Marsh Harbor is the most populated town in the Abacos, Bahamas. It is a popular cruising destination, and has one of the larger airports around. We spend almost a week at a marina here, waiting out some nasty weather and celebrating America’s Independence Day!
The activities in this blog post actually took place July 2019. I know, I know – I’m so far behind on the blog. It’s embarrassing. Bear with me for a few more posts about our amazing time in the Abacos (before Dorian hit). Once we’re back in the islands (and I’m off work again), we’ll keep you updated on a timely basis!
Marsh Harbor town and marina
Things start out looking very promising, as we spot a small pod of dolphins on our way into Marsh Harbor. Things quickly take a turn for the worse when I get in an argument with the dock hand at Marsh Harbor Marina while trying to get into our slip. It isn’t our best docking experience and the marina staff definitely aren’t making a good first impression. They continue to not make a very good impression throughout our stay, but I’ll turn my attention to other more positive notes.
On our way into Marsh Harbor, we hear someone from “S/V Escape Plan” calling out on Channel 16. I’m guessing this may be a somewhat common name for yachts, but we’re feeling pretty certain this is the Escape Plan that we previously met in Georgia. It’s always exciting to run into old friends, so we’re hoping we will be able to find them during our time in Marsh Harbor. Turns out, we don’t have to search for long since they are docked across from us at the marina! We catch up briefly, making plans to see each other again later before they fly back to the States. Well, someone messed up our lines of communication (probably me) because their flights were the next day (not the following like I thought.) We spent the first night on the dock, hiding out inside our boat with the AC on full blast. Did I mention how hot it’s been? So anyways, we really didn’t get to spend time with them like planned, but there’s always next season.
Surprise – there are even more storms blowing through the area, so we decide to spend more time at the marina than originally planned. Fortunately, it’s one of the more affordable marinas we have come across in our travels thus far at only a $1/foot per night. We take one of our afternoons to go into the town of Marsh Harbor – largely to just look around, but also grab some provisions, and some KFC! It’s the only greasy, US fast food restaurant here – not my favorite, but I’m definitely not going to complain! We are able to take our dinghy across the channel/harbor and tie up to a public dock. From here, it is an easy walk to all the stores and restaurants that we could want. We even stop by a computer store in search of a new charger for my work computer – which has stopped working. Unfortunately, they don’t have any chargers that will fit, so my computer continues to remain out of commission. That’s one way to make sure I’m not working while off! I’m getting a bit stressed, though, as there’s only a few more weeks before I will have to be working again. My computer feels like a permanent part of me at this point.
Can you believe we didn’t take a single picture of the town of Marsh Harbor or our KFC dinner? Unbelievable.
Celebrating the Fourth of July
The Fourth of July is Matt’s favorite holiday – with his main focus being shooting off a silly number of large, loud, and sometimes illegal fireworks. Due to the complicated logistics of traveling back to the States for the holiday, he has decided to stay here in the Bahamas with Monster and I – and zero fireworks – to celebrate.
We decide to start our holiday off right with doing some free diving at the nearby Fowl Cay Reef. When I say nearby – I should clarify that it actually isn’t all that nearby when traveling by dinghy. After a very long dinghy ride, we are beginning to question our decision. Turns out – it’s pretty worth the long ride. The coral reef is very pretty, stretching up to just a foot or less below the surface in many places, and covers a large area around the nearby cays. There are several other boats out enjoying the water today, making it feel like a popular, community affair. We tie up the dinghy in a couple places to different dive moorings, and drag it along with us as we swim other areas. The only downside – no real impressive marine life sightings to tell of. The fish and coral were pretty, though, still making for an enjoyable time.
At one point, we anchor the dinghy in a sandy patch. Upon returning to the dinghy, we realize that Matt’s sun glasses are no longer with us. Well actually, we notice a few minutes later after we’ve already hauled anchor and are drifting away. We get in the water, swimming back towards the area we think we were anchored at. By some small miracle, Matt actually finds his sun glasses sitting on a piece of coral – which is great news. Bad news – the salt water has removed much of the polarization from the lenses. Which is super weird! We end up putting the glasses back in the salt water until we get all of the colored polarization wiped off. Now he has simple black lenses – good enough.
After another long dinghy ride back to our boat, we spend some time just relaxing before our planned cookout. Once it feels like an acceptable time to pop open some beers, we bust out the Coors Light, put on some country music, and light the grill. We celebrate by cooking Matt’s favorite hot dogs (Vienna jumbo beef franks), which have traveled with us all the way from Chicago. We dress them up as what we’ve dubbed “Sea Monster Dogs” – a fun twist on the classic Chicago Dog: sliced cherry tomatoes, pickled jalapenos, sliced dill pickles, and yellow mustard. We also cook up several delicious sides to complete our Independence Day feast!
As we are finishing up our meal, we are pleasantly surprised to see some fireworks going off in the distance. We climb up on the hard top of the boat to enjoy the show being put on across the harbor. A perfect ending to our celebrations!
Snorkeling Mermaid “Reef”
The next day we want to get back out to snorkel, but are not feeling up for that long dinghy ride back to Fowl Cay Reef. Instead we decide to opt for a much shorter dinghy ride to Mermaid “Reef.” I put “Reef” in parentheses because it’s not really up to our standards for a reef. There are several rock-like coral structures in a very small area of shallow water. I will admit, there are lots of fish, of many varieties, which still make this an enjoyable spot to put your face in the water.
Tangent: It is here that we first spot and learn what a hog fish is. These are pretty interesting fish – for one, a female hog fish will turn into a male after reaching a certain size and age. They can also change colors to camouflage to their surroundings – a translucent white color to blend into sand, and a reddish-orange to look like coral (see pictures above). Apparently, these fish are good to eat and are a very popular target of spear fishermen. We just enjoy spotting them and watching them change colors!
Making friends at Grabbers
It appears that the storms are never going to completely subside, so we decide after 5 days we’re leaving regardless. We motor a short distance over to Great Guana Cay, anchoring in front of a popular beach bar, Grabbers. There are a handful of other boats anchored in the area, with many of us trying to find some protection from a nearby large rock – the wind isn’t cooperating very well, making things a bit bumpy.
This particular cay is famous for having two beach bars / activity destinations; very similar to the Chat ‘N Chill in Georgetown. Grabbers is on the bay side (right in front of our anchorage), while Nippers is on the ocean side. We decide to see what all the hype is about – we’re planning to try drinks at one and dinner at the other. Thinking that the rain has stopped for the evening, we grab Monster and head to shore. As soon as we start walking down the beach, it starts raining again. We head into Grabbers, finding some cover underneath one of their tents. Feeling a little defeated, we decide that we can skip Nippers and just eat here. We order a couple overpriced Kalik beers, a large pizza, and some fried lobster bites. Everything is – okay.
Trying to get into the spirit of the place, we check out the short dock/pier for a couple photos, play a few rounds of the hook and ring game, and watch some fellow patrons play bags. Like every beach bar in the Bahamas, there are some friendly cats roaming around – which Monster gives a few good barks for. Overall, the evening is pleasant, but a bit unremarkable (and expensive). We find we enjoy cooking on the boat better more often than not – plus we’ve got the best view around!
On our dinghy ride back to our boat, we here someone nearby shouting out to us. Turns out that they recognized the name of our boat from reading our reviews of anchorages on Active Captain. That sure made me feel good, because I put quite a bit of effort into leaving reviews for almost every single location we’ve been. We pretty much rely solely on Active Captains and the reviews for choosing our anchorages; we want to contribute and hopefully help others do the same. Sounds like it’s working! We end up inviting the friendly stranger and his partner over for drinks on our boat. A few hours later, we realize we’ve completely lost track of time and need to get to bed. We had a blast swapping stories with our new friends, Cody and Corey, from Sailing with the C’s!
We’ve only got three weeks left at this point, so we are planning out where to spend each day to maximize the fun and diving! What is that people say about planning and sailing…. don’t do it! Oops!
