Marsh Harbour

Monday February 9, 2009
Well the big day had come. We were heading for the Whale. The winds were about 36 km and the sun was out. Apparently the waves are two to three feet so it cannot get much better than that. Things were going along fine and the boat was slamming up and down over the waves until we got to the Shipping Channel. Captain mentioned we were over heated. FM took over the helm and Captain went below to
see what was wrong. The impeller must of lost its prime when we were beating through the waves. We had a favorable wind direction to sail “Praise the Lord” and I just kept sailing until the Captain had it all working again. :) “Three cheers for Dick”
We had not really decided where we were going so we dropped anchor with Southern Flite at Bakers Bay. This island had a huge development (Disney) some years ago and the cruise ships could not regularly get through the Whale to bring tourists so they just walked away from it. When we were anchored there we could see them working on new homes. Agapi was anchored there and came by to tell us they had gotten their own lobsters and George had been diving on the reef and saw a nurse shark. Due to the wind direction we decided to spend the night at Great Guana Cay. We needed to get fuel and when we got to the dock there was a huge wind and current so it took us about ½ hour to get the boat near the dock and all the time the Bahamian Gas pumper stood there looking at us like another annoying tourist sailboat. Anyway we filled up and paid 4. 25 per gallon. We tried to go to a mooring ball in the harbour and went aground a few time. Southern Flite had a deep water mooring and gave it up so we could stay in the harbour. The wonderful part about this part of the Bahamas is you can get up and go through all this aggravation and humiliation and be docked and tied by 2:00 pm and then
head out for a time of touring the island. Our island rendezvous took us along the harbour up a hill and to a place called Nippers. It is a huge bar, swimming pool right on the ocean. It is painted in festive Bahamian colours and has a restaurant and gift shop. After we had bought a drink Michelle decided to go into look at the T shirts and got bitten by a Pomeranian Dog. From then on all their drinks were free and they even through in a T shirt. We decided to stay for supper and a couple we meet on the beach at Manjack joined us. The big highlight of the day was the moon that rose over the ocean and it was bright red. Everyone ran to take a picture of it. When we got back to the dinghy we had been told to put a stern anchor out which we did. Michelle and Ian invited us aboard so we headed out with them and then Dick realized after we were tying up on their swim ladder that we did not have our stern anchor. I guess the knot did not hold. Anyway Captain picked it up the next day.
Tuesday February 10, 2009
On to Marsh Harbour
7:30 am knock on the hull and we were awakened by the Dock master who had come and collected
his mooring ball fee. The harbour had been choppy all night and we decided to head to Marsh Harbour. We were discussing going to Man of War but there is to be a big Yard/Bake/Everything Sale on Saturday and they are raising money for their schools so we decided to do Marsh Harbour today. Ian told us about a Marina called the Conch Inn and since we need showers and to re provision we opt to go to a dock for the night. When headed across the Sea of Abaco with a stiff breeze, stiff enough to loose my cap. I asked Dick about the water depths at the channel to the marina and they were saying 1.5 – 1.7 meters which was not good for us at low tide. When we got to the harbour there were tons of boats anchored and even though the chart said do not anchor in channel it was hard to find our way. We made a quick decision to stay at the anchorage and radioed Southern Flite about our situation.
In the afternoon we headed to the public dinghy dock to go into Marsh Harbour and get some groceries.
When we got to the dinghy dock we meet a Bahamian man that offered to take the line and guard our dinghy for us. What's the gig I asked do you want a tip when we come back. Just enjoy the Bahama's Mame don matter what ever y' think. Don't worry be happy Mame.