Marsh Harbor Marina- THE JIB ROOM!!

Our Slip ( nice built in ladder to deal with tides-3 foot) ( and no rats!!)

The Jib Room serving Ribs on Weds nights, Steaks on Sat nights

and lunches Tues to Sat. Happy Hour every night but Sunday.

Steven bar tending or dock mastering. This is a family run business and everyone is very helpful and accommodating. Linda and Tom run it with their son Steven. There are other staff members too.

Here is the pool , showers which are pristine. Laundry on site behind the showers.

View from the pools deck looking toward the dock.

Plenty of room for visiting dinghies at the floating dock to the left.

( lots of funky fun things hanging in the bar area. Look for our burgee (RRYC).

We have a new home away from home. It is the Jib Room. ( Actually Marsh Harbor Marina which has the Jib Rooom as part of the complex. It was a welcome site to have a place where we stopped traveling every two or so days. I think Charles picked it because we are across from all the hulabalu from Moorings and Sunsail (charters looking to raise cain) in a more protected part of Marsh Harbor. If there were a hurricane you would want to be here as this side is more protected. If you wanted to drink a Hurricane, not a bad spot either.

We have a cushy slip. Lovely showers, immaculate bathrooms, laundry, pool, bar and restaurant and a SOCIAL LIFE. Since we have been here we have found out that Dawn Treader (Dawn and Ron H.) were here last winter from EYC. Pete C. and Ginny on Joyride ( RRYC) spent the winter of '09-'10 here. So we too are enjoying the winter for now.

The weather beats anything in Florida as we are warm but there is a balmy breeze. We have not had any bugs to worry about. Our slip has an empty spot next to it so Charles has been doing bright work sanding to bare wood going around the boat in the dinghy so he can get to everything from a manageable height. He decided to use Cetal for the toe rail 41 foot worth on both sides and anything he would normally varnish. He has spent hours doing this and it looks great.

Our usual amenities besides the necessities includes cable tv. There are about 30 stations so sometimes we can get an HGTV ( for Sue) or political junkee stuff on Fox Commentary for Charles. PBS is from Miami. We also have local cell phones which come in handy.

A dinghy ride across the harbor takes you to a big gorcery store called Maxwells that carries lots of can goods and fresh veggies, fruit, and meats and drug items. More on the stores later.

Going to Marsh Harbor- The Whale Cay

Whale Cay Chart.- two sources

Nautically, one of the "passages" that everyone talks about on the cruisers net in the morning in the Whale Cay passage. It essentially puts you in the Atlantic Ocean for a 20 minute ride. If it is rough in other spots the Wale can be really bad. If it is a calm day that is your chance to go through. We passed Green Turtle Cay, then the Whale on our way to the Marsh Harbor and I thought it was interesting enough to take a few shots.

For nautical markers, you are not going to find many. There are a few pilings that most cruising guides have locations recorded. But there is one marker that is known to be about two feet below the surface, so exercise caution when going through.

This is the end of the island which looks like a whale. But how did the passage get it's name? Nobody is certain. It made me think about Maine when whales were abundant.

This is part of an abandoned resort where large cruise ships used to frequent. In front you can see one of the markes indicated on the chart. There are not many markers in the Abacos.

Crusing Favorites-Ours

There are a few things we really like to use while cruising. They could help out on the Chesapeake or any where else.

West Marine has a collapsible blue plastic cart with retracting handle and plastic wheels. I always felt I wanted "wheels" to deal with lugging the laundry bag to the Laundromat three blocks away. This thing is wonderful. Our record was probably two Bota boxes of wine, three six packs of glass beer bottles, and $75 bucks worth of groceries. It was so heavy we both had to help lift it when getting on the Vero Beach Bus. Since then we have used to every time for grocery shopping to cart away just about anything.

WEST MARINE Folding Boat Cart Model # 3531779 Retailed for $30 and worth every penney.

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Got RUST? We have found Davis FSR ( Fiberglass Stain Remover- to be magic. It easily removed rust from fiberglass. We had a bunch under the head on the bathroom floor. I had planned to repaint the fiberglass to get rid of the stains but this product just sat in place wiped away with a paper towel and most of it was gone. Second application was easy peasy. Completely gone. I did not have to paint!

Cost about $13 for the small size. West Marine

++++++

SALT AWAY is a great product made to remove salt from your boat using a hose and it's special dispensor. We got it for the 1500 and Charles uses it every time we come back from a good spraying. Get the liguid stuff and the dispensor.

It comes in concentrated form. Put about an ounce in the dispensor and it draws up some as you hose down the boat. Really works.

The Rat Saga

Well it is now 2012 - Happy New Year to all. As has been pointed out bysome of our more devoted following we have been delinquent in our posts and it has been more than a month since we updated the blog. There are several reasons for this, none of them very good. The last report was from Rosie's Place on Grand Cay. I mada a serious error here and we went ashore without putting the hatch boards in. When we awoke the next morning we could here something chewing something else in the aft A/C cabinet - presumably my wiring. Sue investigated further while I went to see if the island sold rat traps - they did not. While investigating she opened one of the cabinets and a large rat jumped out producing a very predictable and justified extreme emotional reaction. The closest place of any size is Marsh Harbor a good two days away. We made it in two days including an overnight stop at anchor behind Powell Cay. The Whale was manageable (Sue has more on that) and we arrived at Marsh Harbor Marina and Jib Room at noon. We have been at the marina since then. We made a decision to use Marsh Harbor as our base from which to explore the Abacos and then to move on to the Exumas later in the season.

The marina is owned and managed by Tom and Linda and their son Stephen and a small local staff. It is beautifully kept and the bathrooms are the cleanest and best set up I have ever found in a marina. Tom drove me to the Central Hardware the afternoon we arrived and I purchased a selection of rat traps - two big Victors and two varieties of glue traps. For the next week these were deployed around the boat in various configurations. We did move all of our clothing and chewable stuff off the boat into temporary storage (I lost one tee shirt in the first two days). It turns out rats are smarter than you think. He (I always presumed it was a he only because I could not face the thought of it being a pregnant she) got into one of the big glue traps early on and then got right out again - they don't work. However he never went close to any of the others again. He ate most of the peanut butter off both Victors without springing them and it appeared we were in for a long seige. During this time we received plenty of advice; one of the dock hands provided me with a small chicken bone and instructed me to cable tie it to the bait holder which I did. That night the trap was sprung - but no rat - how big was it? From the web I discovered there are electric traps available that, once the rat is inside a small house like box a high voltage electric current (from AA batteries) will kill him. Of course Marsh Harbor did not have any and it would take two weeks to get them. However Nassau did have them. So I flew to Nassau and purchased two of them (in case one did not work). On my return I discovered the other Victor in the food cupboard had aslo been sprung - still no rat. Obviously conventional means were not working so I decided to discard all the old traps and get serious with my new electric marvels.

At that point, when I went back to the food cupboard the rat had appeared and was sitting motionless looking at me. I poked it with my 1" combination wrench to see if it was still alive. It was and it moved at which point I lost it and beat the poor thing to death with the wrench. Having removed the carcass from the boat I retired to the bar for a stiff drink - provided I must say compliments of the marina.

It took a day to vacuum, wash, and disinfect the boat, throw out all perishable goods, launder everything on the boat and then put everything back together. For a week we had been sleeping in the cockpit - thank goodness for watertight side curtains - and it was very nice to sleep once more in a proper bed. The hatch boards now go in whenever we leave the boat.

We decided to spend Christmas with Frank and his family in Houston which made a very nice break and for the last two days we have been in Hope Town harbor. Sue will be blogging about that later. The weather here is terrific quite cool at night and not too hot during the day. I have made significant progress on my brightwork.

Anyway, Happy New Year and my resolution is to be more didligent about keeping up this blog.