April 21, 2015 -- Man 0' War Cay--What? No Alcohol????, Boatbuilding and Sailmaking Happens Here

Ootching our way into the marina at Man o'War was tight, but we finally found a decent mooring.  Only decent, because I watched the boat behind us come so very close to us when the wind picked up.  It was a little nerve wracking.  Then a catamaran came in not long after, speeding along very confidently, and they hooked in behind us. 

I would only recommend staying on the inside if you had a smaller boat than 46 feet and if the winds made it impossible to anchor outside.

When we got settled, an older man motored out in a small boat and asked us to pay him for the mooring.  He was David Albury, of the legendary Albury family that settled in these parts a long time ago.  He managed the moorings.  We had gotten down to very little cash, so we had to finagle a deal to take $15 for the night instead of the normal $20.

Lesson here:  Always bring more cash than you think you need to the Bahamas.  Many places still don't take credit cards and if they do, they request a purchase of at least $20 or $50.  It can cause some headaches.  The "bank" only comes once a week on a regular weekday from 10am to 2pm.  Gary was in line at 9:45am and being the gentleman he is, when a few of the town's ladies showed up behind him, he offered to let them go ahead of him, but they politely declined and let him go first.

A new Albury boat being built in the boat shed

Man o' War Cay is best known for their boatbuilding and sailmaking expertise, as we evidenced by a shore excursion later that day.  The noise and smell of sanding came from one building while another used fiberglass molds to make new boats.  The noise went on all day, stopping around 4 or so in the afternoon, when a lot of workers left their jobs and took the ferry back to their homes on other islands. 

Because of the work ethic there and a no-alcohol policy, I wasn't sure what type of island this would turn out to be.  The accents were an interesting mix of Boston, Canadian, and further up the North Atlantic.

Joe Albury's newest project:  a hand-built
sailing dinghy

We needed some repairs done to our genoa, so we took it down and hauled it over to Jay, the island sail repair dude.  An American, he said he will never go back to the States.  He lives in a beautiful, large home overlooking the inner harbor with his daughter (and maybe a wife, though the guys never saw her).  We had to stay for as long as it would take him to finish the sail and a charter company had the slot before us, so we knew we'd be in the area for at least a few days.

We met the couple, Day and Cray, on the catamaran behind us, and Rich, who was on a Tayana in front of us in the mooring field.  All very nice people, and we ended up having lunch with Day and Cray at the newly opened Hibiscus Cafe.  They are rusty, using a menu from another restaurant down the street, and a little overpriced, but we had a good time.

While walking around town, we noticed a flyer for a school fundraiser; they would be serving lunch the next day and all monies would be going to a field trip fund for the students (whom we later found out numbered 10 total).  We sauntered up to the school a little later than the scheduled time to find not much left, but we walked away with some interesting dishes:  spaghetti with chicken wings, hot dogs and rice, and for me, cornbread salad and a Rice Krispies treat bar.  I had also picked up half a papaya at the grocery store, so we had quite the eclectic feast at a picnic table by a playground.

We decided after a nervous night on the mooring to move to the outside and anchor.  We saw all kinds of "stuff" in the water as we anchored; Elliott was curious enough to don snorkel gear and check things out.  He found barrels (who knows what they had held, but they were cracked open now), and a large satellite dish, which our anchor snugged up to nicely. 

The next day, as we dinghied toward the cut into the harbor, we noticed an Albury boat with two guys aboard paddling towards shore.  We went over to them and asked if they needed help; they were certainly glad to have it their engine was messed up and the one oar was okay, but the other was just a mop handle.

We tied up and pulled them in, without getting their names, but we got many thanks.  

Very nice guys.  Funny thing was, over the next 24 hours, we saw the older guy (maybe 30 years in age or so) about six times.  We'd laugh and wave every time.

On the same pole that we saw the flyer for the field trip fundraiser, we saw a notice that the school was having a film showing that Thursday.  Five bucks got you into the show with popcorn.  Elliott decided to go as he'd never seen the movie, "Cool Runnings."  He got to meet some of the local kids and he brought fresh coconut to share.

Island living means that everyone knows each other and they all look out for each other.  We found this out the hard way.  I had gone to the marina to check out their book swap; I traded some of my books for new ones.  But I had about six books and they were heavy and we had planned on walking down island for a look-see at some of the private residences.  Gary came up with the plan to put the books under a milk crate he saw on one of the docks.  I wasn't keen on it because I assumed the crate belonged to someone, but he went ahead.  Even before he had gotten done with putting the books under the crate, I could hear a local behind me telling on Gary.  "That guy just went and turned over your crate, Joe." 

In a few seconds, Joe Albury, proprietor of a dock front store, walked down the dock to check things out.  Gary told him what he was doing and the guy said okay, but I could tell he wasn't happy about it.  He's probably thinking that he'll be much better off when the durn tourists go home.  I was uncomfortable with it, so I asked Gary to retrieve the books.  Some other folks we knew on the boat New Passage offered to take the stack of books to our boat for us when they left.  I was grateful.  I wouldn't want anyone messing with my stuff either.

We did some grocery shopping to top up on a few things and went back to the boat to wait for the phone call from the sail repair guy.

That call came later the next day.  In the meantime, we noticed that when we thought we were buying one can of Arizona tea that we'd been charged for a whole case to the tune of $26.00.  We got that refund fast!

Almost all the rest of our money went to pay for the sail repair, but so far, it seems money well spent.  (We've noticed a difference when we tack that the sail no longer gets hung up on the spreader where it had been wearing thin and thready.)