Green Turtle Cay to Marsh Harbor and Marsh Harbor Marina (26 – 29 January)

One can cruise almost the entire length of Abaco Island and stay in the Sea of Abaco, a well protected body of water with several passages to the Atlantic. Almost, that is. Over the centuries the Sea of Abaco has shoaled between an island known as Whale Cay and the mainland, forcing anyone passing between Green Turtle Cay and March Harbor through the infamous (voice drops an octave or two) Whale Cay Passage – Nyah ha ha ha! (Laugh resembling Vincent Price). Whale Cay Passage – or the Whale as we cognoscenti call it – is infamous for its “rages.” Apparently, the location of the various islands and the structure of the bottom, when combined with stormy conditions in the Atlantic, can create terrible sea conditions in and around Whale Cay Passage. During a rage, not one tries to pass through the Whale. And, while there are some other narrow passages south, you have to go through during high tide and proceed very carefully. My solution?? Don’t go if it is going to be bad.

Our trip through the Whale wasn’t too terrible. I guess that she wasn’t enraged -- upset, perhaps, highly miffedd, maybe -- but not enraged. Anyway, it seemed to be only 3 – 5 feet waves for only about an hour or so. After the Whale it was a pretty straightforward course down to Marsh Harbor.

Marsh Harbor Marina: The procing structure makes
it very attractive to stay long term.

We had decided to go to a marina for the first few days we were in Marsh Harbor so we could take on some fuel and water and generally let our various systems rest and refit (our human systems as well).  We had a 2008 Skipper Bob publication called “Bahamas Bound” that has some information on pricing at each of the five or so marinas in Marsh Harbor. Of course we did not know anything about any of the marinas, so I chose one that looked reasonably priced and could accommodate boats like ours – Marsh Harbor Marina. Although it is across the harbor from the town, I think I chose well. The prices are even less than they were in 2008 and the pricing structure is designed to lure you into staying more days. For example, the price of water is only $4 per day … with a minimum of $15. That means that your total water bill at the end of four days is almost the same as it is for one. The price-per-foot structure is similar: $1.05 per foot for the first day, $0.85 for days 2 – 6, then something else. We had initially intended to stay for two days. But given the price of a slip AND the fact that we heard there was supposed to be some unsettled weather moving in on Sunday, we decided to stay through Sunday night and leave on Monday. Well here it is on Sunday and so far today the weather is the calmest it has been all week. Weather forecasters are as bad here as they are in the Chesapeake!

We made a mistake when we arrived – we did not get our dinghy down first. Now we are stuck between a (very nice sailboat) on one side of us and a dock on the other; there is simply no way to get her down. Since town is on the other side of the harbor, we are kind of at other peoples’ mercy to get into town. Luckily our friend and boat buddy John, on Vulcan, can get to his dinghy and took us to town the day after we arrived.

If Fox Town was a working town and New Plymouth was more of a tourist town, Marsh Harbor is a commerce-based town. It is the third largest city in the Bahamas, behind Nassau and Freeport, with a total population of somewhere around 5000. It has a large anchorage that could easily handle sixty more than the 35 boats that are anchored or moored right now. It is kind of a “u”, with us on what appears to be the ritzy side of the harbor and the town on the other side. Marsh Harbor has an airport into which some (we hope a lot) of you will be flying, at least one huge grocery store (we heard of another one, but haven’t seen it yet) that is as big and as good as any Safeway or Giant stateside, several big hardware stores, telephone stores and even a KFC!!!! In short, it has all the stuff you might see in any town with a population of 5000 that is a commerce center for the local area.

THE stoplight in the Abacos. Marsh Harbor is the third
largest city in the Bahamas. Population ~ 5000

Ok, for those of you who are thinking about cruising into and around Marsh Harbor, let me pass on two pieces of advice. I had heard a lot about provisioning – everything from “take everything you think you will need” to “get only the specialty items you want, as you will be able to find everything else. “ Well, we know fall into the second school of thought as we think that, as long as you are around Marsh Harbor, you can get anything you need at a reasonable price. Since we have just browsed the shelves and have not done any serious grocery shopping, we are not sure about all the prices, but the stuff we saw looked competitively proved. Now, once you leave Marsh Harbor it is a different story. This is the only place we have seen with a stateside-like supermarket and if you are going to spend time in places like Fox Town and Green Turtle Cay, make sure you stock up – either in the States or here in March Harbor.

The second piece of advice concerns telephones. We learned that if we use our phone to call the States, for example, Verizon charges us $1.99, Batelco charges us something and there are taxes on top of that. In short, it would cost us about $4.00 per minute. Needless to say, we suspended our phone service when we left the States – we’ll get it back when we return. When we arrived in Marsh Harbor we looked into trading out sim chips, but we learned that most phones, both of ours included, are built to prevent that. So, we bought the least expensive phone they had at the little shop where we were ($65) and prepaid for $50 worth of minutes. It now costs us about $0.75 to call the States and ten cents for someone to call us (though we are not sure how much it costs them). We then called family members in the States and gave them our phone number. Our intent is to use the phone primarily for emergencies, locally when we need to, and once in a while when we get lonely for someone’s voice. Assuming we return to the Bahamas next year, we will already have the phone and will just need to keep some money on it until then.

Our plan is to use Marsh Harbor as a base, coming to anchor or grab a mooring ball most of the time and go to a marina about once a week to replenish. There are a number of places we still want to visit. Tomorrow we are planning to go to Grand Guana Cay. There is supposed to be a really cool beach there and, on the Atlantic side a neat little bar-restaurant called Nippers. I think we may go out for dinner for the first time since we arrived in the Bahamas at Nippers. Anyway, that is for the next version of the Blog.

Somebody, somewhere has a sense of humor.

ANN’S  NOTES:  The trip through the Whale was really no big deal after the six foot seas in the Atlantic while in Florida. Traveling Soul handles rough water rather well. The Marina in Marsh Harbour is nice…very friendly people …and all the water and electricity we want. I had a lot of washing to do…a woman’s  work is never done…I still have all the house/boat keeping to do. I still have not figured out how the boat can have so much dust … salt deposits  I understand…but dust? The grocery store in town is called Maxwell’s…it is no Wegman’s …but is a very well stocked store…prices on some items on the high side…since  they have to be flown in or barged in…the cost of transportation needs  to be passed on to the costumer. It is nice to know that it can be bought if need, Also because we have to carry everything we buy back to our boat on foot, it is a way of really just shopping your list. It a good distance from the public dinghy dock to Maxwell’s by foot…plus once I shop I have to carry everything back. The town of Marsh Harbour is a busy town, I enjoy walking into different stores and just looking around… We also walked to an art show at one of the other marinas…beautiful work…the colors they use in their painting and art work truly reflect the colors of the Bahamas…we didn’t buy any not art, but I did get some local BBQ sauce and homemade jam.