Marsh Harbour to Man-O-War - 2017

--Blogpost written by Bob

We took our propane tank into town by 9 AM (Monday, March 20) to get it refilled.  Knowing it will be back (and filled) by noon allows us to make the short trip to Man-O-War Cay this afternoon.

For many reasons it is very difficult to leave Marsh Harbour.  However, we will be coming back frequently as we use Marsh Harbour as our base of operation for the next 6 weeks or so while we are in the Abacos.

This is a beautiful house on the northwest point of the peninsula
extending out from Marsh Harbour.  Through the
little opening is Fanny Bay.

We pulled up anchor in Marsh Harbour at 12:15 PM and headed east toward Man-O-War Cay.  We arrived at Man -O-War Cay at 1:30 PM, an hour and 15 minutes later.

This is the entrance to the harbor.  A turn to port puts you in Man-O-War
Harbour while a turn to starboard puts you in East Harbour.
The entrance was probably 100 feet wide.

Man-O-War Cay has a 200-year history in boatbuilding and sailmaking.  It was settled by British loyalists back during the Revolutionary War and most current day inhabitants (except for some "snowbirds" who have homes on the island) can trace their ancestry back to the original settlers.  (The name Albury is very common here.)

This work shop along the harbor is a good example of the
industrious nature of the inhabitants of Man-O-War Cay.

There are two harbors:  Man-O-War Harbour (closest to town) and East Harbor.  We picked up a mooring ($20/night) in the Man-O-War harbor.  We expect to stay here 3 days but who knows--it may be a week, since we really have no time constraints.

The moorings in the harbor are very close together.  The 
water is so clear that you can see the mooring
anchor and fish swimming along.

We walked around the settlement and eventually to the beach on the ocean side.  The normal mode of transportation on the island is golf carts--so, the roads are very narrow.  Around the settlement, the roads are concrete construction but immediately outside the settlement, they are gravel roads.

This is the concrete road that we followed to the beach
on the other side of the island.

Here Maggie is testing the water.  It was chilly but beautiful
and there was not another soul on the beach.

I don't think you can take a bad photograph of the ocean here.

Most of the homes on Man-O-War are painted
bright colors and are well maintained.

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Tuesday, March 21, is our second day on Man-O-War Cay and the first day of spring.  As the sun rises over the mooring field the temperature is a cool 66 degrees.  The wind is out of the east at 8 knots--a very calm morning.  We are listening to the Abaco Cruiser's Net on channel 68 as we sit in the cockpit drinking our morning coffee.

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We've been having occasional "starting problems" with our relatively new Yamaha 10 HP outboard motor on our dinghy.  Most of the time, it starts on the first pull.  However, when it doesn't start on the first pull, it takes dozens of pulls (but it eventually starts).  We're thinking that we picked up some bad gasoline in Vero Beach (even though we were assured that it didn't contain ethanol, it may have contained some water), the only place we added gasoline.  It was added to only one of our two portable fuel tanks and we didn't keep track of which one.  (We remember experiencing the "starting problem" in Vero Beach.).  In addition to two 3-gallon portable fuel tanks, we carry 10 gallons of aviation gasoline that we got in Annapolis and we've only recently tapped into it.  I filled the mostly empty tank with the aviation gasoline and stored it on deck in Marsh Harbour.  This morning, I switched tanks to see if it makes a difference.  By the end of today, it started on the first pull all four times--this tank we labeled tank #2.  More on this later...

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We took a long dinghy ride around the northwest side of the island this morning.  Along the way, we saw many beautiful waterfront homes and stopped at Albury's Sail Loft on the way back.  Later we walked to a different section of beach on the ocean side of the island about half way up the island's length.

This waterfront home is just north of the harbor.

A couple waterfront homes on the calmer
Sea of Abaco side of the island.

This is a view of the harbor from Albury's Sail Loft.

We stopped at Albury's Sail Loft (which now makes canvas bags)
on our way back from our dinghy excursion.  We "parked"
the dinghy outside while we shopped and this is
the dinghy and its shadow under
the clear water in the harbor.

This photograph was taken along the beach
on the ocean side at mid-island. 

This photograph was taken from our boat on its
mooring while the sun was setting.

We're going to be here in Man-O-War Cay several more days.  There is a cold front with very high winds and possible rain predicted to move through the area on Thursday and Friday.  Stay tuned for more about our stay in Man-O-War Cay...

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