Exploring ashore in Marsh Harbor

Still had some laundry to catch up on and decks to wash, but we were done just before noon and were contemplating a quick lunch and then a walkabout through town when we were hailed by John and Betty who had already started their walkabout - - so we joined them. We wandered in an out of several different types of stores but were particularly surprised to see so many hardware type places - - - it attests to the fact that so many cruisers plunk their anchor down here and spend the whole winter here. ---and we KNOW how much cruisers like hardware and marine stores! We found a very nice local lunch spot where three of us had the best wraps we've had and Dan opted for the conch burger which looked better than most we've tried. We finalized our walkabout at Maxwell's Grocers and were surprised at the size and scope of it. Good prices and lots to choose from. We, of course, bought too much and had to schlep it back to the boat.

It was hot in town and we were glad to get back aboard, stow the fresh stuff, don bathing suits and head for our Olympic sized swimming pool - - -NOT! It may be tiny, but it hit the spot and we relaxed poolside after our swim and shower before heading back to the boat in time for 5 o'clock.

Another nice feature by our pool is all the herbs that have been planted by one of the regulars that spends their entire winter at Harbour View Marina. We met the husband of the green thumb and he said she was away for two weeks and take whatever I could use!! I have been planning menus around fresh herbs ever since!

I will snip ever so sparingly, but hope to put the mint to good use in making some taboule - - - Abaco seems to have some good farming going on and the tomatoes are plentiful.

Back aboard Brunelle we checked e-mail and found that Ed Dooley had written to tell us that friends of theirs were in Marsh Harbor and we should try to connect. We then checked out the blog of these "new" friends and read that they planned to hit Happy Hour at Snappa's this evening. Snappa's is about 100 feet from the entrance to our marina so we headed right over, picked Dan and Nancy out of the crowd and introduced ourselves. We had a few drinks, swapped a few stories and hope to run into them again!

Nancy and Dan had just been joined by Robert (middle) a friend from home (Minnesota) and asked us to join them for a drink or two. They had met Ed and Connie Dooley in Brunswick, GA.

While we were enjoying our drinks we noticed that the strong winds today had stirred up the several brush fires that have been burning on the island of Abaco for weeks and the sunset took on a very eerie glow caused by all the smoke.

Smoke tinged sunset.

Tomorrow we will venture over to the Abaco Beach Resort at the Boat Harbor to see how the "other half" (or I should say two thirds) live. ~~~_/)~~~M&D