Marsh Harbour, The Abacos
Nimue
Tue 24 May 2011 17:33
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Once the thunderstorms had cleared, we sailed into the Abacos
Sea though the Man of War cut. A further hour’s sail to Marsh Harbour
where depths were shallow, but we managed to anchor with 0.3m under the keel,
with a further 2.5 hours before low water. With Chart Datum at 2.0m
and Nimue drawing 2.1m we were ‘winging’ it slightly and knew we would
touch the seabed at low water. However, we hadn’t counted on the spring
tides with a minus range and at low water we were sitting firmly in the mud,
whilst everyone around us was swinging nicely! Later we moved to find
slightly deeper water in time for the next low water!
Otherwise, it was a safe anchorage and on a trip ashore we saw
our first sign of civilisation for weeks. Even a trip into the local hardware
‘come everything’ store was a real luxury and Chris and I were picking things up
like ‘kids in a sweetie’ shop.
Marsh Harbour was a great place and we managed to find
everything we needed to re-supply the boats.
Nimue anchored in Marsh Harbour
One of the nicely decorated fuel docks Crunch time, we were now in an official port of entry and
anchored right outside the customs office! As we were intending to stay
for a week, Chris and I convinced the boys that we really should ‘check in’ to
avoid having any issues with Customs. We did manage to clear through
immigration on foot, but had to move the boats to a typical dilapidated
working dock to clear through Customs. We were met by some friendly Customs
officials and Chris and I followed one of them into one of the store sheds with
an office the corner. After a multitude of paperwork, the big
question “ now you need to give me U$300 in cash”. Our response was
that we were only passing through and surely this was an excessive amount to pay
for a few weeks in The Bahamas. After a few words about how unfair this
was, we still ended up having to pay, but at least we have a license until May
2012, so we may come back!
Nimue & Scott Free outside the Customs Dock (above & below)
The daily cruisers VHF ‘net’ was a bit of a farce in terms of
previous ‘nets’ we had experienced throughout the Caribbean, as it was mainly
used for advertising bars and restaurants Anyway we did fancy a day trip
to Nippers Bar & Grill on Great Guana Cay to have a taste of American
tourism. An hour’s trip on Albury’s ferry and we landed in a very
pretty holiday resort. A short walk across the island to Nippers located in a
lovely position over the Atlantic. Wow, what a place and experience; this
was the place to go to see and to be seen. We booked for the recommended
Sunday Pig Roast buffet (massive) and just enjoyed people watching.
When it got too hot, we wandered down to the beach and swam out to a recommended
reef to snorkel, where Michael bumped into a lovely baby turtle.
Dock at Great Guana Cay
Came across the decorated tractor en route to Nippers
Colourful ‘Nippers’
Found a good spot to have lunch (Michael and Chris)
Pig roast buffet
Michael (top left) and Steve snorkelling
Nippers in full swing!
As our R&R drew to a close we were weather watching for
our trip north to the USA. We did in fact use the services of Chris Parker
(meteorologist) to confirm the weather window, but also to give us advice as to
the best place to cross the Gulf Stream to North Carolina.
Michael and I were always looking to see other cruisers
dinghies, as Merlin (our dinghy) as previously mentioned was ‘not up to the
job’. We saw a dinghy we rather liked, so knocked on the side of a
recently arrived American flagged yacht. Out sprang Kenny, who couldn’t
have been more friendly. We of course got into deep conversation about
where we had come from and where we were going and he seemed rather interested
in cruising with us to the USA , but was waiting for Sarah, his friend to
arrive.
Comfortably armed with a good 5 day forecast and details of
the Gulf Stream crossing, we set off for the 500nm journey to Beaufort North
Carolina with Scott Free and followed by Kenny and Sarah on Loon (named after an
North American Bird)!
Leaving The Abacos through the Man of War cut
Michael deploying the towed generator for the journey to the USA! |
