Marsh Harbor - Points South

The Family on the Eastern Beach of Green Turtle Cay

Well our luck and the weather seems to have changed and we are about to embark later today to the Atlantic and head south to Nassau.

Wednesday evening we were about to give up the Stabilizer Challenge and turn tail for Fort Lauderdale where we could have them repaired.  We were even plotting courses, getting weather reports and calculating transit times.  Thursday, though, proved much more fruitful.  Thanks to the wonderful telephone and e-mail assistance from Jim Monroe at Yacht Equipment & Parts in Ft. Lauderdale we were able to diagnose and fix the problems with them and they now work!

Exploring Green Turtle Cay and the village of New Plymouth

Green Turtle Cay's Police Vehicle

The DeJong Family, aboard Growing Together, 

from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada

We celebrated with an evening with our friends aboard Growing Together; David, Kate, and their 4 children, walking the beaches and drinking Rum "Lizards" at the Lizard Club, Green Turtle Yacht Club.  That evening we hosted our first dinner  party aboard, followed by a movie and delicious chocolate brownies.  We all slept very well that night.




Friday, with seas still on the dicey side we spent the day cleaning the boat, packing things away securely for our next journey and entering waypoints into the chartplotter system.  That evening, after another day walking the beaches and exploring with our friends, we all walked into town and enjoyed the fare at "Two Shorties" a small take-out place favored by the locals.  I enjoyed very much my first experience with Conch Fritters.  Of course, the kids all had hamburgers - so much for their adventurous spirits!

Our First Dinner Party

The rest of the dinner guests

Saturday morning we were up with the sun, 'topping off' our water tanks (300 gallons at 20 cents per gallon).  Considering that we had last taken on water in West End, we didn't think that was too bad for a family of 5. By 9AM we were pulling away from the dock and heading south for the dreaded "Whale."










Crossing the Whale, in this case, was anticlimactic.  Other than the two foot slow rollers coming in from the Atlantic, the Sea of Abaco was flat calm and the crossing uneventful.  By 1 PM we were slowly puttering about in the somewhat crowded anchorage of Marsh Harbor looking for a suitable place to set our hook for the night.  We were soon dingy-ing our way into the small dingy dock provided by the community and walking the 3/4 mile to the large grocery store.  $300 later, loaded with far more than we could carry back to the boat, we found a friendly local cab waiting at the curb outside the store for us and took the short cab ride back to the dock.  Our cabbie was very friendly, and even helped us carry the groceries down to the dingy. Two trips to the boat and a quick walk the the liquor store next door to the dock, had us loaded up for the trip ahead.  By the way; we found American beer and all wines more expensive here, but bottled liquor was far cheaper than we've seen in the states.  Of course we had to get a bottle of coconut rum so we could make our own umbrella drinks later.

Alex working on peeling his coconut

Happy 16th Birthday Raylynn!  What a huge birthday cake.

Saturday afternoon in the hot sun Team Arrluk hoisted up and secured he dingy on the aft deck.  While a lot of physical work with ropes and the hand-cranked windlass, we quickly got her secured and covered for the upcoming ocean crossing.  The team is getting better with experience.





Saturday night we celebrated Raylynn's 16th birthday with a "huge" chocolate cake and and off-tune "Happy birthday to You."  She seemed happy with her single gift of a Green Turtle Key T-shirt, but reminded us we would be hosting a real party, with real friends, sometime in the future.








So, Sunday morning finds us catching up on the blog and securing items in the boat while we wait for the tide to rise and timing to be right for departure.  We will be leaving the Sea of Abaco by the North Man of War Cut and once off the coast a ways setting a straight course for Nassau.  The voyage will take us about 18 hours.  While weather and seas are forecast favorably, we don't want to repeat our experience of arriving at West End, well before sunrise, with bad sea conditions   We are timing the trip to arrive in Nassau just after sunrise, a very slow, fuel-efficient, cruise throughout the evening.

To all our family and friends, have a great week!