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Cruise
DAY 11, Tuesday June 17th
We
left Spanish Cay at 12:00 Noon and headed off to Marsh Harbour on
Great Abaco Island. Seas were pretty good at 2' - 3' and we
managed to stay out of the nasty weather that was looming over
Great Abaco Island and ran along side the storms. There are lots
of little islands everywhere - most no bigger than a City block
and some even smaller…which would make them "rocks" I
believe. About 15 miles from Marsh Harbour we noticed we were very
low on gas, which was not a good thing and although there were
Marinas around, would we make it to one? We arrived at Orchid Bay
Marina on Great Guana Cay and gassed up to the tune of $731.31! I
guess this is where a sailboat wouldn't be so bad (right Jackie?)
We actually had a great run here and arrived at Marsh Harbour
at 4:20 pm. It was a little tricky docking as we were assigned
a slip that was stuck very close to a corner and there was a
monster yacht in front of us. However, as per usual, Captain Bear
did a great job of squeezing us in there. The dock master here
also knew what he was doing which makes life much easier on all of
us (most of all me). Bonus - they have cable and phone here (but
no internet access), great facilities too! Looks like we made it
in here in the nick of time once again because as soon as we were
docked and hooked up, the wind out there really started to kick
up. They have "boys" that go around to the boats that
just pulled in and ask if they need their boats washed down and we
said we could probably handle ours seeing as ours looked like a
dingy in this place! We are on the "other side" of the
Marina away from where the pool, bar and restaurant are located
which is great because Salty can be off leash here too! We were
just a couple of yards from the open water where they had a huge
Tiki Hut that juts out over the water and crashing waves - very
nice! Looking around, there must be hundreds of
"MILLIONS" of dollars worth of fiberglass in here - huge
yachts and luxury fishing boats. We heard there was a guy in the
Rolex International Billfish tournament who owned three Sport
fishing yachts - one was a 90' the he was running and the two
smaller ones were 70' and 60' which he had others captain for him….
3 boats worth $20 Million - oh my! Yes, we are the dingy but never
mind, we are comfortable and we even discovered that our shower on
the boat is better than most of the showers in the Marinas we've
stayed in - at least it's air conditioned! We went to Mango's for
dinner "in town" and it was awesome (usually the case)
and even though we said we wouldn't, we had Grouper AGAIN. Salty
is quickly becoming a fish eater with leftovers in the morning you
know.
Marina
Days 12, 13 & 14, June 18 - 20
Barry
went off in the morning and came back with a rented Scooter he
likes to refer to as "The Harley" (Becky and Paul would
be proud!). It's great to get around town (if you remember which
side of the road to drive on) as well as, around the Marina too.
We hopped on "The Harley" and off we went to lunch at a
different Marina's restaurant - Snappa's for more great food
again. It's a little bumpy on the ole back but have another Pina
Colada and maybe I'll be fine! We came back to the boat and
relaxed with a cocktail at the Tiki Hut with Salty, listening to
the waves and reading a book….tough life indeed. Another
wonderful meal (steak this time) at the Marina's Restaurant -
Angler's - Salty will be a happy boy tomorrow morning! We decided
to tour around Marsh Harbour on "The Harley" on Day
13, June 19th with our first stop being the Internet Café to
check email and see what's going on back at the office. Next stop
is the Hardware store (exciting) to get a couple of things, then
drop off and pick up a disk so I could email this epistle (so far)
to a few people, then down the road to a Bahamian Restaurant named
Mackerels where we had curried chicken, peas and rice, fried
plantains and Kalik (beer) - very Bahamian and very tasty. We left
there and went to the Beach and Pool Bar at our own Marina and
then back to the boat and Salty dog to pour yet another drink and
wander over to the Tiki Hut to watch the Tournament boats roll in
from their Billfish hunting - awesome site - I counted 30 all in a
row. Day 14, June 20th we were going to head out today, but
the Captain just wasn't in the "mind set" so guess it'll
be another lazy day! Although I have to say that I've spent most
of the morning downloading, reviewing and re-naming pictures and
updating text AND Barry went into the Internet Café to check on
emails so I guess we deserve it after all that strenuous work, but
only after I do the laundry. We decided to jump on "The
Harley" to catch the Ferry to Hope Town in the afternoon,
which is about a 20-minute ride over to the little village. There
are several different Cays on the way where the Ferry stops and
either picks people up or drops people off. Hope Town is a quaint
little fishing village with cottage-like houses nestled in among
the palm trees all along the shoreline with docks everywhere and
boats moored out in the bay who just anchor out there and use
their dingy to get into town. After being in the Bahamas for a
couple of days, we finally tried the conch fritters (just needed
to try them) at the Harbourside Restaurant, so now we can say
"been there, done that, won't do it again". After having
lunch and watching the local fishermen drop off the catch of the
day at the restaurant we then headed back on the Ferry to go out
for another great dinner at a little Marina where they had a very
talented singer wailing away on a few Bonnie Raitte tunes.
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