Marsh Harbour

Leaving Little Harbor on Saturday, our main goal was to snorkel again, since our first taste was so good but too small. We anchored off of Sandy Cay and took a semi-battering dinghy ride to the moorings right on the reef. Complete success- I practically fell in on top of an eagle ray, and the sightings from there remained impressive. Violet and I had a little loggerhead come close enough to just about ask us our names, more eagle rays, a huge Southern sting ray and its smaller sidekick, pufferfish, a wide variety of coral and beautiful iridescent colorful reef fishes galore. The Ruach boys even saw a nurse shark on their path.

Violet goes sans snorkel, and is one intrepid fish out there. She accidentally got into the water with her life jacket on, which I thought would have been fine for her, but she quickly took it off, because “How else am I going to dive like a dolphin?!”. While most of our time is spent holding hands, she breaks away from time to time to dive and swirl nearby. Needless to say, she is beat after her workouts. Lily started out much more fearful but gains confidence with each stroke. She is afraid of the unknown coming around the corner, and Darwin most likely appreciates that.

After snorkeling we hauled anchor and motored on to Tahiti Beach once more, with our sights set on Marsh Harbour for Sunday, so that we could reprovision, take on fuel and water, and Andy could possibly find a spot to watch the Superbowl. Tahiti didn’t disappoint on round two- the kids kayaked in to their ‘treehouse’ (V got a tow since she was late on the uptake for taking off), and we adults brought sundowners and snacks to the beach.

After a lovely and lazy Sunday morning of reading, playing games and stripping bunks and airing blankets (in heightened anticipation of also doing laundry in Marsh Harbour) we took off and headed that way.

We had a gorgeous sail, and I taught/reminded Lily how to make friendship bracelets while underway, by using a 20+ year old bracelet found in the embroidery floss bin as an example. We are both hooked, and pretty soon Andy is going to have a supersweet new bracelet. With fish on it!

Once safely anchored in Marsh Harbor (it’s a beautiful and giant harbor with plenty of room at the moment), we headed ashore with our laundry in search of finding the answers to our erranding questions. The first marina we asked was gracious enough to not only let us use their machines despite not being guests, but they also okayed the kids swimming in the pool and the adults lounging on their covered patio on the edge of the docks while doing so. Laundry was made all the easier by the fact that a) the kids were happy, b)Susanne and I sat at the bar next door and had a drink while we waited for the take out lunch we ordered for all, and c)Andy did all of the laundry. THIS is a ‘chore’ I’m beginning to like!

Because the kids were happy and we had nothing better to do, they swam and swam and we sat and sat. Susanne and I eventually went for a walk, and discovered the giant store that we’d eventually do our provisioning (today), and then came back to the boat for a bit to unload laundry. We Allens went back ashore to find a place to watch the game, and though we did, and had a great dinner with a great view after doing so, we came home after the halftime show to mourn the loss of the Patriots (although, if I’m being honest, I wasn’t mourning anything other than footballers’ salaries vs. educators’/doctors’/researchers’, etc., like I do every time I watch a professional ball game, since I am Señorita Buzzkill).

The bars around the harbor were all showing the game, so sitting in the cockpit meant trying to determine the plays based on fans’ reactions (with help from Andy’s sister on his phone and my dear friend Frosty on mine). After one particularly loud hoo-rah just after the girls went to bed Lily came up and said “Did the Raccoons just win?”. It was nice to be able to tell her this morning that the Raccoons in fact did NOT win, and neither did the Falcons.

Monday’s routine must now begin, since we have a lot on our docket for the day: school, work, provisioning, moving to the fuel dock, and possibly heading out to Great Guana, though time-dependent we might stay here another night.

Off to the breakfast races!