We have been spending our time adjusting to our
home-away-from-home, Boat Harbour Marina. The Marina is part of the Abaco Beach Resort, which includes docks for about 200 boats, as well as a condominium complex.
The resort is a gated community with 24-hour guard service. Joel is one of the guards who welcomes everyone as they arrive at the guard station.
The grounds are well landscaped.
The resort includes a pool and beach that overlook the Sea of Abaco.
A Laundromat is located behind the pool.......$3 each for a wash and dry.
Most people get around the resort by bicycle.
Boat Harbour is the home to The Royal Marsh Harbour Yacht Club (RMHYC) since 2002. RMHYC was founded in 1980. At this time it has 800 boat members and 1600 individual members from every State or Province in the US and Canada with some from as far away as the U.K. and Switzerland. This year there are between 55-60 RMHYC cruising boats in the Marina. Informal happy hours take place on at least two docks every night. We limit our participation to one or two evenings. Cakes are made for special occasions like birthdays.
Many activities are available on a daily basis, including water aerobics, yoga, basket making, bocce ball, book club, water color painting, golf, tennis, walking groups, fishing trips. Diane takes advantage of the water aerobics and yoga classes offered for free. Instructors are volunteer members.Yoga takes place in a Tiki Hut hanging over the Sea of Abaco. Listening to the waves splashing under us is very soothing!
We both play bocce ball once a week.
The tent next to the Bocce Ball court is where the RMHYC socials take place between November and April. The annual Chili Cook-off took place in January. Twenty-two male members entered their chili and RMHYC members paid $15 to enjoy the chili and open bar. The Commodore's Ball will be held in February.
One of the homeowners had his annual New Year party, which included drinks, appetizers and live band for three hours. Needless to say, a good time was had by all.
A group of members plant a garden each year.....it's great to be able to cut fresh herbs when needed!
In addition to enjoying the RMHYC activities, we like to cruise to the out islands when the weather permits.
We have been able to travel each week and have taken both day and overnight cruises to Man-O-War Cay, Tilloo Cay, Tahiti Beach, Lynyard Cay and Little Harbour.
Four boats went to Little Harbour for two days. We moored in Little Harbour and took a trip on Duetto to Lynyard Cay for treasure hunting.
We ate lunch at Pete's Pub which is located right on the sandy beach, where you get sand in your feet while you eat their delicious fresh fish. One member of our flotilla is holding up the lunch menu.
At 5 p.m. we had a floating happy hour, where we tied our dinghy's together and shared appetizers.
John has been working on a couple of boat projects, continuing to practice programming and reading by the pool. Diane is getting back into basket weaving and starting to get tips on making seaglass jewelry. It is amazing how creative some of the members are and how much they are willing to share their knowledge and expertise. Diane also plays games with groups of women including dominoes, rummycub, bananagram.
The weather has been between 65 and 75 degrees and sunny most days. We have had cold fronts come through but the cold/windy weather isn't staying around for too long yet. We hope that continues.
Our next Blog Posting will be about the Marsh Harbour area.
