We’ve heard a lot about Marsh Harbour. A lot of cruisers go there and never leave. There were several things we needed for the boat, food and supplies and we had high hopes that we could get it all at Marsh Harbour. We entered the harbor at low tide which was our first mistake. The harbor was full of boats and as we motored around looking for a place to drop anchor it became very shallow. In fact some of the anchored boats were aground. We looked over in the corner of the harbor and there hard aground was Lee Way.
(We last saw them aground on Great Guana and they had just left their boat grounded and went to the bar. When the tide came in and the boat freed itself, it began to wander all over the anchorage hitting other sailboats. A cruiser finally had to drag them from the bar and send them back to reanchor their boat).

What are the odds that we would see them at two different anchorages and both times they would be hard aground? At least this time their dingy was there so they hadn’t abandoned the boat. We made sure we anchored away from them. By the time we had our anchor set and made it to shore it was about 4:30.

Our second mistake. It was rush hour. Remember we had just come from three different islands where all we saw were golf carts and now we were in the midst of cars and trucks racing on narrow roads. Overwhelmed, we only walked as far as the hardware store and the grocery store before returning to the boat. Marsh Harbour had not made a good first impression.

We decided we would go into town earlier the next day and avoid most of the traffic as we had a lot of walking to do. This time it wasn’t as bad. In about 4 hours of walking in the blistering sun, we covered all the hardware and grocery stores in the area. On the way back to the boat we passed a video store that advertised DVD’s for ten dollars. We stopped in for a look. They didn’t have a lot of movies but they did have a lot of new movies, so new they were still out in the theatres in the US. This seemed a bit suspicious, but maybe, I thought to myself, they were international releases and international releases went right to DVD. Anyway, we bought two movies and left. As we were walking back to the boat we passed a barber shop. Tristan really needed his haircut so we decided to stop in.

From the outside you could not see into the barber shop as the windows were blacked out. We opened the door and inside we found about 6 locals sitting in the chairs along the wall and one guy in the barber chair. Dan and I looked at each other thinking these guys were all waiting for a haircut and there’s no way we’re going to wait that long. We let the door close and start to leave but one of the guys opens it back up and asks if he can help us. I said I needed to get my son’s hair cut but it looked as if he was really busy. He said no, come on in. He kicked the guy out of the barber chair. The rest of the guys were just in there to watch the soccer game.

This was my first visit to a black barber shop. In fact I think it is safe to say it was all of ours first visit to a black barber shop. Dan and Tristan took two chairs together on one side of the shop and a guy got up so Tessa and I could sit next to each other. One of the patrons asked Tristan if we were from America.

The barber quickly cleaned up the chair and motioned for Tristan to sit down. As Tristan left his chair, Tessa took his seat next to Dan. I look at the guy standing next to me and offer him Tessa’s seat. He thanks me and sits down.

Tristan was a trooper. He bravely climbed in the chair I am sure not knowing what to expect. This was clearly not Supercuts. We aren’t in Kansas anymore Dorothy. The barber quickly went to work with the clippers. The first couple of swipes I was starting to think this wasn’t a good idea. I’m not sure how many, if any, white people’s hair he has cut, but it wasn’t looking good. I make eye contact with Dan. He’d also planned to get his hair cut here but I can see the fear on his face. I decide to concentrate on the pictures of the half naked women hung on the wall. Interesting. When I have seen them all, I look back at Tristan’s hair. Hey!! It is starting to look pretty good!! I happen to glance to my left. The five guys who are sitting there have now stopped watching the soccer game and are just staring at Tristan getting his hair cut. I mean just staring, fascinated. I catch Dan’s eye and tilt my head toward the guys. We both start smiling.

The door opens and another guy walks in. Apparently there is a pecking order in the barber shop because when he walks in, the guy next to me has to once again give up his seat. As far as I can tell, none of them are there to get their hair cut. The barber finishes with Tristan and I love the cut. It really looks great. Now it is Dan’s turn.

Dan bravely climbs into the chair. Tessa has busied herself by looking at the DVD’s we bought at the store. She brings one over to me. The guy standing next to me asks me if we buy DVD’s. I think that is what he said, as his accent is pretty strong. Yes. We bought these at the store down the street.

“Geeno has DVD’s.” He points to the guy who had just walked in and is sitting next to me.

I am not quite sure what he is saying. So I say, “Uh huh.” That usually covers everything.

I look at Geeno. He looks at me.

“Geeno has DVD’s.” he repeats.

Now I am thinking that he must mean Geeno owns the store we bought the DVD’s from. So I smile and say to Geeno something clever like “Oh you sell DVD’s”

He looks at me. I try again. “You own the store where I bought the DVD’s? The store down the street?”

No. He sells DVD’s. Suddenly it dawns on me that Geeno perhaps runs a blackmarket DVD operation. I ask him. “Are these good DVD’s?”

“Of course,” he replies.

“Where do you get them?”

He just laughs. He won’t reveal his source. “This is not someone taking a video camera into a movie theatre right? I am not going to see someone eating popcorn in front of the camera?” I ask.

Again he laughs. “No no. I have them in my car. I’ll show you. I have kid’s movies.”

I look at Dan who is now paying for the haircuts (his hair also looks really good) and tell him I am going outside, with Geeno, to look at some movies. Once outside, Geeno opens his trunk to show several boxes of DVD’s. They are all really current movies. “Three for $20.00? he says.

I find two kids movies and then I utter the classic line which I always live to regret. “Do you have any adult movies?”
Dan, who has just joined us, stops Geeno as he is reaching for another box. “She doesn’t mean adult movies, she means not kid movies.” Dan looks at me “I can’t believe you said adult movies!”

I say this wrong all the time. My brain says the opposite of kids is adults. So the opposite of kid’s movies is adult movies. But what I have just told Geeno is that I am looking to buy porn from the trunk of his car. (I am off the map here).
Anyway, Dan saves the day and we end up buying “The Robinsons” (kid movie) “Are We Done Yet?” (kid movie) and “Premonition” with Sandra Bullock (adul– I mean non kid movie). Geeno assures me they are good quality and I can come back to him if I am not satisfied. Of course he did ask me first how long I would be in town. But I am happy with my purchases. Dan and Tristan are happy with their haircuts and we happily make our way back to our happy boat.

That night the kids watch “THE ROBINSONS”, the DVD we got from Geeno. Except for the occasional Russian subtitles it’s fine. We decide to watch the Mark Wahlburg movie “SHOOTER”. This is the movie we bought at the DVD store. It starts off well enough until someone sits down in front of the screen. For a few minutes instead of us watching Shooter, we get to watch someone else watching Shooter. You get what you pay for.

Lee Way had dragged its anchor and was banging up against a smaller boat.  The people on the smaller boat were doing their best to fend off the larger Lee Way but they weren’t having much luck.  Finally the people on Lee Way pulled up in their dingy and secured their boat.  Bella who had a ringside seat told us what happened.  Lee Way had come into the harbor, hit a shallow spot and grounded their boat.  Instead of trying to get it unstuck they just dropped their anchor and headed up to the bar Nippers.  When high tide came in later, their boat freed itself floated around the harbor until it ran into the boat we saw.  The owners of the smaller boat called up to Nippers and happened to catch them there.  We couldn’t believe they had just left the boat!!  Luckily for all of us they decided to pick up a mooring ball.  We made our way to Nippers later that day.  Nippers is a well known bar up a small hill from the harbor.  It has good food, good music and a two level pool.  To be a respected bar in the Bahamas you have to have a pool.  It overlooks a beach that has some great snorkeling.  We took advantage of the pool before turning in early that night. 

The next day we did some cleanup around the boat and the kids worked on their homeschooling.  We did a walking tour of the island.  It is another friendly, sleepy little island with golf carts.  We ate lunch at Grabbers while the kids played in the pool.

Sunday is pigroast day at Nippers.  Every Sunday they roast a wild boar.  They draw a crowd.  It is said at the height of the season they will have a thousand people for the pig roast.  We did an early morning snorkel on the reef outside the bar.  When we walked into Nippers we saw Mike and Ginny from Bellasitting with Brendal.  It is a small world here in the Abacos.  We see the same people, natives and boaters throughout the neighboring islands.  I shook Brendal’s hand and then something painfully embarassing happened that can only be explained in Dan’s own words.  We have several black friends but for some reason, Dan has never been able to master the “black handshake”. I am not sure why.  I think he overthinks it and the ending is never pretty. 

In his words here is what happened.  “I went to shake Brendal’s hand and I wasn’t thinking he would do the black handshake which is always at least a 2 and possibly a 3 part affair. (First you bring the palm down in an overhand  gesture, grab hands, let the hands slide back until just the fingers lock and then the third option is to use the fingers to pull you toward each other and you slightly bump chests.)  OK.  So I did the first part of the handshake and pulled my hand back.  Too late I realized his hand was still there.  So I tried to go back in and recover but you can never go back in because now I end up grabbing his hand as Brendal is now pulling his hand back thinking that I have screwed up the handshake.  So I go back in, grab his hand and end up pulling him toward me.  This throws us both off balance and now to try to steady myself . I end up wrapping my other arm around him   Now instead of a handshake we end up in this groping embrace.  This goes on too long and there is a very awkward moment when we both realize it looks like we are hugging.  Only at this point am I finally able to get my wits about me and let go of Brendal.  It was so embarrassing!”

You know there is really nothing I can add to this so I am just going to move on.  We did buy Brendal a beer later and he either knows we were trying to make up for my husbands AWKWARDNESS or he thinks Dan is hitting on him. 

The pig roast was really fun.  Bill and Elaine from Let’s Went joined us a  little later.  The people watching was great, the weather perfect and the music eclectic.  They played everything from rock to reggae with a little country and disco thrown in.  Tristan went down to play on the beach, Dan and I chatted with friends and Tessa danced the Electric Slide in the pool.  We ended  a great day by stopping at Grabbers and watching a beautiful sunset from the hammock.  Tomorrow we will be heading to Marsh Harbour.
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After leaving Green Turtle Cay we headed to Treasure Cay.  The beach here was named one of the ten best beaches in the world by National Geographic.  We were a little underwhelmed.  While the beach was wide and pretty with the softest sand I have ever walked on in my life, the resort there was looking a little worn.  I think they are now starting to put some more money into fixing it up, but now it was nothing special.   We did connect again with Mike and Ginnie on Bella.  We saw them last at Pineapples on Green Turtle Cay.  They are a fun retired couple from Charleston SC and are out for the winter.  They keep their boat in Charleston City Marina where we had kept Alegria.  They were heading to Great Guana Cay the same day we were so we will meet up there.