Wintering in Marsh Harbour

S/V NAVIGATOR is still located in Marsh Harbor, and it looks like I will spend the winter here.  There are a lot worse places I could be (like Baltimore); the weather has been great, in the mid 70s everyday, sometimes in the upper 70s.  Today it is overcast and rainy, a very unusual occurrence.  If it has rained, it has usually been a quick shower and then the sun comes out, but not today, it has rained pretty consistently all morning and is forecast to keep it up this afternoon.  It was mostly cloudy yesterday, and I got caught in a downpour walking to an art fair put on as a fundraiser for the Bahamas National Trust, the people that over the parks in and around the Abacos.  Seeing as the weather is not conducive to walking around Marsh Harbor today, I thought I would bring you up to date on what I have been doing.

I have visited several of the outlying cays in the Abacos, including Linyard Cay, Sandy Cay, Talloo Cay, and Elbow Cay, most of them more than once.  I have done some snorkeling at Sandy Cay and Great Abaco Island.  The fish, tough small, are really beautiful, all kinds of colors and shapes.  The coral doesn’t appear as bright as I remember from 2 years ago, but that might be because the weather was partly cloudy and not as bright as it could have been.  I visited Hopetown, on Elbow Cay, on a trip I made with friends on RIVERDANCE and had a good time there.  It is a quaint little town with pastel color houses and businesses.  Linyard Cay is essentially uninhabited, so is wonderfully quiet and a great place to relax.  Sandy Cay has a nice natural reef, which is nice for snorkeling if the weather is quiet (meaning little wind).  If the seas are up in the Atlantic, they roll in to Sandy Cay through a cut between cays and make it too rough to snorkel.  The happened the first time I went to Linyard and Sandy Cays, but the second time it was nice and peaceful so I had a good time swimming with the fish.  It reminds me of a tropical fish tank, on a really large scale of course.

In Marsh Harbor I am trying to keep up my cardiovascular rehab by continuing to walk, but I don’t do it every day, more like 3 or 4 days a week (on a good week!).  I walk around the town of Marsh Harbor doing shopping for fresh groceries, maybe some rum, and just sightseeing.  Friday evening and Saturday I went to the Bahamas National Trust Arts for the Parks show held in Marsh Harbor.  They had showings by local, Bahamian artists.  I picked up a couple of small prints while there.  I’ll frame them this summer and hang them in the boat.

I have been doing maintenance on NAVIGATOR as needed.  Things like cleaning (which is never ending), finishing the installation of a new alternator on the engine, and other small repairs as needed.  It gives me something to do, but is no overwhelming (so far).

I am having two friends from Florida over to the Abacos the last week on February, and a couple from Maryland down sometime in March.  If anyone else is interested in coming down for a visit, let me know and I will see if we can arrange a suitable date.  Popular airlines are charging about $1000 round trip, but if you don’t mind traveling Air Tran Airways and Bahamas Air, you can do quite a bit better than that.  Air Tran flies from Baltimore Washington International Airport to Nassau, and Bahamas Air from Nassau to Marsh Harbor.  Connections aren’t great, but it is a lot cheaper.

If anything really exciting comes up, I will let you know in my next update.  I hope everyone is having as great a winter as I am.  Stay in touch.

Cliff Baker
S/V NAVIGATOR