Saturday, March 17, 2018

Green Turtle Cay to Marsh Harbour

Mar 16 & Mar 17

—Blogpost written by Bob


Friday, March 16



We left our mooring in Black Sound on Green Turtle Cay early this morning at 7:20 AM and went through the very benign conditions in the Whale Cay Passage about an hour thereafter. There were some long shallow swells coming in from the ocean but it was not at all rough. The wind was light and variable.


Whale Cay is uninhabited and there is a long shallow
sand bar on the Sea of Abaco side of the cay 

that prevents most boat’s from transiting 
through—most sailboat’s like ours have 
to go around the outside.


As we came into the Sea of Abaco through the Loggerhead Channel, we motored past Great Guana Cay on our port side (where there is a lot of ongoing development at Baker’s Bay) and little Foots Cay on our starboard (which is currently for sale for $16 million). We, then, passed the highly developed Scotland Cay before reaching Man-O-War Cay.

We arrived on Man-O-War Cay at 11:20 AM, 4 hours after leaving Green Turtle. While I was at the fuel dock topping off our primary diesel tank and all three fresh water tanks, Maggie was picking up the additional batik fabric she needed. (We spent $108 for 13 gallons of diesel fuel plus about 100 gallons of fresh water!)

As I was filling the water tanks at the fuel dock, Alex Schlegel (of Hartge Yacht Yard in Galesville MD) and his wife, Donna, came by in a rented motor boat—they are renting a cottage in Hope Town for a couple weeks. This is the second year in a row that I’ve seen Alex in the Abacos. (All the professional work done to my boat has always been done at Hartge’s Yacht Yard.)

We decided that since we got everything done that we came to Man-O-War Cay to do, we would go right back out the channel (while it was still mid-tide) and head to Marsh Harbour. We got to Marsh Harbour around 1 PM after having lunch underway. We still had internet access problems in Marsh Harbour—that’s when I figured out that we used all our 15 Gigabytes of data. (The BTC 15-Gigabyte “Limitless Plan” costs $35.)


Motoring through the Sea of Abaco
toward Marsh Harbour.


The water was so clear that we could see the shadow of
our most on the sandy bottom in 9 feet of water.


We picked up $400 in cash at an ATM in Marsh Harbour, the most we can withdraw per day. We’ll get another $400 before we leave. We also stopped by the BTC office and topped up our cell phone account. It was nice being at anchor in Marsh Harbour again.


Sailboats anchored in Marsh Harbor
at dusk on March 16.


Saturday, March 17



I slept like a baby last night! (Perhaps, it was due to the absence of roosters.)  We even slept in until about 8:30 AM.  There was no wind (there still isn’t any this morning) but the temperature was cool.  The sun is shining brightly here in Marsh Harbour this morning.



Marsh Harbor in early afternoon
on March 17.


We went out for lunch at Marsh Harbor Marina's Jib Room and while we were there a sailboat's bimini caught on fire.  The boat was a relatively new Beneteau 41.1 from West Palm Beach.  No one was aboard.  



About half of the bimini was burned up and a
lot of damage done in the cockpit.



The fire damage to the bimini as viewed
from the dock.  The white powder
was from fire extinguishers.


I documented what a saw in a separate blogpost, being published tomorrow.  A no-name controller was mounted in the cockpit and the wiring was NOT professionally done (one set of wires to the batteries were twisted together and covered with electrical tape, which should never be done on a boat!)  There was only one controller which served four identical 100-watt solar panels.  It appeared that the voltage controller was either faulty, undersized, or shorted out under excessive load, but the fire started at the interface between one of the flexible solar panels and the bimini.  About eight people were involved in extinguishing the blaze and fortunately it was caught early or the entire boat could have been destroyed.


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Some tiny fabric scraps from the quilt
that Maggie is making.


Stay tuned for more of our adventures...


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