Back in Marsh Harbor

When I last left you readers we had grabbed a mooring ball in Black sound to wait out some weather. I had mentioned how picking up the mooring was a challenge and one of the reasons being is that there was no pendent on the top so you had to snag the whole ball to place your lines through the chain. Well once I got the ball snagged with the hook, I pull it up and there must be 5 different lines tangled in among the chain. None of which we would have trusted to hold us securely in place. Also with the heavy mess of lines attached, it made it impossible for me to run the line in without two hands and I had to keep a death grip on the line due to current and wind dragging us backwards. Here is the ball and you can see the octopus of lines hanging down and onto the bottom. The two lines you see out of the water are our two lines attached.

So I had the ball, Dirk would run up and try passing the line through and by the time he fought with it we had drifted too far for me to hold on any longer. I held on pretty good too and have the bruises to prove it. So we finally did enough go a rounds, that the last time I had the ball Dirk kept the boat in forward gear, ran up and managed to get one line through and tied off to the cleat. I got back on the helm and took it out of gear and returned to help Dirk get the other on. Whew, that was done……Fun, fun…..The next couple days were a wash out due to the winds and rain. At least the boat got a good wash down. On the 3rd day we decided to take the dinghy around the bottom of Green Turtle and go out to Pelican Cay which is a tiny island with a single house on it. The cruising guide shows mooring balls but trust me, no mooring balls were to be seen. We did get lucky and spot the old mooring line while we were looking for a sand spot to throw the anchor out. Dirk dove down and tied our dinghy underwater to that line. There is a large reef and rock system with lots of beautiful sea life. We snorkeled a while spotting a nurse shark asleep tucked in the coral and right by him was a huge sea turtle nestled in some rocks catching a nap also. Hummm , must be that time of day. Dirk of course was in hunting mode as there are only so many lobster days left so he had spear in hand and was at the ready. We spotted a hole and Dirk asked me to take a look and see if I was seeing the lobster he was seeing. Indeed I did so he went down again and when he returned he had the lobster on the end of the spear. It was a Spanish lobster and if you have never seen one, well all I can say is ugly.

But…hummmm looks like dinner to me. I started getting chilled so I crawled back into the dinghy, peeled off my wetsuit and let the sun warm me up again. Before I knew it Dirk was swimming towards me and tossed a really good sized lobster into the boat and before I could really say anything he was gone again. He was in the zone…..One more lobster found its way to the boat and he topped it off by spearing his first fish which was a tasty Amberjack. After that it was time to get out of the water and head back to the boat where fresh lobster and fish were prepared, eaten and then it was early to bed as we were whipped.

The next morning we decided to lose the mooring ball and anchor outside of Black Sound where we met Dawn & Harvey on S/V Sovereign Swan. We ended up taking them with us the next day back to snorkel and hunt as Harvey wanted to bag a lobster before the end of season. We went to the front side of No Name Cay which is right next to Pelican Cay and hopped into the water. We didn’t see as much wildlife but we did see some of the biggest and prettiest Elkhorn coral we had ever seen. Harvey bagged a lobster and we zipped back to the spot where we had had better luck the day before. Nothing was bagged but a nice spotted eagle ray was seen.

The spot in front of Pelican Cay where there is nice snorkeling and lots of sealife

The next morning we decided it was time to head back to Marsh Harbor as the fridge needed restocking and the laundry was piling up. Saturday we finally made it to the grocery store where once again the cruising kitty was hit pretty hard. I always liked reading what people paid for things in the Bahamas so I will add a couple if anyone is interested.
1 Vadalia onion $1.77
Fresh Step Cat Litter Scoop 40lb tub $27.49
Nabisco Saltine Crackers box $4.19
Green Giant Cream corn $2.45 per can
½ gallon 2% milk $3.30
Liquid coffee mate 32 fl oz. size $6.79
16 oz package of sliced ham lunchmeat $6.19
Campbell’s cream of chicken soup $1.50 per can
Now as you can see it’s not all bad, but then again some of the items triple shock you like the kitty litter. I guess it’s all relative. Heck I think it might be cheaper for us to cruise as we seem to spend less. When you think about it there are no monthly dock fees, no cell phone, internet, or cable bills. Hummmm, something to think about, but we are keeping a log of all our expenses and will have a good handle on how much it actually cost us to cruise once we get done with the season. To me laundry is the scary number as we spent 22.00 for it today. One of the double loaders was 6.00 and one that held a bit more was 8.00. Dry was 25 cents for 2 minutes. Although when we were at the marina it was 4.00 for wash and 4.00 for dry so I think I did a bit better in town at the Laundromat. Looking forward to getting out of here and heading south which we are suppose to do tomorrow, weather permitting. Yesterday the weather was very windy and the harbor has gotten full of boats looking to wait it out here. The buzz on the radio is that there had been two tornados, one in Luciya and one in Freeport. It doesn’t sound good as we hear there has been loss of life and damage to boats. We didn’t hear the net this morning so we can’t confirm anything. We did hear a call on the radio around seven saying there was a boat on the loose and it had hit another boat but was still heading to the back side of the harbor. Dirk hopped in the dinghy and headed to see if he could lend a hand as we knew the people on the run away boat. When he arrived the owner of the boat that had been hit had managed to get on board as the couple was gone and managed to find another anchor that he threw out. Shortly after the owners arrived and managed to get anchored securely once again. We hear this morning that there was only minimal damage to either boat so that was nice to hear. In winds like we were having last night I can’t imagine leaving the boat unattended. Internet has been sporadic so I don’t know when I will get to make another post once we leave here. Our next stop is going to be down by Lubbers Quarters so we can do some snorkeling and visit Tahiti Beach as I hear it is beautiful, but then again, I find that so many areas here are beautiful. I will update as soon as I can.