Friday February 11, 2011

This morning at 8AM I jumped in the dingy and headed to Mango’s to get a shower and then use their WiFi connection. Ronelle the dock master and new friend, told me that I would have to talk to Lisa the office manager to get a shower. I walked into the marina office and asked Lisa if she would be kind enough to give me the key to the shower. She asked if my boat was tied up at the marina. I told her that it would be next weekend. I was here to investigate the facilities. She told me that the showers were reserved for the folks tied up at the dock. She continued to say that boaters are very particular about who uses their showers. She said that they would not want me as a person without a boat tied up at the marina using their showers. Now I have heard some bullshit in my time and delivered a bit, this was the best yet. I needed a shower and would not be denied.

I walked next door to the Moorings, walked into the office and politely but urgently asked for a key to the showers. The lady behind the desk asked me if I was on a Moorings boat. I was three years ago with Sandy and the kids in the British Virgin Islands so I told the lady yes. Without reservation, she gave me the key to the shower and told me to return it when I was done.

Once showered I headed back to Mango’s to connect to their WiFi network and Skype with Sandy. Mango’s wireless router was down. I could not connect to the Internet. This was very frustrating as I like to connect with Sandy every day to find out what is happening at home and let her know that I am OK. Without talking with Sandy, I jumped into the dingy and headed back to Water Mark.

At 9AM Jim and Ellie my boating buddies arrived in their dingy to pick me up. We then went to the Car rental store. Our plan was to rent a car and tour the Abacos by land.

We rented a two thousand something gray Dodge Caravan. The car rental place advertised that they had car rentals for $65 per day. When we arrived all of the $65 cars were magically gone! The Caravan was $85. Split three ways, it was affordable.

Jim handled the paperwork. I checked the van out to make sure there were no major problems like dings and dents that we would later be blamed for causing.

When the paperwork was complete and I was satisfied that the van was OK Jim got behind the wheel and drove toward the stop light in town. The stop sign is the major landmark and navigation point here in Marsh Harbor. Jim turned left and we headed toward the south end of the Great Abaco Cay.

The southern most point easily reachable by car is called Sandy Point. Since 1992 there is a paved 2 land road from the northern most tip of the cays to the southern. After driving through what looks like a jungle for forty five minutes, we stopped at Cherokee Sound.

Cherokee Sound is recognized as the village with the longest wooden dock in the Bahamas. The dock is 770 feet long. It was first built in 1942 to enhance the unloading of cargo that came on the weekly mail boats. The dock has been totally destroyed many times from hurricanes over the years and the locals always find a way to pay to rebuild it. There are about 200 people that live in this rural water based community. We walked to the end of the long dock and took a few photos. We met several of the locals and heard the history of Cherokee.

We then continued south to the “end of the line”. Sandy Point is the only settlement on the West side of the cay. All other settlements are on the east side. We ate at Nancy’s Sea Side Inn. Nancy cooked us a real Bahamas lunch. She served us, peas, fried plantains and fried chicken. The lunch was good. The atmosphere on deck of the restaurant overlooking the water was great. We talked with several locals while we ate. A very extroverted fisherman/diver told us stories of his days fishing around the various Abacos Cays. My two favorite stories: Story number one was that he was out fishing and crawfish by the millions marched by him. He calls it his marching crawfish story. Story number two was his marching grouper story. He said that another time while he was diving the water instantly got dark. When this happened is scared him. Then he noticed that he was diving in the middle of a huge school of grouper. He was only able to spear several but had a great day fising.

Then six ladies in about their seventies from the Royal Marsh Harbor Yacht Club showed up. The atmosphere at Nancy’s instantly changed. The fisherman telling the stories was disappeared. Most of the local residents hanging around vanished. Margo the Commodore of the yacht club and here cronies took over the place.

Jim and I saw a television news broadcast that Mubarak of Egypt had resigned and eighteen million Egyptians were protesting in the streets of Cairo. After watching a little TV new for the first time in a month, we paid out bill and left too. We then headed back to Marsh Harbor and the famous stop light. We then started driving to the northern most tip of Little Abaco about a sixty mile trip by car. There are five very rural communities that you pass as you head north to the tip. Some of the houses in these rural communities are perfectly maintained, most are not maintained very well at all.

The northern most tip of Little Abaco was very windy. This is the place where the Sea of Abaco meets up with the Abaco Bight. The wind was clocking around to the north and it was cold. I took 15 minutes to explore the northern most tip of Abaco.

Ellie drove as we headed back to Marsh Harbor. On the way back we got off the main road onto a two track looking for an old Lucayan Indian site and the ruins of an old sisal mill. Sisal is an agave plant that yields a stiff fibre traditionally used in making twine, rope and also dartboards. I walked quite a distance down the grassy two track to a huge opening. The opening had a rock bottom. That was it. I was not sure if I was looking at the Indian ruins or the remains of the old sisal mill. I took a photo and will try to figure it out with the help of Google Earth after examining the photo. I did see a raccoon and lots of local birds on the trail.

We got back to Marsh Harbor just before dark. Since we had a car, we stopped at the local grocery store purchased a few heavy hard to carry items and headed back the dingy that was tied up at where else Mango’s. Jim did not return the car because it did not have to be returned until Saturday morning. Jim and Ellie dropped me off at the WaterMark and headed back to FinniIrish for the night.

I removed the Plexiglas washboard and opened up the boat as I had locked it due to the fact that I was planning on being gone all day. I was really glad that I closed the boat before heading out on our land adventure. While we were touring the Little and Great Abaco Cays, there was a heavy tropical rain in Marsh Harbor. Had I not closed the boat up, I would have had a cold wet boat to spend the night. Instead it was warm and dry.

I fired up the laptop Sandy gave me and updated the blog for as long as the battery power in the computer lasted which was about one hour.

Again about 8:30PM I crawled into my aft berth. The wind was increasing in strength from 15 to 20 plus knots and clocking around to the north. WaterMark was rocking and rolling at anchor from the waves caused by the north wind. I was rocked asleep listening to the wind blowing he flags and halyards.

I am flying an American flag off the backstay of WaterMark. A Bahamas courtesy flag is flying from the starboard spreader. Off the port spreader, I am flying a State of Michigan flag over the Conch Republic burgee from last years trip to Key West.