Man-O-War Cay - 2017

Mar 22 & Mar 23

--Blogpost written by Bob

This blogpost is about our stay on Man-O-War Cay that has been extended due to a cold front coming through the Abacos.   Here in the Bahamas, the weather determines when and where you move among the cays.  It looks like we won't be moving until Sunday.

This photograph was taken of the mooring field
looking north in the calm morning.

Today is Wednesday, March 22, and it's another beautiful day in paradise!  We have to visit the bank today to get some more cash--everything is more expensive in paradise.  The bank here on Man-O-War is only open on Wednesday between 10 AM and 2 PM--4 hours a week.

The bank here on Man-O-War Cay is only open on Wednesday
between 10 AM and 2 PM.  I wonder if they have an
armored boat that brings in the cash?

We met an ex-pat resident at the grocery store this morning and she has a house right on the beach on the ocean side of the island.  She told me that there are 300 homes on the island, half owned by ex-pats and the other half by descendants of the original settlers.  She lives on the island all year except from June through November (hurricane season).

This tiny Methodist church dates back to 1912.  It looks like
it seats no more than two dozen people.

The shutters on the church are painted turquoise.  There
must be 105 years of paint on these shutters.

In the afternoon, we motored the dinghy to a perfect little cove with a beach on the northeast end of the island.  On the way out we saw a big black manta ray in relatively shallow water.  We snorkeled for a bit in the clear water with a beautiful sandy bottom but all we saw was a couple starfish.  

Dickie's Cay forms the west border of the harbor and blocks our 
view of the sunset at Man-O-Cay.  This ketch, named 
Flying Circus, appears to be permanently
moored here in the harbor.

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The wind has kicked up today, Thursday, March 23, and we have had a little rain on and off.  We rented a golf cart today ($40 per day) to explore Man-O-War Cay a little further.  We started off by going northward on Queen Street.

The ocean along the road to the north end of the
island had spectacular scenery.

This area is called "The Narrows."  The road was concrete at one time
but it has fallen into disrepair.  The Atlantic Ocean is on
the right and the Sea of Abaco on the left.

This is looking back on "The Narrows" after driving north.  I suppose
that this road could be difficult if the seas were rough.

We stopped to take this photograph on the way back from the north
end of the island.  This pier juts out into the Sea of Abaco.

Albury was a very common name on the tombstones in this
cemetery, but there were others.  All the tombstones
face east toward the ocean--or toward England 
(since they are British loyalists).

We had lunch today at the Dock & Dine restaurant and our waitress was very friendly.  We asked her what is was like living on such a small island.  Without thinking, she said it was "peaceful and safe."   We learned that the small high school on the island had only three graduates last year and it was closed down this school year--the kids now go to Marsh Harbour daily for school.

Trash is a real problem on a small island like this.  I believe it is
shipped to Marsh Harbor where it is taken to a landfill.

There are a lot of properties on the island that are for sale--most are on the ocean side of the island and owned by foreigners.  The family homes of the original settlers are mostly in town, along the harbor protected from the weather--they don't seem to care about the ocean views.  The foreigners, on the other hand, build their homes along the ocean (and most of them leave during the height of hurricane season, September and October.  This island was not affected by Hurricane Matthew like West End on Grand Bahama Island.  I didn't detect any fear of hurricanes among the people who we talked to that live here all year round.  It seems that the businesses close up during that time and people get to stay home from work.

This photograph was taken about 6 PM before the rain started.
You can see the palm trees around the Man-O-War
Marina blowing in the wind.

As the evening progressed, the wind was blowing between 15 and 20 knots with gusts up to 25 knots.  The boats were "sailing" wildly on their moorings, even though we were in a harbor and there were no waves to deal with.  We doubled up the lines through the loop in the mooring line just for added security during the night.

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We'll be making another blogpost from here on Man_O-War Cay.  Stay tuned...

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