After Tahiti Beach, we went back to Hope Town Harbor. The mooring field was full, but Will on Aventura, the de facto “mayor of the harbor” told us about the bike shop moorings. I had wondered about the white-topped moorings just past the Hope Town Inn, and it turns out that the bike shop rents them. We stayed for a few days and met Lori, Paul, Kristie and Jack at On Da Beach to see Jib Sea Soul and grab lunch. A couple days later, we said goodbye for the final time as they moved on to Marsh and then Green Turtle to stage for their trip home.
Unfortunately, life isn’t always fun and games, and we’ve reached a point in our travels where it was time to address some of the more tedious aspects of boat life like refilling water tanks, tackling boat projects, laundry and doing a bigger provisioning run so we took off Friday and booked a slip at the Conch Inn Marina.
The marina is still under construction, but the slips have power and water and they have shore-side bathrooms, laundry and a shower. Granted, those facilities are only semi-permanent (except for the pseudo-indoor shower with no roof, they’re built inside a shipping container), but they’re clean and functional, and crews are working hard to rebuild the inn and restaurant, and it looks like it will be really nice when it’s done.
The local grocery store, Maxwell’s, is HUGE and had all kinds of fresh produce, as well as multiple brands of packaged goods. I was actually excited to pick up a few vegetarian meals since we’ve eaten lots of conch fritters, chicken, peas and rice, and mac and cheese lately (not that I’m complaining). We went a little overboard, but we were also out of almost everything – we’ll definitely have to come back to provision before we make our run north.
We originally planned to leave Saturday morning but extended for a day so we could see Marsh Harbour a little – plus the Duke and Dutchess of Cambridge were visiting the quickly-thrown-together Memorial Park just next to our marina, so we figured why not stay? The wind picked up on Saturday and stayed up all night – we ended up having to move to the v-berth because the waves slapping against the stern were so loud neither of us could sleep. Sunday was supposed to calm down in the afternoon, but it showed no signs, so we decided to stay yet again. We walked Pelican Point and ran into Judy, a local we met while we were waiting at Immigration.
With an extra day on the dock, it was time to begin our spring cleaning. When you live aboard, it’s much harder to do a deep clean, but I spent the afternoon dealing with the interior while Chris tackled things on deck. Call me crazy, but I always love doing the deep clean/reorganization of the boat, and while we still have more to do, it was nice to cross a big chunk of projects off the list. And guess what I found while cleaning? My winter jacket and hat that I so desperately had wished for on the way south, jammed into a rarely-used cubby and covered in mildew (time for a wash!). Sigh.
I was so impressed with the people here. Marsh Harbour is still in extremely rough shape, as Dorian just sat right here for two days. So many homes are still badly storm damaged, and many are lived in. But the people are incredibly resilient and proud, and they went out of their way to make us feel welcome.
I’ve become addicted to good conch salad and it’s hard to find, so I was excited to discover Fatty’s Fresh Conch Salad stand, right beside Colors. The conch salad, made with love and fresh to order, is incredible but “Fatty” and his wife, Sicily, are the real reason to visit. They’re warm and welcoming, and when Sicily learned that this was our first trip to the Bahamas, she gave me a beautiful pair of earrings she made from conch shell as a gift to remember my time here. She’s working on starting a line of jewelry, Caj, and all of her beautiful pieces are handmade.
Throughout our travels, I’ve been hesitant to photograph or share much of the remaining damage. First, I feel almost predatory photographing the remains of peoples’ homes so relatively soon after the hurricane, especially since some are still lived in. Second, I’ve wanted to share how much progress has been made. But I do feel like it’s appropriate to share a couple photos in this post (and I shared a few in the Mermaid Reef post) that capture the damage. I think it would be unrealistic, and unfair, to pretend it’s not part of the reality Bahamians still face.
We’ve reached the point in the cruising season where everyone’s starting to plan for departure or is on their way out. We already said goodbye to Lori and Paul in Hope Town (but stalked them one more time in passing as we came into and they departed from Conch Inn). Matt, Mike and Emma on Endurance are making their run for Fort Pierce today. Katy and Phil are rounding the Whale and will spend a little time on Green Turtle before heading back to Charleston. And Lori and Paul are taking advantage of the weather window to start their run home too.
I expected to meet people, but I didn’t expect to find our tribe like we have. We’ve made some wonderful friends and incredible memories, but like all good things, there’s a time and place for them to come to a close – I just never imagined it would hit so hard. We’ve had some cooler weather the past couple days, and between everyone leaving and the temperatures, it’s felt a little like fall – what’s traditionally been the beginning of the end of the sailing season.
We moved out to anchor off Mermaid this morning. I’m watching a steady stream of boats heading north, and in just a few weeks, we’ll join them. I’m sad that our time is winding down too, but we did get our visa extended for another 60 days and our cruising permit is now valid through next December (that was part of what brought us to Marsh). In the meantime, I intend to make the most of every second we have left in paradise.
One reply on “Marsh Harbour”
Love reading this and we are so happy to have been part of your memories and your tribe! It brought tears to my eyes. Missing you so much as we head north! Safe travels to you!