Marooned in Marsh Harbour

Marooned in Marsh Harbour

We spent two days on our mooring at Fishers Bay, Great Guana Cay last weekend. It was sunny, warm and windy. We had already visited the much-publicized ‘Nippers Bar,’on the hill overlooking the Atlantic, for the ‘Barefoot Man’ concert, so this time we enjoyed spending time on the beach at ‘Grabbers’ bar.
(Bar hopping has become a favourite pastime for the crew of ‘Southern Vectis’, particularly as the names of the local ‘watering holes’ are so enticing. How could we resist a visit to: ‘Grabbers’, ‘Nippers’, ‘Snappers’, ‘Cracker P’s’, ‘Mangoes’, ‘Curly Tails’, ‘Capt’n Jack’s’ or ‘Pete’s Pub’?)

We made the most of the beautiful sailing weather on Sunday to criss-cross the sea of Abaco en route for our dinner date with RCYC friends, Bruce and Janet McKelvey. We anchored in Marsh Harbour and dinghied for drinks on board Bruce & Janet’s brand new ‘Moorings’ charter boat. As we were walking down the dock on the way to dinner at ‘Curly Tails’, we noticed groups of sailors looking fixedly up at the night sky. We joined them, and saw the sky light up as the space shuttle, launched from Cape Canaveral just minutes before, rose majestically upwards and then, leaving a brilliance which more than matched the full moon, discarded its booster rocket and raced free towards the stars. We all cheered and heaved a sigh of relief for the brave souls on board.
We had a great evening with Bruce and Janet and the next day, when we dinghied over to say goodbye, we were presented with mountains of food and booze – their left over provisions. Bill and I decided at this point that we needed to do more exercise to justify this windfall! We have been for a few token walks since! Thank you Bruce and Janet.

On Monday we moved in to a dock at Harbour View Marina because a ‘cold front’ was due on Tuesday. All the marinas and mooring fields get very busy when the weather forecast is bad, and we wanted to be sure of getting a dock. We have been here ever since! That cold front came through late Tuesday evening, after we had enjoyed a really great St. Patrick’s Day party organized by some cruisers on our dock. Then, on Wednesday, as everyone was slowly rolling from their bunks, the heavens opened and didn’t close for 24 hours!! As we used to say in England, the rain was ‘set in’, and we had no choice but to hibernate with a good book, and also to watch some of the movies Louisa had loaned us for the trip. Thanks Lou. As this is the first rain we have seen since arriving in the Bahamas, all the locals are ecstatic…..not so the sailors. To make matters worse, another cold front arrived last night and is raging around us as I write. Winds are in the 20 to 25 knot range with squalls of 30 knots or more. We are happy to be tied to our very secure dock, surrounded by lots of other sailors!

We were happy to meet up once again with Bob & Carole on ‘Sea Change yesterday. They have made it back from the Exumas, and will spend a few days here waiting out the weather before travelling north. We are looking forward to having dinner with them at ‘Curly Tails’ tonight, and swapping cruising tales of our exploits on the high seas.