Bahamas - Abacos: Man-O-War

Day 287
NM today: 7
NM to Date: 4408

We only traveled seven nautical miles today, but before we left Baker's Rock anchorage, Clark had me enter a bunch of waypoints. I settled back expecting a long ride and next thing I knew Clark was calling the Man-O-War Marina to see if they could accommodate us for the night.

Busy Harbour of Man-O-War in the Abacos, Bahamas

As we secured our boat in port another boat, a sailboat, pulled into a nearby slip. The owners of this vessel, Carina, are extremely friendly boaters from Maryland. We exchanged boat cards in between hooking up boat power, etc.

We ate a quick lunch on board and then headed off to explore town. The marina had a map posted on the property showing the town's places of interest, so Clark snapped a picture on his cell phone to take with us as a reference guide.

Town Map

We tried to find Lola's Bakery, but Lola is old and stopped baking about a year ago. Although we were unsuccessful in finding baked goods, we found some pretty beautiful places as we looked for her now-nonexistent place of business.

House for Sale in Man-O-War
$375,000

A View of Paradise 

Lovely Flower Gardens

After viewing the ocean, we walked into the main section of town and saw some pretty buildings.

Peach-Colored Post Office

Blue-Green School

Town Library

The High School

Methodist Church

As we walked back towards the boat, Clark found a place for us to buy frozen treats. I could not find a flavor of ice cream that appealed to me, so like Clark, I had a red raspberry sorbet that hit the spot. Surprisingly, we saw the folks from Job Site just down the street. They had rented a golf cart earlier in the day and had just returned from their explorations. They highly recommended that we rent one as well as the island was well worth the cost.

Given their input that the streets start out paved and rapidly go downhill upon leaving the main section of town, we decided we would forego the bike option and rent a golf cart. Two hours cost $30.

Path out of Town

Became a Sandy Path

and Eventually very rough terrain like this natural bridge
separating the Atlantic Ocean from the Sea of Abaco

The path was too narrow for two golf carts to
pass each other in some sections of the road

 As we motored along we caught little glimpses of paradise.

 

We found a pretty spot to take a selfie picture.

Clark and Ev in Paradise

The road dead-ended into someone's private driveway, so we turned around for the return trip to town. Just after we passed over the natural bridge (shown above), we saw a man snorkeling in the ocean waters. Right after that we found Ann from Carina sitting at a covered picnic table. The man we had just seen snorkeling was her husband, Rocky. We talked to Ann briefly before continuing on our way.

Rocky Snorkeling

Covered Picnic Table at Natural Bridge

Ann Enjoying the Sea Breeze
while waiting for Rocky to return

As we reentered town, Clark snapped a picture of one-of-many Abacos "doorbells".

Bell on Post is the Abacos Doorbell

Back in Town

Since we still had time left on our two-hour rental of the golf cart, we went through town and out the other side to see what sights we could find there. The path was somewhat worse here which made the ride all the more interesting. We had stone walls to avoid while skimming under low hanging tree branches.

narrow path, rough terrain
fortunately no other golf carts came along

"Head of the Harbour" sign meant end of the road for us

We were very fortunate in our timing. Just as we pulled into the marina parking lot at the end of our ride, it started to sprinkle and by the time we were on the boat, it started to pour down rain. Our friends Ann and Rocky were not quite so lucky. As we watched the rain coming down in torrents, they walked by soaked to the skin. Ann said as she went by, "We didn't get the timing quite right."

Even though the sun came out in full force afterwards, the rain ended our day's activities. We had supper on board tonight after eating out two nights in a row. Just for fun Clark tried the television and we were both extremely surprised to find a choice of six television stations to watch. It has been weeks since I have seen any television whatsoever. 

Tomorrow being Sunday everything in any of the towns will be closed, so it looks like we'll be back to an anchorage again tomorrow night.