The Joys of Marsh Harbour

Before we left Man O War on Tuesday we decided to do our laundry at the marina. Generally marinas won't let you do laundry unless you are tied up there; however we did say that we had been on a mooring ball for three nights that cost us $17.00 a night. The machines have a hard life and only one out of two was operational and it was acary to watch as soap suds came out the bottom of the door. At $5.00 a wash and $5.00 a dry you hope that the machine makes it through the cycle. We picked up some diesel for our jugs while we were ashore as well.

Marsh Harbour is not busy and there are fewer boats around. Perhaps it is just earlier in the season and the cruisers are still on their way? The provisioning has gone well but we have had a couple of very tiring days. We have spent about $1,500.00 dollars at the two grocery stores and the liquor store; however that allows us to cruise for over three months with spending very little on food, liquor and fuel. Just think about what you spend at home week to week and it comes into perspective. Celebrian is full to the brim and more; however we always marvel at what she can stow away. The bilge has swallowed four cases of Guinness, two cases of Kalik and a couple of cases of juice. The forward bilge has many other assorted things including a dozen grapefruit. Our little fridge and freezer is full to the brim and it is quite an ordeal to find anything. In fact the captain won't go near it for a couple of weeks. One just has to have patience when looking for anything. We store our canned and bottle goods on the port side and our dry goods on the starboard side under the settees. Just picture removing the cushions of your livingroom sofa to search for your spaghetti dinner?

We have just finished listening to Chris Parker's early morning 6:30 am forecast and it sounds like we may be able to sail to Eleuthera tomorrow. This morning we will have to install our new starting battery, fix one more leak on Sir Anthony the Third and finish stowing the provisions. We will have to sail to Lynyard this afternoon in order to be in place to leave at dawn for Eleuthera. Lynyard is about a 3 hour sail from Marsh and we have to leave from there in order to get to Eleuthera in the day light and get safely anchored at Royal Island. From there we may be able to sail to the Exumas on Sunday or Monday. It looks like we will be spending new Years in a quiet harbour in Eleuthera afterall.

Man O War Memories

Man O war Cay is a small boat building settlement primarily of white Bahamians. The Albury name is well known all over the Bahamas for their well built boats. The people here are very religious and the per capita number of gospel halls and churches is quite high. Interesting enough Man O War, similar to Spanish Wells in Eleuthera is a dry community. The beach is quite nice; however not appealing in the temperatures we were having.

I had to include a picture of the captain in his upside down position...actually a boat skill. I often marvel at how Rob can work in cramped small places with little room to maneuver but I now know that it is his many years of working on Celebrian. If you have been following our blog you will have read the definition of cruising; however it is worth repeating..."Cruising is fixing things in exotic places." You will also know that my captain keeps everything both at home and on the boat. This picture shows his hose collection. Truth be known being well prepared and self sufficient is the only way to survive cruising.

Today is Monday Dec. 27th and we are trying to stay warm. Today's high is only 61 degrees/ about 20 degrees celcius....and not very Bahama like. The wind is still howling; however the sun is shining so we are hoping to take Goldberry into shore and go for a walk out of the wind, if that is possible. We are charging the batteries with the engine right now so we are getting a little warmth from the engine running and starting to thaw out. The captain is reading in the cockpit. He is trying to stay warm behind the enclosure which is a god send on a day like today. I have been reading below under a warm comforter. We definitely need to go further south and can only hope that the Exumas are warmer this winter than last.
Tomorrow the weather will let us return to Marsh Harbour to do our chores...new battery, fill two propane tanks, provisioning and a few other tasks and we are good to go. With any luck we should be able to get to Lynyard Cay and staged for the passage to Eleuthera by Thursday.

Man O War Christmas

Today is Christmas Eve day and we have just motored over to Man O War to spend the evening and Christmas day. We have the anchorage all to ourselves and it is a nice quiet spot. The temperature is cool but it has been a mostly sunny day.
Our luck seems to be a little shaky these days as we began the day with Mr. Yan not wanting to start. It would seem that our Surette starting battery is on its last sea legs and we are going to have to purchase a new one. Our batteries are only four years old; however they have had a busy and hard life. One thing you can not do without is the confidence that your motor will start when you turn the key. We always leave Celebrian's key in the ignition because you never know when you might have an emergency and have to move in a hurry.

Rob moved the contacts to one of our running battery banks and we started the engine. Our next challenge was to run the water maker to see if there are any leaks and of course we have leaks...gratefully fresh water ones. We have to run the water maker for an hour initially to make sure all of the pickling solution is out of it. Obviously this can not be done until the poison is out of the equipment and filters. We have emptied the berth once again and Rob is trying to fix the leaks. This morning he was upside down over the engine and this afternoon he is upside down in the pullman berth. This work he is doing while still fighting his miserable cold. He is using his cortisone inhaler to try to settle his cough. We are feeling a bit frustrated by all of the things that have been going wrong; however better that we have these things happen now when we are closer to a town where we can buy what we need. Marsh Harbour may not be our favourite place to anchor; however it is a good spot to provision and get boat parts. Speaking of provisioning we scouted out the new Maxwell's and it is like going into a big city supermarket anywhere. The old store burned down a couple of years ago and they have replaced it with a wonderful new store so we will have no problems getting anything we want and more. We will also go to Save A Lot which is the local Costco type bulk store for our staple supplies but what a bonus having such a great store here. The days of saying that you can't get fresh produce in The Bahamas are over. That being said...where we are heading it will be true so we might as well live it up while we are here. Tonight we are cooking a 4 pound turkey breast on the BBQ complete with stuffing and other goodies. Tomorrow we may row into town and join the community in a festive breakfast. Of course we have to see what Santa brings us first.

The first year we brought the boat to The Bahamas we had a very unique Christmas day by crossing the Gulf stream from Florida to the Bahama banks. Our second year we had a very memorable Christmas with Lynn and Peter on First Edition. Last year we were at home and spent a lovely day with Brian and Gayle. This year we will celebrate at Man O War and make new memories.

Santa managed to find us on Celebrian and both of us felt a little spoiled after opening our gifts. Rob didn't feel up to going to the breakfast so we had a quiet morning on board. He says that he is feeling better; however once his cough disappears we will both be getting more rest. By the afternoon he felt a little better so we went for a kayak into Man O War harbour to see if there were any available moorings. Luckily there were still moorings available so we decided that the safest place to go for this next front was into the harbour and to take a mooring. Today is Boxing day and we are grateful to be on the mooring as we have had 35 mph winds with higher gusts in thunderstorms for most of the day. Despite being on the mooring we are getting a good rock and roll motion too. Rob is in his usual position....this time upside down replacing Celebrian's anchor locker hose. This hose is one of the last original hoses on the boat and since a broken hose can mean leaks it is important to replace them before you have a problem. The heat in The Bahamas over the summer is hard on everything so we have to be particularly diligent looking after things...particularly the things that you can't always see but can sink you. I have been spending the time going through our food storage and continuing to organize our major provisioning list for next week. Since we are planning on staying in The Bahamas this year we have a good feel for what we will need over the next four months. For the most part we load up with staples that are either hard to find in the out islands or cost three times as much as here in The Abacos. For instance we just bought seven grapefruit for $5.99 at Save A Lot but those same grapefruit will be $2.00 or more a piece in The Exumas. In the smaller settlements we try to buy fresh fruit and veggies when we can but if all else fails we have our canned fruit and bean salads etc. to get us through.