Our Voyage South: February 2014

Friday 28 February 2014

February 23, 2014

We once again have returned to Marsh Harbour to restock. One of the things that Dave wanted was varnish for the boat and none of the stores in the downtown area had it in stock. It was suggested that we try the boat yard on the far side of harbour, just a five minute walk. After fifteen minutes of walking and not getting anywhere close to the boatyard, we stopped and asked at Wonderland Garden Nursery for directions and met Andree Albury, the owner, who gave us a ride in his truck to the boat yard, only to find they didn’t have any either. When we returned to the Nursery, we asked if we could have a tour of his Nursery. From the front of the building it didn’t look like much but when you walked through to the back, he had created a yard that held all the plants and trees that would grow in the Bahamas. It was amazing and we left with a bunch of different samples that he gave us from the unique plants he had growing in his backyard.

Barometer Bob (the website for weather in the Abaco’s) is calling for a big storm in the next couple days with gale force winds so we are staying put in Marsh harbour for a few days waiting it out. So we were spending time walking through stores for something to do and went into Dive Abaco, the local dive shop. The owner asked where we were from, we said Ontario, he asked where in Ontario and we told him Port Elgin. He told us that he really enjoyed staying at the Port Elgin Motor Inn when he used to come up the Bruce. Keith the owner, used to work for Ontario Hydro before he quit to buy his dive business in Marsh Harbour and he knew a few people that Dave did at Hydro. Small world...

We had been looking for someplace to get my hair cut and found Najah’s Salon and Spa. Novia did a lot better job then Dave had at the Barber shop!

Every evening at sunset all the people who have a Conch shell, blow them. A new boat has come into the harbour this afternoon from Ottawa and he played the bagpipes at sunset. I don’t know from the shouts if it was appreciated by the conch blowers but it did sound like harbours back home.

The storm hit us the next afternoon right when Barometer Bob said it would with 40 knots of wind and just a solid wall of water. Thankfully it didn’t last long and none of the boats near us, including us, had their anchors drag. During the storm it would have been impossible to have reset a dragging anchor if they had dragged.

We left the next morning to go to Treasure Cay and about half way there, the Dock master came on the VHF radio and announced that for Valentines Day they were offering a free night’s dockage. We took it plus another night. Laundry was on our to-do list so we went to a small laundry mat at the resort. The lady-owner had a hand written sign posted saying that they had fish for sale. Dave asked her about it and we ended up with a meal of Grouper and 5 lobster tails for $16.

While we were at Treasure, we took the dinghy up a shallow long bay and then got out and hung off a rope on each side of the dinghy, with our masks and snorkels, drifting with the tide towards the outlet of the bay. Our friend suggested this and we saw a bunch of fish and also got a sea urchin. Shortly after we got back in the dinghy, we saw a Nurse Shark and a turtle. Was a fun afternoon.

The following morning we left Treasure Cay and sailed south to Tilloo Cay and anchored for the night. We had heard there was a nature preserve on the Atlantic side for nesting sea birds on this Cay. The person from the Bahamas National Trust, that we had spoken to, told us that there was a dock, in a small bay called Tilloo Pond that would allow us access to the preserve. The following morning we dinghied over and found the dock, but could find no path from the dock to the Atlantic side. If there was a path, it was overgrown. We followed the shoreline with the dinghy looking for another possible access point and didn’t find one. We did find 5 or 6 sea turtles in this area.

We returned to ‘Time 2 Go’ and loaded the dinghy on the back and started south again. Lynyard Cay is the last Cay in the Abaco chain of keys that people go to wait for the weather to go the the Exumas. It is uninhabited and we were told that it was a really quiet anchorage with nice beaches. So that’s where we were headed for some quiet walks on the beach. We had no trouble finding the anchorage as there had to over 20 boats already there. The beaches on the Atlantic side were all on top of rock ledges good beach combing but not good for swimming. The thing that made our time specially here was we were invited to watch the sun go down at a bonfire on the beach and to enjoy munches and sundowners with a bunch of the other boaters.

We started north the next morning not sure where we going to stop for the day, Tahiti Beach or Hope Town. When we got near to Tahiti Beach, we saw that the anchorage was really crowded so we decided to go on a few miles to Hope Town. There was a few things that we didn’t do on our first visit that we hoped to do before we had to head home. One was to climb to the top of the lighthouse and check out the view. It was spectacular and we got a lot of good pictures. The following afternoon a couple we met from Owen Sound, Ben and Jane Eckensweiler, dinghied over and invited us to a Songwriters Festival that evening. These songwriters were the folks who wrote songs for the big name Country and Western stars and they performed and talked about the songs that they had written. Dave met a young lady at the bar who was from Tiverton, Ontario and her parents lived in Kincardine. Small world...

The next two nights the annual Junkanoo was scheduled to take place in Marsh Harbour, so that’s where we headed. The first evening was the junior Junkanoo, this included 16 groups from schools around the Abacos. The Bahamians treat Junkanoo competitions similar to what we in Canada treat kids’ hockey. They get very involved. Each group had a theme and the costumes of all the members of the group were made to represent that theme. The kids were from kindergarten age to high school. They were being judged on many different things. The little ones were really cute to watch as they tried to perform the dance routines that the older kids did.

We had planned on going to the senior Junkanoo the following night but found out it wasn’t scheduled to start until 9 pm. and thought it would be too late a night, by the time we would get back to the boat. The next day we heard it didn’t get started until 10 pm. and with only 2 groups, it was after 1 am. before it was done.

Just outside of Marsh Harbour there is a small reef called Mermaid Reef, that we had been hearing about. So we loaded our masks and snorkels into the dinghy and went to check it out. The Reef was loaded with all different colours of fish that would swim right up to you, because people had been feeding them. It was fun swimming with the fish and we got some really great pictures. It was awesome!

Atlantic ocean beach on Lynyard Cay

Sundowner party on beach at Lynyard Cay

Hope Town Lighthouse

View from the top of Hope Town Lighthouse

Abaco Junior Junkanoo

Fish at Mermaid Reef, Marsh Harbour

Anne and friends at Mermaid Reef

Tuesday 11 February 2014

February 9, 2014

This is January 27th and the first time that it has been warm enough for us to go swimming in the ocean, since leaving home! We had a great day snorkeling and collecting sea glass. Tuesday morning while we were listening to the Cruisers Net on the VHF radio, we heard our friends on ‘Silver Maple’ had arrived in the Abacos, so we called them and found out their plans. We wanted to go to Hope Town after we left Tahiti Beach. It is located about 2 miles north but has very shallow water between us and the harbour, so we had planned to leave in the middle of the afternoon and catch the rising tide. Not long before we left, a couple from ‘Diva’ dinghied over to our boat. They had seen our Royal Marsh Harbour Yacht Club burgee and Ben is the membership director for the club, so he and Margaret came over to introduce themselves. We had a nice visit and they asked what news we had from our friends, Vic and Wendy.

We made the short trip down to Hope Town in 7 to 8 feet of water on a rising tide. The instructions for entering Hope Town Harbour are very interesting. You must locate the range markers by finding the double Adirondack chairs and they are to the left of it. You then go straight in on these markers until you come to the first red marker (post with a red mark on it) and turn a sharp 90 to the right and follow the channel markers in to the harbour. Once you are in the harbour you have to find a mooring ball but the first red one that you see when you enter, is not a mooring ball, but the edge of a shoal. We finally found a mooring ball and tied up.

The next morning we set out to explore the village of Hope Town and it’s shops. One of the first things we noticed was all the multicolored buildings in the village were well taken care of and the streets were very narrow (barely golf cart width). We visited some of the gift shops and other stores and restaurants. One of the more interesting shops was Vernon’s Grocery. Vernon is also the baker, the minister, the Justice of the Peace, and a member of the town council, besides for the grocery store owner.

Another one of the attractions at Hope Town is the red and white striped lighthouse. It is one of the last kerosene powered lights in the world and in the evening, after dark, you can watch as the lighthouse keeper lights the light. We didn’t have time, this trip, to climb the lighthouse. We’ll have to try on our next visit.

We decided to return to Marsh Harbour the following morning and go to a marina to get caught up on things (laundry, internet, showers and get water). We also hoped to get a visit with our friends on ‘Silver Maple’ who were staying at the Marsh Harbour Marina. We had a nice visit with them on their boat in the afternoon. We spent the next day finishing up our jobs, one of which was Dave getting a haircut, the shortest since he stopped going to Walter’s Barber Shop in Thorold South with his Dad.

One of the nice things about sailing and exploring the Abacos is the closeness of all our destinations. So the following morning we were able to walk to a flea market, get some groceries, go to the hardware store and still have a nice sail to Guana Cay before supper.

The next morning we dinghied to shore to explore Guana Cay. There were 2 things that we really wanted to see. The first was a bar called ‘Nippers’, which is located on a beautiful beach on the Atlantic Ocean side of the island. One of the things they’re famous for is the ‘Barefoot Man’ concert that is held in the middle of March. He sings many songs about Nippers in his concerts. One of his other songs is called ‘Log Cabins by the Sea’. This was the other reason we had come to Guana. These log cabins are located directly beside Nippers and the special thing about them is, that they were built by our neighbour, on the 12th of Bruce, Andrew Hill. They share the same beautiful Atlantic Beach and have very easy access to Nippers next door. As we were leaving, a local stopped and gave us a ride on his golf cart, back to the other restaurant ‘Grabbers’, on the Sea of Abaco side of the island. We decided to have lunch here, a far quieter location with a really good Wahoo and Tropical Salad. I asked if I could use the washroom and the waitress said she’d have to check with her manager. We thought this was a little strange. Some other people overheard this exchange and said they thought she was thinking, I wanted to do my laundry, which was the case. I guess the lesson learned, is that it is referred to as the ‘bathroom’ in the Bahamas.

We decided to spend another day here visiting the beach and looking around the harbour area before returning to Marsh Harbour for a pasta dinner being put on by the Royal Marsh Harbour Yacht Club the next night. This group really likes to have social events, the afternoon started with a short annual general meeting, followed by wine and cheese, which was followed by a beautiful dinner and $2.00 cocktails. One of the members who lives on the island gave us a ride back to our dinghy, thankfully.

We left Marsh Harbour the next morning and sailed to Man-O-War Cay. Each community we have explored so far has a totally different feel from the others, while only being a couple of hours away from each other by sailboat. The settlement on Man-O-War Cay is no exception. It is a dry island (no alcohol for sale) with the main employment being the building of boats, they are known for their runabouts in the 20 to 30 foot range. They really seem suited for the waters here whether Atlantic ocean fishing or just going fast across the Sea of Abaco. There wasn’t a lot for us to see on this Cay and we decided to leave the next morning.

We had planned on returning to Marsh Harbour to restock, but neither of us was ready for another crowded anchorage. Instead we headed south past Elbow Cay and Tahiti Beach to Tilloo Cay. The charts show 3 anchorages along the western shore of this Cay. The northern most one is in front of a bunch of homes, the southern most one has a beautiful beach, but no wind protection. We chose the middle one, it had no beach, but also no homes, but was protected. We had most of 2 days to ourselves to swim, snorkel and explore the shoreline with the dinghy. It was fun and relaxing.

Next day we came back to Marsh Harbour for supplies and a plan where we’re going next.