Marsh Harbour, The Abacos

Hi All,

We kept waiting for the weather window and finally got one Friday night. We left off the east side of Great Harbour Cay about 4:30 pm and motored all night around the south end and then up the east coast of Great Abaco. It didn't take us as long as we thought so we got to the channel before sunrise. The North Bar Channel enters the Sea of Abaco about at the midpoint. The wind and swells were coming from the east and the tide was going out (moving west) so we hung out in the Atlantic doing circles for a couple of hours waiting for better conditions in the channel before entering.

About 9:00 am we entered the Sea of Abaco and meandered our way north. I say "meander" because a good portion of the Sea of Abaco is too shallow for us. Having already run aground more on this trip than I'd like, we took the long way to Marsh Harbour. We dropped anchor a bit after noon. After a quick bite to eat it was time for a nap.

I know I've said this before but we are still looking for something about overnight passages that we could label as fun. I don't think it exists. At least on this trip we did pass several cruise ships at night. When I'd see a floating city coming our way I'd check the AIS info on them. Some boat lengths are shown in feet, some are shown in meters. The cruise ships are shown in nautical miles. The Oasis of the Sea is .194 nautical miles long. In other words, get out of their way! Sail boats have the right of way on the water, but don't confuse that to mean they have to get out of our way. Tonnage wins.

Now we're in Marsh Harbour and will be staying here for a while. We'll be doing day trips and that to sail around but we'll call this our base through the end of the year at least. Today we went walking on shore and found they have a grocery store here that is unlike anything we've seen since we left the US. They have fresh produce, meats, a deli and a gluten free section. The ice cream aisle has Haagen Dazs, Bryers and Blue Bunny along with many others. Are you sure we're in the Bahamas?

The wind and rain is coming so I'll wrap this up for now. I PROMISE I'll try to take some pictures this week and post them.

Take care.

Brian