A Decision to Make

Marsh Harbour – 0 miles

With the south-east winds howling outside, a storm on the way tomorrow, and the prospect of north winds for the foreseeable future, we had a decision to make. We are in the south Abacos and to get to the north Abacos, which include Green Turtle Cay and Manjack Cay, we must pass through the Whale Cut, a passage that can only be made with calm seas or southerly winds. Any wind from the north builds up swell and makes it treacherous.

Today, we could have made it through the Whale Cut and into the north, but the problem was there are few good anchoring options for the storm winds which were due to clock from the south east all the way to the north over the period of a few hours on Monday, then blow in hard from the northwest then north all the way until at least Saturday. Of the two 360 degree anchorages, all the mooring balls were already booked and the cost of dockage was more than we were willing to spend, leaving nothing but very poor anchoring options. I was tempted to go anyway, as we’ve been leaning more and more towards getting back to the US as soon as possible to avoid any potential border closures, and many of the wind predictions we’ve seen previously have not turned out as bad as expected. But it would be taking a risk, and we decided that staying put in Marsh Harbour with our good anchorage was the better option.

This continual weather monitoring and scenario planning is not something we had much understood or appreciated before getting down to the Bahamas. Finding yourself in a situation where there are storm winds coming and you have nowhere to hide is both scary and dangerous - sometimes life-threatening dangerous. On this trip we have taken many calculated risks in the pursuit of covering as much ground as possible, seeing everything there is to see, and avoiding lengthy stops at a single location (except for Annapolis and Fort Lauderdale, which were planned and deliberate). We haven’t typically been “playing it safe”, but today we did. The bright side is that once the winds shift north we should be able to leave Marsh Harbour and spend a couple of nights at Great Guana Cay and wait for south winds to make the Whale Cut.

We did not leave the boat and I don’t know where the time went. Made some calls, did some reading, did some writing. It felt like a wasted day, and if I had done this on a Sunday before a back-to-work Monday, I would have hung my head in shame after lashing myself with a studded belt. I didn’t even do any boat jobs.

Marsh Harbour - Laundry, Street Walking, and a Rum Incident Courtesy of SV Waddington

Man-O-War Cay to Marsh Harbour – 6 nautical miles sailed, 2 miles in dinghy, 6 kilometres walked

After a fantastic sleep to catch up from the bad one the previous night, we were up early and met the gang at the coffee shop in town shortly after 8. The climate had completely transformed, as the heavy winds and rain had been replaced by calm and sunshine - paradise restored.

We took our coffee in the outdoor garden seating area, along with many others who were there for their morning java jolt. We’ve found preciously few places like this in the Bahamas - small cafes where you can get a good coffee and hang out, so this was a real pleasure and we had a leisurely chat with our friends from SVs Domino and Waddington.

By 10 we were motoring out the bay and on our way to Marsh Harbour, a mere six miles away, and the third largest community in the Bahamas. The ride was pleasant and uneventful. We dropped anchor in the harbour, gathered up our laundry and trash, then took the dinghy into one of the two free public docks and walked up to the Bubbles laundromat.

Marsh Harbour is not the prettiest town as there’s no main town centre despite having a beautiful waterfront, and it just seems to be a series of treeless commercial streets. But it does have a few things cruisers love, namely:

Free dinghy dock

Free garbage disposal

Sidewalks

Laundry

Seaside bar

While we waited for the laundry we explored the nearby area and found a huge hardware store with loads of marine supplies, a few general stores, some ladies clothing stores, an RBC bank, and a restaurant. We met an American fellow at the laundry who runs a small sailing charter company with his partner and told us a bit about the local scene. We’re hoping to catch up with them for a sundowner soon to hear more about life in the Abacos.

After loading the freshly laundered clothing in the dinghy, we continued our explorations of Marsh Harbour. We walked past the several marinas and found a medium sized grocery store where we picked up a couple of things then walked back to Snappa’s, the bar and restaurant at the Conch Inn & Marina. Ana enjoyed an Arnold Palmer (and free refill) while I had a pint of local ale, both delicious, as we looked over the beautiful harbour and chatted with the bartenders as they kept very busy making drinks for the many customers.

We were back to the dinghy around five and stopped by Waddington to see if we could score a sundowner with Kate and Ben, which we did, and we rewarded with the strong end-of-day photons and a magnificent sunset. Ben poured me a rum and ginger ale, the house drink. Then another. Then another. And it was all going very well until I wobbled up at Mariner’s Midnight, rolled off the boat into the dinghy and held on for dear life as it slowly slipped out from beneath me, leaving me hanging from the boat rails with my arms while my feet grasped the slippery PVC. I managed to twinkle toe the dinghy back underneath me, but in the process lost my sunglasses to Neptune, who was hiding under the boat, waiting for an offering.

I was disciplined and vanquished to the bow seat as Ana took over motor control (my own motor control was lost) and put-put-putted our way back to SeaLight for a light dinner of eggs on toast followed by a fumey night in the v-berth.