Little Harbour to Marsh Harbour - 2017

--Blogpost written by Bob

This blogpost covers our trip from Little Harbour to Marsh Harbour and a couple days we spent in Marsh Harbour getting provisions.

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Our friendly sea turtle came within 20 feet of our cockpit this morning as if to say goodbye.  We decided to leave Little Harbour just after lunchtime today.

The narrow peninsula where Pete's Pub is situated blocked our
view of the sunrise over the water but it was
still pretty spectacular this morning.

We left Little Harbor at 1 PM on Sunday, April 2nd, on a rising tide.  The channel over the sandbar was marked by three red buoys and two black ones--the lowest water level seemed to be to the north of the channel markers.  The buoys are metal fishing net floats that have been painted red or black, nothing fancy but effective.

A catamaran was crossing Lubbers Bank (the lighter green
area) as we came by this afternoon.

Our dinghy was towed through the beautiful turquoise
water of the Sea of Abaco.

We arrived at Marsh Harbour at about 3:15 PM.  After we anchored we took the dinghy into Harbor View Marina to get ice.  As much as we liked Little Harbour it is great to be back in Marsh Harbour.

The beautiful colors of the sun setting over
Marsh Harbour on April 2.

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On Monday morning (April 3), there was a cool breeze from the southeast and the temperature was 73 degrees.  The VHF radio was tuned to channel 68 where the Cruiser's Net was just beginning.  In a man's formal British accent "Snappa's, your number 4 this morning," as announcements were organized.  (The very proper British organization was a reminder of the ending of Lord of the Flies, the book that I had just finished re-reading.).  We sat in the cockpit having our morning coffee as the Cruiser's Net continued.

We decided to go into town for breakfast at the Golden Grouper and then to Maxwell's Supermarket for much-needed groceries to start our day.  We were back on Rainy Days by lunchtime--that's how long it takes to do simple chores in the Bahamas.  Of course, our transportation is by dinghy and walking.

The remainder of my day was spent doing boat maintenance.  I performed the 150-hour service on our new Yanmar engine--this includes changing the oil and oil filter, checking the transmission fluid level, topping up the coolant reservoir, etc.   I also cleaned all three raw water strainers (engine intake, fridge supplemental cooling water, and the A/C raw water strainer) and the fresh water strainer from the tanks and fresh water filter cartridge.  In addition, I cleaned the fresh water strainer ahead of the fresh water pump.

The water filter cartridges last us about 3 months.  The filter is 
installed between the fresh water pump and the faucets. 
You can see how dirty the old filter cartridge
was--it was brown in color.

This is the second time I've used this oil extractor and it has
worked well.  A vacuum is created in the white globe
and it sucks the oil out of the dipstick.  It takes
about 45 minutes to complete the task.

We finished our day by taking terrific showers ($5 each) at the Conch Inn and ordering a pizza for dinner from Abaco Pizza--we had it delivered to the dinghy dock where we picked it up.  It is the BEST pizza in the Abacos!

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The high-pitching hissing Sound of a wind generator and the low-pitch hum of a Honda generator on nearby anchored boats created the background for this morning's (Tuesday, April 4) blogpost entry.  Our dinghy, tied astern, made a shallow slapping sound as it undulates in the small waves in the harbor.  A few gulls can be heard as they hunt for their breakfast.  As I was writing, Lizzie came up and touched me with her front paw, like she was asking for attention--she craves it during her waking hours (which are few and far between).

A small tug pushed a barge out of the harbor from the shipping terminal--the barge was carrying two large tanker trucks.  The outlying islands get their diesel fuel, gasoline, and possibly fresh water this way.  We saw this barge deliver some type of liquids from a tanker truck while we were on Man-O-War Cay.  This additional intra-island shipping is one of the reasons for the high costs here in the Bahamas. 

At any given time there are several dozen shipping containers and
one or two small intra-island ships that carry them to/from
the shipping terminal in Marsh Harbour.

A small bright blue container ship came in the channel headed
for the shipping terminal this morning.  It is carrying
a few containers on deck.

We did laundry this morning and bought homemade raisin bread at the Island Bakery.  Maggie walked to Maxwell's from the laundromat and finished up the little bit grocery shopping we had left for the week.  I was able to buy a shaft zinc (1-1/8-inch diameter) at National Marine (across the street from Standard Hardware) to replace the one that I discovered was missing--I will have to wait for an opportunity to install it (a day with very little wind).

At the laundromat we met another couple from Annapolis--it turns out that they are currently anchored near us in the harbor.  Greg & Lynn Long, currently living aboard s/v Paperbird (a Pearson 422), used to live about 2 miles away from us in Annapolis.  They kept their boat at Hartge's Yacht Harbor last summer.  It's a small world, as they say.  They are leaving the Abacos next week--it seems like a lot of boats are now leaving the Abacos for the U.S.--we hope this migration helps us get a mooring in Hope Town later this week (maybe Thursday).

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Our next blogpost will be "Marsh Harbor to Hope Town"...stay tuned...

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