Marsh Harbour

 

On 7 February, we left the pigs on No Name Cay and motored out into the Atlantic, around Whale Cay and back into the Sea of Abaco.  We anchored off Treasure Cay on the night of the 7^th and then proceeded into Marsh Harbour on the 8^th.

 

Elena contacted the Conch Inn Marina to reserve a slip because we had more weather on the way in the next few days and Marsh Harbour is reputed to be a crowded anchorage, which proved most true upon our arrival.    We went into Marsh Harbour at low tide, slowly making our way in.  The depth crept slowly from 10 feet to 9 to 8 to 7 feet.  When I finally saw 6.5 feet, I called a halt and we anchored in the middle of the harbor and waited a few hours for the tide to rise a couple of feet.  Late in the afternoon, with 8 feet under us, we moored at Conch Inn Marina, home for the Moorings Charter Fleet.

Marsh Harbour, the third largest city in the Bahamas, has a population of about 6000.  It has one main road, one big food store, and two hardware stores (and no marine store).  It is not terribly picturesque, nor does it have nice beaches nearby.  There are a number of waterfront restaurants, but none I would write home about (or write about here).

Elena was scheduled to fly out on the 14^th for a citizenship interview on the 16^th in Norfolk, VA.  We hunkered down for a few days.  On the 12^th we rented a car and toured the Great Abaco Island from Treasure Cay (15 miles to the north) to the interesting hamlets of  Little Harbour and Cherokee Settlement (20 miles to the south).  Treasure Cay had the best beach we have seen on our trip.

 

 

 

Elena bought some conch (sort of a large sea snail) from the local conch guy and fried it up (called cracked conch.

 

We also met up with Aric, one of our marina mates from Herrington who has work here repairing the ferry boats.  Aric is one of the best marine engineers in the business and a former Captain of Marines, a guy who definitely did it his way.

 

Elena left on schedule on the 14^th and stayed with my oldest daughter, Jamie, in Richmond, Virginia for a few days.  Elena’s interview went perfect (What else would one expect?).  Her return flight was dependent on when the swearing-in ceremony would be held.  I was prepared to sail south alone, and let Elena catch up with me somehow.  During the interview, she found out the date was flexible and she decided to wait for our return to the States in May for the swearing-in, returning to the Bahamas on the February 19^th.  She picked up our mail, packages, made a run to West Marine, and replenished my reading library in the two days waiting for the flight.

 

Our major costs are marinas and food.  Marina costs are on par with the states and we can control how much we stay in marinas.  We are self-sufficient (two generators, a watermaker, refrigerator), but it is more comfortable to have some protection from the weather when the winds really kick up.  Food is about twice as expensive as the States and restaurants are very pricey for the food (hamburgers are typically $15).  Fuel is expensive here too, but we have not use much diesel (about 30 gallons a month).

We got a little maintenance done, mostly a much needed oil change, that we did ourselves.

We have been in a repeating weather pattern.  Every 4-7 days a cold front comes through.  The winds come from the North to Northeast at 15 to 25 knots for a couple of days, shift to the east for a day or two, and then slacken and shift to the south.  The weather window we must sail on is the day or two of easterlies.  Going when the wind is out of the North would be a bumpy ride and going when the wind is out of the south means motoring for many hours into a head-on swell.

We had a nice weather window coming soon that would last several days, perfect for a crossing to Eleuthera, 70 miles to the south.  Unfortunately, we poisoned ourselves with something that had been in the refrigerator too long and we were shut down for 4 days, unable to move for a couple of days and too weak to sail for a few more.  We did manage to crawl out of the cabin and take a ferry (for $60 dollars) to Hopetown, a picturesque little vacation town, 5 miles from Marsh Harbour. 

 

We finally got underway, after 19 relatively unpleasant days in port, and motored over to Man of War Cay, another picturesque little settlement about 5 miles from Marsh Harbour. 

 

 

Then we anchored off Hopetown (but did not re-visit).  A major front was coming through in a couple of days, bringing 25-30 knots of wind, so we decided to tie up in a Abaco Beach Resort Marina (with a big price tag to go with the “resort” part) on the other side of the Great Abaco Island from Marsh Harbour.  While a nice place, it reminds me of a Florida retirement village, with a lot of older people living on their boat–but not going anywhere–gathering together in the evenings to gossip, and not much else.  I am so ready to move on.

The front has passed; after 5 days, the winds are beginning to abate.  The forecast for a week out is excellent.  we are planning to move south on Wednesday, March 8^th,  staging near the opening at the reef to the Atlantic and sailing to Royal Island, near Eleuthera, on the 9th.