Marsh Harbour - Abacos

(this is Kevin writing another post. Amanda had a great post written, but apparently when I unplug the laptop and we don't have the battery in, you lose everything. Who knew? So, as punishment, I have been tasked with writing a witty and informative replacement post.)

There's a pretty nasty cold front approaching from Florida expected on Wednesday, so have moved over to Marsh Harbour. Marsh Harbour is one the largest cities in the Bahamas (the largest in the Abacos) and has a large harbour (hence the name) with good protection from all directions. It seems everyone else had the same idea, and the harbour is packed with boats, there are probably about 100 boats anchored here right now. Marsh Harbour has pretty much everything you could need, several grocery stores, hardware stores, lots of bars and restaurants so it will be a nice spot to stay a few days make some last minute purchases before heading back to the states. The harbour has lots of sea turtles swimming around and we have seen a pod of dolphins as well.

The weather forecast said to expect squalls in advance of the front which is typical, but this front is supposed to be fairly strong which is why we wanted to be in the harbour. This morning at about 8:30 the sky to the northwest was extremely dark and we knew that a squall was approaching. So, we quickly worked our way through our squall checklist which we have written on a post it and taped to the chart table. Basically this entails getting our airhorns ready, turning on the vhf, unplugging the dinghy so it doesn't fill up like a bathtub, putting towels under leaky hatches, stowing anything which might blow away and a bunch of other things I won't bore you with. We were a bit concerned with so many boats in such a small area, everyone is really close. As the squall hit, the wind quickly built up to 40 knots (46 mph) and it was raining so hard we could only see about 50 feet. Usually squalls are short lived lasting only a few minutes, but this one went on for about an hour with sustained winds of about 25-30 knots. Nobody around us dragged, but it was still a bit nerve-wracking being so close to the other boats with the wind clocking 360 degrees as the squall passed. Fortunately everyone around us seemed to know what they were doing and were anchored appropriately. Now it is just kind of drizzling rain and overcast and we expect it to be this way through tomorrow. At least we are getting a Wi-Fi signal on the boat, so we surf the internet while we wait for the weather to improve.