Marsh Harbour

Jan 12 thru Jan 14

--Blogpost written by Bob

The on and off again rain has continued here in Marsh Harbour.  This season's visit to Marsh Harbour reminds me of our sailing vacation in Bocas del Toro, Panama, a few years ago, at the start of their rainy season.

A rainy day image looking through our stern pulpit and
seeing other sailboats at anchor in Marsh Harbour.

A view from our cockpit as another band of rain
showers came through the anchorage.

This image shows the intensity of one
of the rain showers.

The sunset was nothing short of sensational.
But soon after, the rain returned.

The sun made a brief appearance just before sunset but the rain returned shortly thereafter.

Friday, January 12

This is the first morning in a while that we didn't wake up to overcast skies and rain!  There is still rain in the forecast for today but not an all-day soaker like we've had each of the last couple of days.  

We came to Marsh Harbour on December 28 and this is our sixteenth day anchored in the same spot in Marsh Harbour.  Today, we purchased showers at the Conch Inn, did some grocery shopping at Maxwell's, had lunch at the Blue Hole, purchased some Mahi-Mahi at Skagg's Market, and made our reservations for "steak out" at the Jib Room for tomorrow night. 

When I think about any memorable things that happened today, I recall us capturing someone’s runaway dinghy (it merely came floating by our boat but I had to chase it down with our dinghy) and a nice lunch we had at The Blue Hole (just a cheese burger and fries but it was delicious).  In addition, just being outside in the warm (though intermittent) sunshine was memorable.  I didn’t take a single photograph today.

Though rain threatened a couple times during the day, the rain didn’t really start until just before the sun was supposed to set. The dark rain clouds completely blocked the sunset. About 5:30 PM the wind picked up out of the south as the rain drops pelted our cabin top.

Saturday, January 13

Reginald Patterson is a naturalist here on Great Abaco.  He recorded over 5 inches of rain in the first half of the month of January while the normal rainfall is only 2 inches for the entire month.  I feel a (positive) change in the weather coming...

Great Abaco's only traffic light is located at the intersection
of Queen Elizabeth Drive and Don McKay Blvd.

The Island Bakery, known for its homemade Bahamian
bread is located on Don McKay Blvd.

Commercial fishing boat, m/v Leopard, is docked outside
Skagg's Market when not in fish catching mode.

A pretty little area near Skagg's Market.

Today turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day, sunny and in the 70's!  We went to "Steak Out" at the Jib Room of the Marsh Harbour Marina and watched the Philadelphia Eagles (my hometown being near Philadelphia) beat the Atlanta Falcons in their divisional playoff game but it was a very close game, even closer than the score of 15-10 would indicate.

Sunday, January 14

I've been reading the kindle version of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond and, while it is well written, it is depressing, at least for me.  I'm near the end of the (non-fiction) book but I had to stop reading it for a while.  The book caused me to feel unrooted and unproductive (even though I'm retired and it is my "unproductive" time of my life).  Reading this book while we really ARE "unrooted" and with the daily faux pas of our "very stable genius" (and completely unqualified) President, I am really feeling the need to do something positive for our country, as strange as it may sound but I don't yet know what.  

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The sky was completely overcast and it was
windy and cool all day Sunday,

We had lunch at watched an NFL divisional
playoff game at Snappa's.

The sun came out only briefly today and then the clouds returned.

Tomorrow morning (Monday, January 15) we've scheduled a 1/2-day nature tour of Great Abaco with Reginald Patterson.  I'm sure we will get a lot of good photographs to share.

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