Harbor Island and Man-O-War Cay

We spent one more day at Little Harbor, waiting out rain and wind. When they both finally subsided, we took the dinghy ashore for a chance to stretch our legs. Luke explored the foundry and art gallery while I played dominos with some of the other cruisers.

Here’s the foundry

But out of it comes beautiful work. Here are a couple of examples.

We left the shallow channel out of Little Harbor at high tide, unfortunately, at 6:30 a.m. Better early than aground! It was an uneventful 25 nm motor sail up the Sea of Abaco until we were almost at Marsh Harbor. Then some idiot in a very large yacht decided to pass behind us at only about 20 feet. We hailed him repeatedly on the VHF radio, asking his intentions so we could take evasive action (we did have the right of way, being overtaken). He never answered but did pass so closely that we caught my fishing line, reeling it out wildly, and of course breaking it. Hope it fouls his prop somewhere along the line…

We spend a few hours in Marsh Harbor, provisioning capital of the Abacos. Groceries and wine. It’s a really popular place for the cruisers – plenty of anchoring space, the afore mentioned groceries and alcohol, large laundry mat, and a few variety stores.

After our stop in Marsh Harbor we took the quick 7 mile scoot over to Man-O-War Cay. There is yet another cold front today and we wanted to sit it out someplace new. Man-O-War is a cute little settlement, with the short waterfront crowded with boats, mostly workboats.

The families here have long been boat builders and their craftsmanship shows. The local boats are beautiful and lovingly maintained. This one was built in the 30’s.

Sailing dinghies are built here, too. Here is a beautiful example. Look closely in the right front of the picture- someone with a sense of humor has “anchored” a model workboat in the sand.

Here is the little boat at it’s tiny anchorage.

The streets are golf cart narrow. A few cars on the island, but mostly golf carts.

A short walk across the island to the Atlantic side shows a rough beach, lots of iron rock and a little sand.   No shells, beach glass, or beach junk to be found.

There is a small grocery store, a few shops that cater to the tourists (handmade bags and kitchen accessories, all in local fabric), a bank that is open only for 4 hours only on Wednesday, and a clinic but no doctor or nurse on the island. The all age school is tiny; there must be few children living here full time. We did learn that the children on the island are now required to go to high school at Marsh Harbor.

The "shell" today is the sea biscuit. Technically a seashell is the empty shell of a sea creature, such as a mollusk.  Sea Biscuits are echinoderms, not mollusks, but they ARE sea creatures.  The hard part that washes up on the beach is called a "test" and is really the skeleton instead of the shell.  But I'm including them in my "shell" collection!  Other echinoderms are sand dollars and sea urchins. All have 5 "arms", a system of internal water-filled canals, and suckered tube feet that they use to move or grip objects.
These look a lot like the sand dollars that I’m used to, but are fat. We’ve seen them in every size from less than 1 inch to about 8 inches. This guy is about 3 inches long.  I've got the larger ones all wrapped up in bubble wrap for the trip back home.

The cold front has started - wind of about 30 knots, some rain.  We shall be here tomorrow (Tuesday) too, but then plan to spend about 2 more days in the Abacos before crossing back.  The weather forecast looks good for the crossing from Memory Rock to Ft Pierce, about 75 nautical miles, but with the gulf stream push, effectively about 60 miles. We'll be back in the USA, home of McDonalds, endless internet, free drinking water, cell phone coverage, Wal-Marts, and plenty, but I will miss the Bahamas.  We'll cross with mixed feelings.