Old Friends and New in Marsh Harbor

Another pretty sunset, Wayne took this picture while we were visiting sv Temptation in Marsh Harbor, Abaco. That is Born to Cruise on the right

We are not sure where all of our time goes, the days just seem to slip by. We have been in Marsh Harbor since the 8th and here it is the 17th already. Marsh Harbor is a well protected harbor from all winds and the stores are easily accessible. Our plan now is to head out of Marsh Harbor tomorrow to explore another island, depending on the weather, of course.

We have been enjoying spending time with friends new and old. We have enjoyed sundowners with Karen and Earl on Temptation from another marina on the Neuse River at home, Jim and Linda on Winsome (who we met on our last trip to the Bahamas), and Christine and Peter on Mytyfyne (a British couple from Raleigh who we just met). Diana, Gerald and their cute little dog, Beatrice on Whiskers (a catamaran) had us over for a wonderful Lamb Curry, which is a favorite in Durban, South Africa where they are from. Whiskers is on their second world circumnavigation.

We have once again proven that the cruising community is not very big. We dinghied over to Marsh Harbor Marina, where there is a dinghy dock in front of the Jibroom. The guy standing on the dock said, I see your dinghy is from North Carolina, he said we keep our boat in NC. Wayne asked him where and he said Northwest Creek Marina! That is where we also keep Born to Cruise. We met John and Jerrie on Trinity and also Dave on Avignon. They each had temporary space at Northwest Creek and have just found out that they are no longer on the waiting list because they have been assigned slips, so they are our new neighbors. So a short trip to shore turned into several hours of getting to know each other since we had never met in NC. Dave was having a problem with his ICOM 802 SSB/Ham radio that Wayne knew how to resolve and we spent some time aboard Avignon fixing it. We look forward to spending more time with Trinity and Avignon both here in the Bahamas and at Northwest Creek.

There were two days that we had what Troy at Dive Guana calls "greasy flat" water, meaning it is REALLY calm and flat. We took the kayaks out on both days over to Mermaid Reef outside the harbor. It is a protected reef that is about a mile and a half from where we are anchored. We could sit in the kayaks and watch the colorful fish on the reef. It was really neat. We tried taking some underwater pictures while sitting on the kayak and found that we wiggle too much on the kayaks to get a clear shot.

Merlins Marine specializes in Ray Marine products. They are the only Ray Marine dealer in the Bahamas and they are here in Marsh Harbor. Our autopilot is an Autohelm which is now owned by Ray Marine. They think our first course of action is to have the linear drive rebuilt, which is what is being done now. Hopefully that will resolve our problem, if not Merlins will work with us to analyze it from there. The manual steering works great, but Otto the autopilot makes it easier.

My mother and sister have made flight reservations and will be flying into Marsh Harbor on February 15th to visit for a week. Between now and then we will be exploring the Abacos.

The cold front that is freezing all of you in the US has also come to the Bahamas. Our normal highs of 78+ have dropped to the mid 60's! Wayne is actually wearing a shirt on the boat and the locals are wearing coats. Hope it warms up for all of you soon.