Check-in and some gully wash in Marsh Harbour
At 0830 on the 9th, we left Powell Cay to head through the Sea of Abaco to Marsh Harbour. Little rain showers were hitting us off and on, and a huge rainbow showed up for us off the stern.
We navigated through a bunch of different weather states (and water depths!) and enjoyed the scenery along the way.
We arrived in Marsh Harbour a few hours before high tide, and decided to try to sneak into the Harbour View Marina a little earlier than we had planned. We knew we needed to be coming in at about halfway to high tide to have enough water to get in (we draw almost 7 feet). This let’s-just-give-it-a-go idea did not quite work out for us, though, as we found ourselves stuck fast in the mud not too far from the dock. Whoops.
No worries, though–we threw out the anchor to settle in and wait for the tide to rise some more, and Patrick dinghied to shore to get us checked in with customs and immigration. They came to us at the marina and looked over our paperwork and passports; we had already submitted our application and paid the fee for a cruising permit online before we arrived. Each of us still had to go to shore to show up in person and get checked in. We received our cruising permit and our fishing permit, and everyone was authorized to stay in the country. Whew!
We could now take down our “Q” or quarantine flag (the flag you raise when you have not yet cleared customs and immigration), and replace it with our courtesy flag for the Bahamas. This little guy is going to be up there for a while!
Now we are free to travel wherever we would like to go in the Bahamas, for the next six months or so.
First, sunset.
Then, a short walk to a local bar and restaurant down the road, Colors. We had to find some sky juice to celebrate our arrival…and Colors did not disappoint. We did learn from our awesome waitress that it’s called gully wash around these parts, and it’s called sky juice in Nassau.
Cecelia liked this place a lot and even tried a fish finger (much to our surprise, as she claims not to like any kind of seafood!) The fish fingers were kind of like fish sticks, but much fresher, with some small bones still in them. All of the food was delicious, and the drinks were too! We felt pretty darn good about our official arrival into the Bahamas.
Welcome to white beaches and sunny skies!!! I’m happy to hear–on this Thanksgiving Eve–that you arrived safely at your destination. Ditch the squall jackets and cold-weather gear! π
Thank you! We are so glad to be in swimsuits and t-shirts! Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving.
Did Cecelia like the fish sticks?
She did!