April 12th – April 17th

Our last post covered just two days. A night at Allans-Pensacola where our anchor dragged, then the trip back into the Hub of Abaco to anchor at Baker’s Bay. Sian ended that blog post with “Anyway I for one am thrilled to be tucked in (fingers crossed with no anchor issues) for a nice quiet night out of the north wind.”

Paul had started to take ill with the meds he was on. He was taking a muscle relaxer twice a day, one Tramadol pain med per day (he self-reduced from two), nine Motrin anti-inflammatory per day, and a prescription anti-acid twice a day. So he put himself to bed early with a tummy sounding lie Mount Etna about to erupt! Sian came down later, but lay in bed listening to the sounds of the boat, the waves, and the snubber. It ended up that she spent another restless night worried about the anchor! And that is what an anchor drag will do to you for a while – make you suspect your ground tackle

I was busy watching the shore line and hoping like mad that we could stay put and Paul could sleep,which we did but truthfully my nerves were fried from the worry and greeted the dawn thinking “we need to sell the boat, I cannot be anxious like this any more”I like to think that revelation prompted our swift entry into the marina and equilibrium has been restored. 

Paul had a decent night’s sleep, but was violently ill when he got up. We made the decision that we needed to get into a marina, get tied up, and Paul was to stay pretty much boat-bound until we saw real progress. We had some options of marinas but decided to get back to our favorite – Treasure Cay. We could focus on Paul’s health whilst Sian could still enjoy the fabulous beach and marina-hotel amenities. High winds for a couple of days but I did meet some lovely people,and their dogs and even saw a dead shark washed up on the beach. Don’t know what happened to him, he looked fine, just dead!

We  wanted to be over in Marsh Harbour by Tuesday to prepare for family arriving, so went ahead and booked a slip until then – 5 days.

Paul focused on his Priformis stretches, four sessions each day. By the end of the five days he had also weaned himself off all of the meds except the anti-acids. Sian walked the beach every day and did some boat chores. When we were ready to leave for Marsh Paul was finally feeling much better, even without the meds.

On Tuesday we set off for Marsh late morning. We were in no particular hurry so ran at just six knots and arrived to anchor off Marsh Harbour Marina and Jib Room. After launching the dinghy we went over and tied up at Union Jack dock, where the local Marsh Harbour Yacht Club had built and installed a dingy dock for visiting cruisers. We picked up a few  things at the store, including a gallon of distilled water for battery maintenance.  We visited the Jib Room for lunch the next day, but really spent the time, as planned, spiffing up Sonas for her visitors.