Man of War Cay

Man of War Cay    …  Thursday 17^th Jan 2013

We left Lynyard Cay this morning shortly before 8 am.  As we travelled northward, the seas started to get rough again as we crossed to the west of the “cuts” in the island chain.  We were soon through this area and enjoyed a very nice sail with good winds and fairly flat water.  Our objective was Man of War Cay, just across the Sea of Abaco from Marsh Harbour.  The attraction of MOW is that the harbor offer protections from all sides and in particular from the northwesterly winds that are forecast to develop later tonight and continue into Friday.  The entrance channel is pretty exciting – very narrow. The guides advise not to meet another boat in the channel. Once inside it opens up a bit with two harbors – one to the north the other to the south. We headed for the latter and picked up a mooring. Its much too tight in either harbour for boats to anchor. Given that the winds are going to be pretty strong on Friday, we are happy to be on a mooring here. 

Once we were settled at our mooring, we were sitting in the cockpit waiting for the camera battery to charge before going to shore.  We saw a chap going by in his dinghy and waved.  He came over to chat to us.  The more he talked about his experiences coming down the ICW, the more I thought that we had met him once before.  Indeed, his name is Dennis, and he brought his wooden boat Muntyn Top (hopefully, that is the spelling) down from New Hampshire with his wife and a high school friend.  We had met them on the dock at Brunswick, Georgia when we were doing the repair to the ‘dripless seal’.  They had engine problems at that time and were towed into the dock.  Dennis plans to spend the winter on a mooring here in Man of War harbor. His wife is currently back in the USA skiing – but will be back next week.

We had a brief look around the “town” this afternoon. We are quite intrigued because we had heard from a Canadian cruiser that this was a very religious – somewhat strange community. Apparently until last year they wouldn’t allow black people to stay on the island past sunset so they would have to take the ferry back to Marsh Harbour. We believe this is no longer the case. The “town” is actually very small, but it looks well kept and there is some industry in the form of a boat building business. It also has a good reputation as a marina and boat repair yard. The people that we have met so far all seemed friendly and helpful. One of the less attractive features of Man of War is that it’s dry—no alcohol for sale!  Bars for watching the football are not in abundance. That means that we will need to get back to Marsh Harbour on Sunday.

Gloria

26 35 43.3 N, 77 00 26.3 W

Man of War Cay - mooring field

Man of War Cay - the town