Marsh Harbour

Jan 2 thru Jan 4

--Blogpost written by Bob

Tuesday, January 2

The weather here is Marsh Harbour is taking a real turn with a cold front coming in for a couple days.  The cold front is expected to bring rain and high winds.

The clouds started to come in last night.

The high winds and rain started 
early this morning.

At one point this morning I checked the wind speed and gusts were up to 23 knots.  We have very good holding for our anchor and relatively good protection from the high wind out of the northeast.  I put the side windows up to keep the cockpit dry during the driving rain.

This image shows the starboard side window in place.  I'm
so glad that we brought all the side windows
with us this season!

Even with the overcast skies, our solar panels produced between 1 and 4 amps all day long.   As it got dark, the wind picked up to 28 knots, as registered on our wind instrument. I wasn’t even able to get off the boat today because of the high wind. I hope it calms down a little tomorrow.

Analysis of Our First 67 Nights of This Season

          Anchor - 29 (43%)

          Moorings - 21 (31%)

          Slips - 16 (24%) (4 were due to our broken transmission cable)

          Free dockage - 1 (2%)

Analysis of Our First 67 Days of This Season

          Days spent traveling - 34 (51%)
          Days spent stationary - 33 (49%)

10 Facts About Marsh Harbour and the Abacos

(1) Great Abaco is the second largest of 30 inhabited Bahamian islands.  (Andros is the largest Bahamian island.)

(2) The Bahamian parrot resides in the pine forests on southern end of Great Abaco Island.

(3) Marsh Harbour, on Great Abaco, is the third largest city in the Bahamas. (Nassau, on New Providence Island, is the largest and Freeport, on Grand Bahama Island, is the second largest.)

(4) The population of Marsh Harbour (5,314 in 2008) represents less than 2% of the total population of the Bahamas (307,451 in 2008).

(5) There is only one traffic light in the Abacos--it is located in Marsh Harbour.

(6) The point of highest elevation in the Abacos (Pidgeon Hill) is 134 feet above sea level—it is located about 10 miles west of Marsh Harbour.

(7) In the Abacos, most rainfall occurs between May 1 and October 31.  (June is the wettest month but it has been surprisingly wet this month so far.)

(8) Nassau groupers, found in many reefs in the Abacos, spawn during a full moon in December or January when the water is coolest. (Last night was full moon!)

(9) There were 21 shark attacks in the Abacos between 1958 and 2016 (58 years) and only 3 were fatal. (Sixteen of the 21 occurred while spear fishing.)

(10) There are at least four blue holes on Great Abaco: Sawmill Sink, Sheep Farm/Coconut Farm, North of Marsh Harbour, and Treasure Cay Airport.  (Many blue holes are connected in a system of underground caves.  In the Abaco blue holes, a thin layer of fresh water lies on top of a denser layer of salt water.)

Wednesday, January 3

I woke up to a driving rainstorm on January 3.  It was raining off and on throughout the night, coupled with high winds.  (I hope the wind calms down today.)

Now wait a minute, this isn't paradise!  That was my thought
as I emerged from the cabin this morning.

In fact, there is nothing nice about this,
except the temperature!

The rain stopped at 9:30 AM.  This view is looking north toward
Marsh Harbour Marina.  The large catamaran on the left
side of this image is s/v Shearwater out of Annapolis.

The sun came out during mid-morning and I used the break in the weather to run the dinghy in to the Conch Inn & Marina for a bag of ice cubes. By noon the wind picked back up to 15 knots with gusts to 25 knots and it was from the southwest—180 degrees from the wind this morning.  I adjusted our anchor bridle so that the chafe protection contacted the bow chocks at a different spot.

The black 3-strand line is our anchor bridle.  The white
canvas covers where the line goes through
the chocks are for chafe protection.

At about 3 PM, another cold front moved in from the west—it brought wind up to 25 knots and driving rain.  We had 2 to 3 foot seas here in the protected harbor.  It was pretty wild!

It is worth noting that we have shared an anchorage (in West Palm Beach and here in Marsh Harbour) with s/v Elements of Life.  While we haven't met them (yet), Matt & Jessica are sailing blog rockstars. You can view their blog here.

Thursday, January 4

It is almost 8 AM and I’m still in the v-berth (writing this blogpost on my iPad). Last night was a rough night for sleeping, with the gusty winds near 30 knots from the west (the direction from which we have the least protection). The sun is now coming through the companionway and the wind has died down to about 15 knots. There is a chill in the air (the outside temperature was in the high 50's) and I really don’t want to leave my nice warm berth yet, but it is time to get up.

I am glad the dinghy is still attached after 
the 30 knots of wind last night!

Sliding into a pair of jeans (for the first time since arriving in the Bahamas!) and a t-shirt, I started the coffee water and, then, started the engine (mainly for hot water for the dishes). I turned turned on the VHF radio and the instruments. The wind instrument was reading 17 knots and it seemed relatively calm compared to last night.  I listened to the Cruiser's Net while drinking my coffee. You can hear an example of the audio of the Cruiser's Net--this audio file is the entire net from Wednesday. (In the event that the audio file cannot be heard, you can go to BarometerBob.org and click on Recorded Audio in the page heading.)

I am so glad that the sun is shining again! This is a
commercial area of Marsh Harbour where a 
commercial fishing boat is docked.

I'm wrapping up this blogpost for now...more on Marsh Harbour in our next blogpost.

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