Day 78 - Marsh Harbor - A Little About the Food While Waiting Out the Storm

There were more clouds than sun today and the front that brought the snow to DC brought strong winds.  After breakfast we made sure everything on the boat was fastened down tight.  I took a picture of one of our young sailboat friend's boat.  A dock resident came by with a notice about a Trivia match to be held that evening by the pool.  This is an active harbor with something going on every night.  The marina office staff is very friendly at Harbour View and we chatted with them each day.  I asked about a large Hatteras, Discovery II, that we had seen dropping people off and picking people up with lots of luggage.  It turned out that this is a "shuttle" boat from Marsh Harbour to the private Baker’s Bay on Great Guana Cay.  We were told that many movie and sports celebrities spend time in Baker’s Bay, landing in Marsh Harbour Abaco and then taking the shuttle over to Great Guana.  Names mentioned were George Clooney, Cindy Crawford, Matt Damon, Phil Mikkelson, and Michael Douglas.

The morning’s Cruisers.net broadcast told us the specials in the nearby restaurants.  Snappa’s was having pizza night.   I have found that once you get away from the resorts, such as the Green Turtle Club and its European-trained chef, the menu at most places is pretty much the same: fish sandwich (either mahi or grouper), hamburger, chicken sandwich, conch sandwich, and a few basic salads.  The chicken and fish was almost always fried but sometimes you could get it blackened or grilled.  Sides are French fries, peas and rice, and coleslaw.  Appetizers are always battered and fried:  shrimp, conch, fish, conch fritters, chicken wings, lobster bites, etc.  I am not sure if this is to please Americans/Canadians who often like things fried or if Bahamians like things fried too.  That may explain why many of the locals are heavier than they should be to stay healthy.

I do not like to eat fried foods so am always on the lookout for the blackened or grilled fish and seafood.  The limited menus have us eating more on the boat which is fine too, except we don’t have a grill and few marinas in the Bahamas have grills for boaters to use.  The donut holes I had bought in town were more like bread than donuts, the cinnamon roll was pretty much like at home, and I had not yet tried the sweet potato bread.

We puttered on the boat doing cleaning and maintenance into the early afternoon.  The rain moved into the harbor around 2 pm and was over within the hour.  By 3 pm it was over and we took a walk to revisit some shops.  We wanted to go into the Rum Runner in town for a drink, but they were closed on Tuesdays.  Instead, we had cocktails on the boat then went to Mangoes for dinner, skipping the Trivia game.  I had grouper again, this time it was served in a thin tomato sauce with peppers and onions.  Captain Randy had seafood Alfredo.  The restaurant was quiet, especially compared to Snappa’s after the parade the day before.  We spent a quiet evening ourselves on the boat.