S/V Geru: The Hub of Abaco

3 June 2008

After spending a couple of days at Great Guana Cay, we left for Man-o-War Cay. Man-o-War is an old community of predominantly white people who have been living on the island for generations. Inter-marriages between members of the same extended family are quite common. This is evident in the names of many of the businesses. On Man-o-War, the predominant family name is Albury, so signs can be found everywhere for Albury's Ferry, Albury Boats, etc.

Our time at Man-o-War was hot. During the day we saw 34C with high humidity, and the coolest it got at night was 28C with almost no breeze. The harbour is small and well protected, and it was full of boats, most of them left for the season on moorings. On our second day there, we saw another Canadian catamaran come in, and so we met Tim and Carol. They are from Ontario and had lived in Ottawa in the past. They are travelling aboard their boat, a Manta 42 catamaran named "Somerset 33". We spent a nice afternoon and evening at a restaurant on shore chatting with them until the staff kicked us out because they wanted to close up for the night!

We got to experience some local culture on Man-o-War Cay as well. We noticed a handwritten sign advertising dinner at "Sheila's", so we decided to go there. It turned out that it was take-out (we didn't know), and it was cooked in the house of a woman named Sheila. The food sounded good, so we stood in a sort of small living room waiting to get our order. Just as we picked up the food, it started raining heavily (the first real rain we'd seen since Vero Beach!). Sheila took pity on us and offered us to stay right there and eat, which we did while a stream of locals shuffled in an out getting their take-out food. We both thought this was a neat way to see the local life.

We spent four days on Man-o-War and then had a great sail over to Marsh Harbour on Great Abaco Island. We were headed there to reprovision our fresh food supplies. Marsh Harbour is a relatively small town, but it is the main town in the Abacos. This means that it has more stores and services, like two full grocery stores and multiple hardware stores. Marsh Harbour felt very much like a second world town - a juxtaposition between first world (newer cars and modern stores) and third world (dusty streets and many small rundown houses). Shopping in the Bahamas is very interesting because of where the products come from. As expected, many items are brought in from the US, but because the island nation is a commonwealth country, they also have a fair number of products from Europe such as Irish butter. While doing our groceries we were also quite surprised to find orange peppers from Canada - this being only late May, we assumed from a greenhouse!

The following day we headed over to Hope Town on Elbow Cay. Hope Town is famous in the Bahamas for its picturesque lighthouse and the quaint town that surrounds the harbour. The town has the feel of a small version of Niagara-on-the-Lake or Merrickville with a tropical climate. We climbed up the lighthouse and saw great views of the Little Bahama Bank, the Atlantic and Hope Town.

Geoff tried to install the watermaker we'd been carrying since Ottawa - and found out that we were missing some parts. (Watermakers are used to make drinking water from sea water. The units work on the reverse-osmosis principle). We needed to get some fittings for the pre-filter, so we headed back to Marsh Harbour. While we were there, Geoff spent some time scrubbing our waterline to remove the grass skirt we've been carrying around with us since Vero Beach. Geru is now looking a little less grungy, although she is still awaiting a good cleaning topside.

While in Marsh Harbour, we met up with Somerset33 again and with Tania and Greg from Wobbley (another boat with an Ottawa registry!) whom we had briefly met before at Green Turtle Cay. It was a neat gathering as everyone was from or familiar with the Ottawa area. Tania and Greg do a lot of snowmobiling in their hometown of Manotick, which is just outside Ottawa. We learned that in the summer people actually race snowmobiles on the water there! Apparently it works if you've got enough speed, and apparently the snowmobiles still work fine even after getting a dunking. Sounds like quite the event to watch!