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On January 4th we make a short, lumpy motor trip across the
Sea of Abaco to Marsh Harbour, the third largest town in the
Bahamas and a well-known velcro harbor. A velcro harbor
is one that cruisers come to for quick reprovisioning but
end up staying longer than planned. Some never leave. Unlike
the quaint and picturesque settlements we've visited thus
far, Marsh Harbour is a bustling town where you dare not step
across the street without looking both ways (and don't forget
that they drive on the wrong side here). What it lacks in
charm, Marsh Harbour makes up for in amenities. Here you can
find boat parts and services, hardware, electronics, bakeries,
and well-stocked grocery stores with fresh produce and meats.
I have to catch my breath when we walk in the Solomon's grocery
store and see the heaping bins of fruits and vegetables. Nick
and I also develop a new addiction: coconut bread baked fresh
every Thursday. To die for!
Every morning at 8:15, an annoyingly cheerful voice resounds
across the harbor as everyone tunes to the cruisers net on
VHF radio channel 68. The net provides information about local
events, U.S. and world news, sports scores, local happy hours,
and the time of the biweekly meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous
(I kid you not).
We reprovision and refuel the boat and do laundry for the
first time since leaving Florida. At a local marina, it costs
$8 to wash and dry one load. The laundromat in town is a little
cheaper, but it's crowded with locals and their crying children.
It's an unpleasant chore either way you go and an incentive
to do the sniff test and wear that shirt one more day.
For fun, we spend several afternoons snorkeling on the Mermaid
Reef. We update our library at Buck a Book, a cruisers' book
exchange located in an old shipping container. Of course,
we get together with friends on boats and at the local restaurants.
A local bar hosts a boaters potluck one night a week. We also
attend the Junior Junkanoo in which children from different
Abaco settlements parade through town in themed costumes.
The boat apparently decides we're too relaxed and throws
us a few curve balls. One night Nick tries to start the engine
to charge the batteries and nothing happens. The solenoid
on the starter is on the blink. We recall that friends in
Corpus (you know who you are!) kept their starter going with
a hammer for quite some time. However, since repair facilities
will be few and far between after we leave Marsh Harbour,
we opt to fix the problem before departing. At this time we
discover that the spare starter put on the boat by a previous
owner has the wrong bolt pattern and cannot be installed.
Fortunately, the solenoid on the spare is interchangeable.
Nick installs the repaired starter and then directs me to
turn the boat's battery switch on. We both jump when the engine
starts automatically. First the @#%! thing won't start, and
now it starts when it shouldn't. This problem ends up being
the starter relay switch, which probably burned up the solenoid
to begin with.
The fun isn't over yet though. The day before our planned
departure, the engine chokes and dies after running for 10
minutes. Nick changes first one fuel filter then the other.
The engine runs for an hour and a half and then suddenly dies
again. Nick checks and reclamps some of the fittings. One
fitting seems a bit loose. When he bleeds the fuel line, lots
of bubbles come out. We run the engine for an hour and he
bleeds the line again. It seems fine, but we have our doubts.
We're leaving tomorrow and the route is a tricky one through
a number of shallow areas. Will the engine be reliable? I
guess we'll find out.
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Dakota loves to go ashore in the dinghy and
cries pitifully if we don't take him with us.
Marsh Harbour anchorage
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