April 16, 2010.

After a couple days of walking the beaches and swimming in the pools of Great Guana it was time to leave. Great Guana is one of those places that cater more to the spring break crowd. These places remind me of the drunken “sailors” that rent the charter boats in the area and think that’s the scene…….Drink and act like an 18 year old who’s just had his first beer. Bunch of annoying drunks…..they’re harshing my mellow and its time to go.

We put in a double reef, raised the sail, pulled the hook and sailed over to Marsh Harbor in a bit of a hoolie. The wind was cranking but we had a lovely sail and entered Marsh Harbor for the first time.

The anchorage at Marsh Harbor is shallower than I expected but we found a good, well protected spot. I thought that my mellow had been stomped on when we were in Great Guana. I was wrong. Marsh Harbor was like a punch in the face.

On some of the bigger islands that we’ve been to in the last 5 months there are a few cars; you might even see 2 at once. Here in Marsh Harbor we actually witnessed a traffic jam. Between the discourteous drivers and the smell of exhaust we found it to be a bit overwhelming.

Before the English granted the Bahamanians their independence they sowed the seeds of vehicular mayhem when they started these people out driving on the left side of the road. They almost exclusively drive American cars with the driver on the left side of the car. So instead of the driver being near the centerline of the road they’re on the side of the car near the shoulder. So cars passing each other going in opposite directions have a harder time judging how far away they are from each other. Instead of being a reasonable distance from each other across the centerline they both opt to hug the shoulder whenever there is oncoming traffic. So they pass each other with about 15 feet between them while they come as close as possible to mowing down pedestrians walking on the shoulder of the road. I felt like I was taking my life in my hands every time we walked along the shoulder of one of the islands narrow roads. We’d seriously probably be safer walking down the center of the street rather than along the edge.

We spent 2 nights, which when counted as hours translates into….a long f*#king time. We walked quite a bit including a side trip out to see the Bahamanian version of a 4-H fair.
A small petting zoo, some craft vendors and several displays of island grown produce. We hit the islands well stocked grocery store, spent an evening at a “Happy Hour” that truly was only one hour and only brought the price of a beer down to 3.50. Sheesh, I can’t believe that there are cruisers that come to the Bahamas and spend their entire winter here in Marsh Harbor. I just don’t get it. I mean, one night, see some people & hit the grocery store and get the hell outta here. That I could understand.

This place is also the headquarters of the big chartering services here in the Abacos. We watched from our second story Happy Hour perch as boat load after boat load of captains and
crew arrived to wreak havoc on the surrounding waterways. I know that you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover but I’m thinking that a lot of these people would be a more comfortable on a tractor than a sailboat.