With a great deal of reluctance, we dropped the lines just after sunrise and said “so long” to our beloved Hope Town for the season. But part of me was happy to feel the deck move under my feet again. The wind was light so we just motored over to Man-O-War and dropped the hook in our usual spot.
Later in the day, I took the dinghy and ran ashore for a few things. Unfortunately the grocery store was out of my favorite cookies, which I’d hoped to stock up on. The mission to get a new conch horn was more successful – the one we have is just fine, but it’s much harder than most of the others I’ve used. And I finally got to visit Albury Designs, where Andy Albury continues the family tradition of building beautiful wooden Man-O-War dinghies by hand. I’m pretty proud of myself – I used to be really uncomfortable taking Squall alone, and while my dock departures are still somewhat clumsy, my approaches have gotten a lot better and I’m less nervous about running ashore on my own.
We spent a beautiful night on anchor and before work the next day, we had a light-air, lazy jib-only sail over to Marsh Harbour, where we had a slip reserved at the Conch Inn and Marina. We’ve been staging for departure there since we started doing this, and I’m so psyched to see them fully rebuilt! Our first year, they were operating out of built-out shipping containers, and now they have a nice little pool, the inn is fully operational, and the office is finally in a real building, which must be awesome for them. The dock staff here are always amazing – Avery helped us get our lines set and made us feel welcome. It’s a gift much of their staff has – even if it’s our first meeting, it’s like they’re welcoming home an old friend.
We’ve avoided Dockside for provisions the past couple years, figuring that since it’s near both charter bases (Conch Inn and the Abaco Beach Resort), there’s no way the prices could be good. We were wrong. The prices were great (not just for The Bahamas either), and they had really good stock. It was exciting to be able to decide what we wanted to cook, not just what we could cook with what was available. We even found good whole bean coffee (Blue Mountain blend), and the liquor prices were really good too. While Maxwell’s still has better variety, we’re really impressed, and I’ll definitely be back to pick up a few Kaliks before we head out.
Saturday was a boat work day, and we knocked out a bunch of chores including servicing the engine and generator, a full provision inventory, laundry, fully reorganizing my closet, and a trip to Maxwell’s. We even lucked out that our old friend Matthew who we’d hired to pick up our crew at the airport last year and take us grocery shopping was in the Maxwell’s parking lot and could give us a ride back to the marina. Later in the week, we got the bottom cleaned and our propane refilled.
On Sunday, we rented a car and invited Mike and Emma to join us at Pete’s Pub for a Sunday funday. We toured the gallery, and in typical small-world Bahamas fashion, it turned out that Renee who was working that day and is the gallery’s potter, is Sadie’s sister – we met Sadie hanging out with JR in Hope Town a while back. We chatted for a while and she gave us some of the pub and gallery’s history, and she mentioned that Yeti did an awesome short documentary on Sadie, who is a lobsterman in Maine. Super cool! Sadie and her boyfriend Cody were at the pub too, so we quickly caught up before we got our food.
After brunch, we walked the beach and did a quick beach clean-up before heading up to the remains of the lighthouse. From there, we hopped back in the car and drove to the town of Cherokee, where the longest pier in The Bahamas (770 feet) is located. It’s a remote little fishing village with absolutely beautiful views, but it’s almost inaccessible by boat, so it was cool to visit. It was fun to play tourist by car for a change, and knowing our time is short, it’s important to us to take every opportunity to enjoy ourselves.
Our slip neighbors, Lisa and James, also cruise with their black and white cat, Autumn. We invited them over for sundowners one evening, and they had us over last night to send us off with some of James’ amazing (and potent) rum punch. Yet again, I feel so lucky to get to meet so many wonderful people.
Before we head out, we’ll stop at the fuel dock and fill up – our first time at a fuel dock since we came to The Bahamas. We’re looking to try to get around the Whale on Thursday, so we’ll plan to go to Guana or Water Cay later today to stage. We have our slip reserved until Saturday, but heading out a little early will mean we’re sure to get around the Whale, which is no joke. Earlier this season, a sailboat tried to go through in conditions where they shouldn’t (I mean, they had NO business trying and must have seen how dicey conditions were), and a wave caught them the wrong way, dashing the boat on the reef. It sank within minutes and was a total loss. Fortunately there was another boat nearby who was able to pull the occupants to safety and no lives were lost.
I’m not ready to leave, but then I never am. It will be good to spend a day or two in the northern Abacos before we go. Based on current forecasts, we won’t really have time to explore, but you never know!
