March 1-2, 2016 dinghy exploring to Crossing Beach

After breakfast, we headed back to Marsh Harbor.  It is only 22 nautical miles, but takes about 4 hours.  I spent most of the day packing.  We stopped about 2 miles outside of Marsh Harbor and anchored so we could make water in the clear, clean water.  I took a shower to be prepared for my flight. 

water was clear enough to see our anchor in about 10 feet of water

Just as we were anchoring in Marsh Harbor, I looked at my phone and realized it was Tuesday March 1, not Wednesday March 2.  I was all packed and ready to leave in the morning.  I pulled up my flight information to make sure I was leaving on the 3rd, because I was convinced I was leaving tomorrow.  I had even contacted my taxi and arranged for a pick up at 6:20am.  Boy would I have felt stupid if I had arrived at the airport a day early. 

We decided to enjoy the sunset in the cockpit with a couple cocktails.  AND we will go to bed early and get a good night’s sleep.

Here is a test of a video of mine that I changed into a YouTube video.  
Abaco Sea

Wednesday
OK, do I spend my free day being productive or not?  We spent the morning doing laundry and cleaning.  We no longer wear any street shoes in the boat, but I am still amazed at home much sand comes into the boat on our feet.  I guess we are going to have to set up a foot wash, like you see whenever you come off of a beach.

I was debating on whether I should clean the inside walls before I left.  The mildew is starting to appear again.  But Dave assured me that it would still be there when I got back.  Then he added “and besides March is Mildew Month.”  So there you go! (?)

By about 1:00, we were ready to play.  We dressed in swimming attire and went for a dingy ride.  We took the dinghy outside the harbor along the shore to the NW.  We have been out here in our boat, but wanted to explore the shoreline.  We checked out a little shallow bay near the entrance to the harbor.  We saw about a dozen turtles in there.  They moved so fast we thought they were sting rays at first.  But we got close enough to see the feet moving.  I think if you were snorkeling, they wouldn’t be as shy. 

We floated over Mermaid Reef, a small snorkeling reef, and checked out the underwater sea life with our bucket that has a clear bottom.  It’s just like looking through goggles. 

Then we beached our dingy on Crossing Beach.  It is across the street from the  Albury Ferry dock.  We walked to a small take out restaurant for lunch.  Dave had their conch burger and fries.  I had the grouper fingers.  Both were great, but we need to stop eating fried food. 

Crossing Beach in Marsh Harbor

view from the restaurant of Boat Harbor

Back in the dingy, we checked out the islands and a connection to the ferry dock where we had lunch.  There were some beautiful homes on the back side of the island in that channel.  We checked out the shoreline of Matt Lowe island.  It’s privately owned and there are no trespassing signs on the beach.  We saw about a dozen more turtles here.  We checked out an area that has a marker designating shallow water.  It was a reef, so it’s good we always stay clear of it.  Again, we used the bucket to check it out.  Then back along the shore we saw a small entrance and explored that.  There was a narrow opening at the shore line.  Inside, there was a circular channel with mangroves in the center.  There were homes lining the circular channel, but they were very average homes with fishing boats on their docks.  By now, we were feeling the sun and headed back to the boat.  We had a fun day exploring or “gunk holing”. 

To finish packing, I needed to get under the v-berth for my stored clothing.  We keep our winter coats there and our “wedding and funeral cloths”.  After dinner, we changed my SIM card back to my US Verizon card and put my Bahama SIM card in Dave’s phone.  I have the wifi data on my SIM card.  We also realized that our Verizon account had not been suspended as we thought.  So I will have to check into that when I get to the states.