
Isle Royale in Lake Superior. There was also
a Tasmanian who’d been my sailing in‐
structor in the Apostles Islands a few years
back and - surprise - an acquaintance from
the University of Wisconsin’s Hoofers sail‐
ing club who had once sailed across the At‐
lantic.
After provisioning our cat that first af‐
ternoon, I enjoyed a fruity rum drink and
salad at Snappy’s, the Conch Inn’s open air
bar, watched the sun set over the harbor
and then bedded down in my ample berth
to the rear in one of the Indie’s hulls. Why,
it even came with its own head (bathroom
in landlubber’s terms).
At the Man O’ War Cay, we tied up on a
mooring buoy. Then we took our dinghy to

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