April 25, 2009: Marsh Harbour, Abaco, Bahamas

We set off from Guana Cay this morning on a course towards the main island of Abaco. We were passed by the high speed StarFish; one of the water taxis that regularly runs between Guana Cay and Marsh Harbor. One of the ferry captains told me that there was always a ferry there in case of emergencies. The turquoise sea was heaving as we cruised with enough ocean spray to cause Tom t close the front window of the bridge. We passed along Baker Bay past the little town at Orchid Harbor Marina and saw the large white roofed beach houses not visible from the road we biked yesterday.

We reached Abaco Beach Resort by lunch time and turned in behind the massive concrete breakfront looking for slip 224 as assigned by the voice on the VHF radio. The wind was full astern as we rotated the boat and backed between the pilings into the slip and threw ropes to the dock master. After tying us up, he made eye contact with me and said “That was amazing; I have never seen anything like it!” It made me smile inside.

We made the big trip to the Price Right grocery store about a mile into town. It was full of shoppers and probably the only ‘real’ grocery on Abaco. They had a wide selection of items and the name Price Right really could be translated “expensive”; like $10.00 for ½ gallon of ice cream. We bought a loaf of bread and some steaks and rode back to the Abaco Beach Resort. We shopped along the way for a restaurant to return to for dinner and decided on Curly Tails, a place on the water named after a local lizard which carries his tail in a curl. We have seen several of them here - pretty unique.

We enjoyed the sunshine for a while at the pool; which was pleasant even with the wind between 20 and 25 miles per hour coming in from the sea. The temperature of the water was just right so that you felt a cool rush as you got wet, but not cold after that. It was fun to watch the kids laughing and playing in the pool and palm trees dancing.

We rode back into town to eat at Curly Tails for dinner of spicy tomato based conch chowder and local stone crab claws and ended the evening listening to the Bahamian musician playing guitar and singing the local melodies.