We’ve enjoyed our stay here in the harbour at Clarence Town. The weather has been great – sunny and hot. We’re finally starting to see more normal temperatures for this time of year (28 degrees today) and we went for our first swim of the season.
We decided to go to shore on Saturday, Feb. 17 and it was the first time we were off the boat since leaving Big Major on Feb. 13. It felt good to walk around! The last time we were in Clarence Town, we were with Caroline and our friends Donalda and Bill Stevens. We were anchored on the west side of Long Island and rented a car for a day. We drove down to Clarence Town and had lunch at the Flying Fish Marina (it has a nice restaurant). The town hasn’t changed much in 4 years but it does seem a bit more deserted.
On this visit to town we were looking for Erica’s bakery. After much searching, we finally found the little shop relatively close to the dinghy dock (figures). It was a great little store with fresh bread and amazing pound cake! On our way back to the dinghy dock, Mark stopped at the little gas station to get an ice cream. While we were waiting there, we met 2 other couples from the anchorage. One couple was from Michigan and the other couple was from Germany and Switzerland. The Michigan folks were on their first Bahamas’ visit and the European couple were on their way back to the Dominican Republic where they store their sailboat. We had a great chat standing in the shade and ended up inviting both couples back to our boat for happy hour (which lasted until after 8pm). It was very interesting hearing both couples’ stories.
Today we went back to shore for some last minute items. We bought gas for the generator and the dinghy and filled a few water jugs. We went back to Erica’s for a few items and we checked out the Packing House! This warehouse sells local produce so we bought bananas and 2 papayas!! We arrived back at the boat just before lunch and spent the rest of the day getting ready to depart in the morning. I made chilli and banana bread for our passage and we have lots of leftovers for quick meals while underway.
It’s now 8pm Monday, Feb. 19 and we’re pretty much ready to pull up anchor in the morning. We’re hoping to leave around 6am and sail the 180nm to Turks & Caicos with a good northwest wind. We might pick up some cell signals as we travel past some of the outer islands but I’m not counting on it. It will take a few days to get wifi sorted in Providenciales but hopefully the wifi at South Side Marina will be good. Next post will be from Turks & Caicos in a few days! Don’t forget you can always reach us on the inreach device and follow our trail as we move along.
Crimson Kathryn and her crew 