Saturday April 16th – Marsh Harbour to Tahiti Beach
We had our two days R&R at the Conch Inn Marina in Marsh Harbour, this after “hiding” from four days of bad weather in Treasure Cay. Now it was time to do a bit of cruising. We left the harbor and cruised slowly past Point Set Rock and through the shallow water north of Lubbers Quarters Cay to the anchorage off the beautiful Tahiti beach. Bella’s expectation is that as soon as the anchor splashes we launch the dinghy and take her ashore! She had a great time sprinting back and forth on the soft sand with a big grin on her face! We watched as the Thirsty Cuda floating bar arrived and anchored off the beach.
As we pulled into the anchorage we were surprised to see re Fraiche, which is the same model boat as Sonas. We fist knew her as Mint Julip owner by the Shircliffs, then as Nagari, owned by Paul and Michelle Lewis, and now owned by the Fraiche’s.
Sunday and Monday April 17th and 18th – Tilloo Bank and Tahiti Beach
Late Sunday morning we upped anchor and headed down to Tilloo Bank for the day. The breeze was from the south which makes the anchorage more open to the wind so we weren’t planning on overnighting. The charts and cruising guide indicated a Median Low Water (MLW) level of five to seven feet going south past Lubbers Quarters. We draw five feet so we would be idling along until we got to deeper water. At one stage we had less that a foot beneath the keel, which didn’t overly worry us as our running gear is protected by a lower keel plus the bottom in this area is really soft sand!
We anchored at the north east end of the beautiful large shallow bank and took the dinghy across the shallow clear water into the long beach. The bank is well known for sting rays and starfish, we saw some of the latter but none of the former.
Late afternoon we lifted the anchor and retraced our course back to Tahiti Beach. We passed the site of the famous Cracker P’s bar and grill which we had been to many times. Now sadly totally destroyed by Dorian. We did however notice a large OPEN sign on the building next door as we passed. We Googled later and discovered that it a new lodging and restaurant called Lubbers Landing. It didn’t have a dock but a small landing area for dinghys. We shall see if we can fit in a visit before the end of our trip.
We stayed off Tahiti Beach on Monday. Just after dark a large thunder and lightning storm rolled in, with the wind changing one hundred and eighty degrees and blowing hard from the north with high gusts. Thankfully it had passed by before it was time to bunk down for the night. We have an excellent anchor alarm tied into our AIS system. The phone APP shows where the boat is in relation to the anchor and how it is moving within the scope of the anchor set. It has proven to be highly accurate. We know it works well because often we forget to turn it off before leaving an anchorage and when we pass outside the alarm limit we have set, the loud alarm goes off!
Tuesday April 19th- To Conch Inn Marina, Marsh Harbour.
Our daughter Claire and her boyfriend Jerome arrive tomorrow so we booked into Conch Inn for two nights. After tying up we went to Maxwell’s supermarket which this time was well stocked with fresh fruit and veggies. We also got in a couple of case of Sands beer to make sure we had plenty for our guests.
Tonight we went to Colors Bahamian for dinner again, and found that it was Karaoke night! And boy was it loud. We ate as quickly as we could and got back to the boat! We know Claire enjoys a good Karaoke so will likely take her next Tuesday before she leaves!
One unfortunate issue we had today – the remote screen for our water maker stopped working as did the screen on the water maker itself. Paul spoke with the tech at the manufacturer who asked him to take off the cover and put a meter on some points. Due to where the water maker is in the lazarette he needed a low profile ratchet screw driver, not to be found in the local hardware store. So we asked Claire to get him one and bring it over tomorrow.
Wednesday April 20th – Conch Inn, Marsh Harbour.
Claire and Jerome’s flight was delayed by an hour and a half which gave us more time to do some inside and outside “house work.” As soon as they arrived Paul grabbed the screw driver and took off the top of the water maker. Again working with the tech on the phone they worked out that the small 1.5 inch by 1.5 inch board supplying 24volts to the screen was likely bad. We were not going to even try to source this while here or have one flown in, We will buy the water we need from marinas as needed. So not a huge issue, just an annoyance. We all went up to Snappas for dinner.
Thursday April 21st- Back to Tahiti Beach
Claire and Jerome wanted to see the islands and snorkel, snorkel snorkel. Before they arrived we had checked out the Dodge Guide which has specific pages on where to snorkel the Abacos. From Marsh we ran back down to Tilloo Bank and they walked the beach and took the dinghy and explored the bank for sea life. We then retraced and anchored off Tahiti Beach for the night.
Friday April 22nd – Hope Town
The Dodge Guide indicated that there was a good snorkeling spot inside Tilloo Cut. Paul took Claire and Jerome over to check it out but the swell coming in through the cut was too rough. They snorkeled on the calmer side of the cut and then took the dinghy further south to Tavern Cay and snorkeled there. They saw plenty of fish and turtles and then a barracuda followed Claire so she hot flippered it back to the dinghy!
After lunch we headed up to Hope Town. We had considered going into the harbour and picking up a mooring ball. However the forecast was for a balmy evening with light winds. If we needed to use the generator for overnight AC we would rather be more in the open and not potentially annoying boaters in close proximity in the mooring field.
We took the dinghy in, tied up at the excellent brand new dinghy dock, then walked through town. We had a look at the reef on the Atlantic side of Elbow Cay where Claire and Jerome planned to snorkel. The town was well protected from the breeze and hot, so we found Munchies snack shop and had ice creams! We then took the dinghy across to the lighthouse and the “kids” climbed to the top before we returned to Sonas.
Week three is now complete!