aPhantom.net Bahamas - Part 3
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We needed a few small boat parts and were nearly out of rum so we decided it was time for a shopping trip to Marsh Harbour. It was another upwind destination but just a short five miles across the Sea of Abaco. We found a good spot to anchor and headed for town.
Someone had told us about an external antenna that would extend the range for receiving wifi signals. I decided this would be the very thing for us as I might actually be able to get a signal without having to be outside in the sun, rain, wind, etc. The office for the wifi provider is in Marsh Harbour but they were out of antennas. After being directed to several other places that might supply such an item, we found a local cell phone store that could help. We should have been suspicious when we saw some cell phones for twelve hundred dollars in the store. The antenna they had was a very nice "marine grade" antenna, but it was also four hundred dollars! As I probably won't be using it after this trip, it seemed a little much. Back to the dark towel in the cockpit.
On Thursday, "Regatta Time in Abaco" was to begin. This week long event consists of five sailing events and seven days of parties. The party is at a different island each night. As our racing skills are pretty rusty, we decided to say in Marsh Harbour and wait for the regatta and party to come to us. The festivities in Marsh Harbour were at Snappas Grill and Chill which had already become our favorite bar and restaurant, mostly because of the Snappas Philly Cheese Steak and the kosher grilled hot dog. On Regatta Night there was free rum and conch salad. There were about thirty boats racing in the regatta, each with four or five crew members. All of those revelers combined with the many party crashers like us and the place was overflowing with people.
A separate bar on the dock was set up where the "rum line" formed and filled all the dock space. Local music completed the evening. As this was the sixth day of parties for the race crews, we were surprised they were holding up this well.
Our next stop was Man O War Cay. This was not going to be a regatta stop probably because there is no liquor sold anywhere on the island, not even in the restaurants. The town is small but actually has quite a bit of commerce. Among the shopping opportunities are two restaurants, two banks, two boatyards, a marina, a well stocked grocery store, a marine hardware store, and several businesses owned by the Alburys. Albury's Boat Building builds classic fiberglass fishing boats and also some beautiful small sailing dinghies. 
Albury's Sail Shop makes brightly colored bags of all sizes right on the premises. Emerson's Shop, owned by Andy Albury, makes very sturdy wooden rocking chairs.
The inner harbor is very protected and we had heard of several cruisers who had chosen this as their "hurricane hole" or place to hide out in case of a hurricane. When we saw the harbor, we figured out why they might have chosen this location. The entrance is very narrow with high coral rocks on either side. There are high bluffs all around and many moorings in the harbor. In nasty weather, moorings are preferable to anchoring because they are generally a large chunk of concrete on the bottom with a short bit of chain and rope attached. In a hurricane you can expect wind from several directions, so instead of having to deploy several anchors, you can swing around the mooring with just one attachment point. We were hoping we wouldn't have to figure out the merits of either system any time soon.
As settled weather was predicted for the next several days, we chose to anchor in the outer harbor where we could catch a fresh breeze. In the afternoon, several small sailing dinghies were racing around some floating buoys they had set up just off our port side. When we went to investigate, we discovered it was a sail training program for small kids where they are taught to race "optimist prams". 
This is a pretty common program for many yacht clubs to encourage young sailors. A couple of adults in a small power boat were providing the training and encouragement. They all took off to the west and soon were out of sight. In a couple of hours they were back looking tired and sunburned. It was happy hour for us by the time they disappeared into the harbor. As was our normal practice we were enjoying our rum and snacks in the cockpit. There were some clouds on the horizon just at sunset, making the conditions perfect for a "green flash". If you haven't seen one, it's quite amazing. The light actually does turn a bright green just as the last bit of the sun disappears over the horizon.
The next day we decided to rent a golf cart and tour the island. As this is the only mode of transportation on the island, the paved roads are very narrow. Just out of town, the pavement ends and the road becomes a rocky path. 
We drove to the northwestern end of the island which entails crossing a very narrow isthmus with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Sea of Abaco on the other. The beaches on the Atlantic side were the most beautiful turquoise color and the views were spectacular. The golf cart was a great idea as we would have never made it this far on foot in the midday heat and humidity.
Saturday, July 10 was Bahamas Independence Day with much the same sort of celebrations as our fourth of July. There was a barbeque and picnic in town and fireworks after dark. It appeared as though every golf cart on the island had made their way to the festivities. It was time to pay some bills online but I wasn't able to make an internet connection in the anchorage so we decided to load up the computer in the dinghy and head for town. The idea of loading my laptop into a bouncing small boat surrounded by salt water with the ever present chance of rain was not exactly the ideal situation. As it was a holiday, many of the businesses were closed so a wifi hotspot was not forthcoming. Just as we had decided to give up, it started to rain, hard enough to put a damper on the party. We found a convenient overhanging roof to wait out the shower and made it back to the boat to wait for the fireworks.
We watched the standard afternoon thunderstorms building to the south and east of us. Most days they build over the larger land mass of Great Abaco and move to the west. This wasn't one of those days. About an hour later, we had winds of about thirty miles per hour and a major rain squall. The wind came around to the south which meant we had some pretty big rollers in the anchorage, but the anchor held and it was sunny again in about an hour. A nice fresh breeze returned from the east-southeast and we had a great view of the fireworks.
Most businesses in Man O War were going to be closed until Tuesday because of the holiday so we decided to make our way back to Marsh Harbour to get the bills paid and figure out where to go next.
Click Here for Part Four.