Thursday, December 8th, Man-O-War mooring

A generator ran all night. Must have been to the large tug that left at dawn pushing a huge barge through the channel at high tide. Yesterday they tried it and got stuck in the channel, churning up sand and having a hard time getting back into their space at the dock.

We went ashore and walked around to the little quaint shops and the ocean beach and ate lunch at Bradley’s on the Harbour. Spoke to one shopowner about schooling. There are 30 elementary students on Man-O-War and 15 high schoolers, some opting to take the ferry over to Marsh Harbour. Her 2 older children went to college in Florida, both US citizens having been born in the US so there is no problem with getting travel permits through the Bahamas. If not a US citizen, one has to reapply for travel permits every few months. And there are no aid programs to help defer the cost of university.

Met a couple with a Sunsail boat, she from France and he British. We see lots of the Sunsail boats in the Abacos from the Moorings in Marsh Harbour. It’s rather like a timeshare with boats. After chartering one for 5 years, then there’s the option of buying it and one can then reserve a boat anywhere there are Sunsails: the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Bahamas, etc. One wouldn’t have to worry about the maintenance or storage!