Another Day in the Harbour
11 February 2010 | Morgan's Bluff, Andros
Beth / nights 72, days 80, wind 20kn
After a day of beach combing (for me) anchor chain storage and windlass switch cleaning (for Jim) and a final gourmet dinner aboard Ramha (for both of us) we decided it was time to move on.
Before I get to that part though, I want to introduce Lee Shalom. We discovered that he is the harbourmaster and the man to see for any questions or needs about Morgan's Bluff. He is mentioned in the Yachtsman's Guide to the Bahamas (name is spelled differently and I don't know which is right, but it is pronounced Shalom so that's how I spelled it!) What a lovely man. He is well travelled, having been with the merchant navy for many years - has been to Vancouver and Montreal and Halifax among many other places. We kept supplying him with our last few cans of Keith's India Pale Ale in return for his kindness.
He brought over a box of delicious grapefruit for Ramha and Madcap to share, and when we raved about the flavour so much, he gave us another box! He hooked up a half mile of water hose so we could fill our tanks directly from the tap instead of lugging it by cans - and at no charge. Along with our water, he gave us information. Andros has a plentiful supply of fresh water and the tankers come to the big wharf in the bay every day to fill up. They carry 3 million gallons of water every day to Nassau. When I asked about paying for it, he said, "No! Water is free. We have it and it is for giving!" Not even Nassau pays for it. I don't know enough about the Bahamian government to know whether there is some other compensation for what the other islands take from here.
We enjoyed a delicious Greek dinner on Ramha with kabobs, roasted potatoes, Greek salad and flat bread with tzatziki. The smell was mouthwatering as we came aboard, and the flavour was just as good. We took a peek at some of Judi's beautiful paintings and look forward to seeing more by the next time we meet.
As we stepped back across to Madcap, we saw the lights of the mailboat coming in. It turned on a dime in the tiny basin, but had quite a bit of difficulty backing up to the ramp. We had wondered how such a long boat could turn in there, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was that it has no thrusters and only a single prop so it kept getting caught by current and had to go back and foward several times and then just creep back to avoid the fishing boats tied up over there. It was something like backing up Madcap - only much longer!
Morning brought a quick photo trip around to see the pallets of goods with recipients' names on them lined up along the roadway, and the piles of boxes filled with grapefruit and cabbage and other produce ready to be loaded. If we'd been here a couple of weeks ago, we'd have seen bales of sponges here too.
Then we were off - out through the entrance to the basin, out through the channel into the bay, around the corner and off on a course to Fresh Creek. We had been told the fuel boat would be in around 8 am so both of us moved off the dock and out of the way early. Ramha planned to go back in later in the day, but we were ready for new sights. (We never did see that fuel boat - I guess we needn't have made such an early start.) Sails went up, engine went off and away we went, looking for the next adventure.