Chilling in Marsh Harbor

Still snuggled in at Marsh Harbor Marina in the Abacos.  We’ve managed to get snorkeling once at Mermaid Reef which is very close to the marina.  We’d forgotten how cool the water is compared to other places we’ve snorkeled down island in the Caribbean.  We have wet suits at home and we were wishing that we’d brought them.  It would allow us to stay in the water much longer than we’re able without them.  We’ve scoped out some of the local establishments like the major grocery store, the hardware stores and also been able to get propane.  Next week we hope to try a couple of the restaurants that are a little further from the Marina.  Everything is done by dinghy now that we’ve returned the rental car, so we’ll probably see what kind of lunch specials there are.  That way we don’t have to be using the dinghy at night.  It’s not that we can’t, it’s just a lot easier to get around during the day light hours.

Next weekend the Man o War Cay school system is having a fund raiser flea market and we’re hoping we can go.  They plan to run ferries from Marsh Harbor to Man o War.  However, Chris Parker, the cruiser’s weather guru is predicting gale force winds for the that day.  Who said weathermen could predict weather a week in advance.  So, we’ll see what happens, but if that happens, I’m not even sure I want to take the ferry over there.  Time will tell.

Checking Out Marsh Harbor

We made the decision to hang out in Marsh Harbor for awhile and right now we’re glad we made that decision.  Three cold fronts moved off the U.S. coast and winds have been blowing 20 to 25 for 3 to 4 days now.  There are lots of boats in the area and it's like Georgetown in the Exumas, they have a cruiser’s net that broadcasts on VHF radio every morning at 8:15am.  They provide a weather forecast and announcements from many of the stores and restaurants about things happening around the area.  Of course this weekend is Superbowl Sunday, so everyone is having a party.  The marina here is having a chili cook-off and pot luck.  Even though they have a restaurant they seem to encourage the pot lucks.  They always have a cash bar so looks like they make way more on drinks than they do food.  There seems to be no lack of activity.  Since we arrived they’ve had a mexican pot luck, happy hour with goodies, and a conch blowing contest to name a few.

“New Wave” is one of the boats we met on our way from West End and they showed up here 2 days after we arrived.  They had heard the weather reports and decided to hide here for a few days too.  We were able to use our rental car and help them retrieve some batteries for their boat.  They had a couple batteries go bad and were having problems with their charging system.  Finding the battery store was another adventure.

We drove to Treasure Cay to check out the golf course.  We decided to play even though the green fees were more than Glen Ullin, ND, but it wasn’t too bad considering we had to rent clubs and everything.  The course was OK but with the lack of rain and water, the ground was pretty hard.  That’s OK though, that way my ball would roll further.

We did our laundry the other day and took it to the laundromat in town since we had a rental car.  There were about 30 washing machines of which about 23 were out of service.  Same with the 15 dryers that they had.  They had someone working full time while were there.  It's really hard to understand the mentality that just ignores these problems.  When we look at the prices for food, the availability of all kinds of goods and services and especially computer and telephone service, we forget how lucky we are and how good we have it in the United States.  The Bahamas are still pretty third world.  More people should see this reality and we all might be more grateful for the things we have.  

We have to return the car today, Monday, but at least we had a chance to see a little of Great Abaco in addition to the Marsh Harbor area.