The weather in the Abacos this year has been beautiful. Many people have said it is the best winter in eight years……..sunny most days, temperatures 70-80 degrees and very little rain. We have been able to cruise every week since arriving.
What we learned, however, is the negative side to this beautiful weather. The dry conditions promote spontaneous breakouts of fires. The basic vegetation of Abaco is pine forests and low dry scrub. Without rain, the pine needles and scrub provide an ideal environment to fuel fires. This season, in the last month on any given day there were fires in at least six different locations. The firemen are all volunteer and it is difficult to reach most of the fires.
When we took a bike ride to the airport, we saw burned out areas very close to buildings, businesses, schools and the main highway in Marsh Harbour. One of the businesses was the propane filling station. The smoke from the fires gets so bad that schools have had to close.
While we were anchored off Tiloo on Saturday, we took some pictures of fires in the Marsh Harbour area at sunset.
Needless to say, it is very disturbing to see the fires and frightening to think of the damage that can result!
