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Readers
of the Second edition of our “Cruising Guide to the Abacos and Northern
Bahamas” have been very kind with their comments and very helpful in
describing changes. Between 1980 and the present, I’ve cruised the Abacos and
everywhere else on Little Bahamas Bank and Nassau, and Northern Eleuthera four
times. Yet I’ve been unable to rewrite the book because Wescott Cove
Publishing Company has expanded into a full time job. I’m now a publisher, no
longer a writer. I edit the books, I negotiate with authors and printers, and am
responsible for sales, promotion, finance, inventory control, composition,
fulfillment, as well as serving as chief cook and bottle washer!
Wescott
Cove solved the problem of an updated Abaco guide when I started a
correspondence with Dr. Darrel Wayne Wyatt, who then lived on Scotland Cay and
visited the whole area frequently in his own airplane and his own boat. Dr.
Wyatt’s “permanent” home and practice were in Orange Park, Florida but he
went off cruising about half the time and has practiced Obstetrics and
Gynecology part-time in several other southern states, in between cruises.
He’s also spent a lot of time on Grand Bahama.
Dr.
Wyatt is an excellent navigator, and writes well. He’s most conscientious, and
I had no qualms in turning over Wescott Cove’s best selling book to Darrel for
this updated Third Edition.
Dr.
Wyatt was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and had his premed at Arkansas State
University, receiving a B.S. in Chemistry, 1974. He graduated from University of
Arkansas College of Medicine, in 1978 with an M.D. degree.
His
internship followed at Pensacola, Florida, and he had residency training there
and at Louisiana State University, in his specialty. He had a Faculty Fellowship
at Louisiana State and became an instructor there, and later a staff member of
their university hospital. He was Board Certified by the American Board of
Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1985, and has served on several other hospital
staffs in Florida and Louisiana. He’s well respected in his field.
Darrel
was Chairman of the Clay County Republican Party 1986-1989. He’s a Past
Commodore of the Continental Yacht Club and has served our country in the
Arkansas and Florida National Guards. He’s currently a lieutenant colonel in
the Army Reserve.
Darrel’s
avocation has been sailing, starting in a dinghy while still a student,
progressing to cruising boats, coastal and offshore. He became a “local
expert” on the Abacos, leaving his boat there for six months at a time, and
flying back and forth from Orange Park, weekends, holidays, and vacations, in
his own plane. The boat is Kira, a
42-foot C & C Landfall cutter. Flying so often to the private landing strip
on Scotland Cay meant frequent landings in all kinds of conditions. His friend,
Robert Knapp, also a pilot, described to me Darrel’s skillful landing in a
35-40 knot crosswind. Dr. Wyatt has an adventurous
streak a mile wide, and he has poked his nose into every harbor, and has shown
me that he’s a prudent sailor and skilled navigator. We share a love of
exploration, never satisfied until we see what’s around the next peninsula.
Wescott
Cove is proud to present his work to you.
Julius
M. Wilensky
October,
1999
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