Abaco Resort and Marina

January 19, 2023

The JOURNEY is the adventure. We get that. But there are certain iconic stops along the way. One was certainly Key West. It is a DESTINATION.

We are at another one now: Marsh Harbor, the commercial center of The Abacos and site of the larger of two international airports.

The resort is lovely by any standard, with beautiful buildings, beautiful paths and plantings, great food, two pools, brand-new docks, and a gorgeous, resort-style beach. All rebuilt after Hurricane Dorian in 2019.

Wikipedia tells us all we need to know about Dorian: “Hurricane Dorian was an extremely powerful and catastrophic Category 5 Atlantic hurricane, which became the most intense tropical cyclone on record to strike the Bahamas, and tied for strongest landfall in the Atlantic basin. It is also regarded as the worst natural disaster in the Bahamas’ recorded history…Dorian struck the Abaco Islands on September 1 with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph (295 km/h), tying with the 1935 Labor Day hurricane for the highest wind speeds of an Atlantic hurricane ever recorded at landfall. Dorian went on to strike Grand Bahama at similar intensity, stalling just north of the territory with unrelenting winds for at least 24 hours. The resultant damage to these islands was catastrophic; most structures were flattened or swept to sea, and at least 70,000 people were left homeless.”

This is pretty typical of the homes left standing. Look behind it and you can see buildings on the left and right if the photo that are destroyed.

The town of Marsh Harbor still looks like a bomb hit it. The commercial buildings and marinas are still being rebuilt, but the smaller shops and homes are gone. I suspect it has to do with who had insurance and capital.

It’s an easy half-mile walk from our marina to the center of town and we walked in today to look around and have lunch. It was perfect: lunch on the dock at “Colors” – the best shrimp quesadilla EVER, and a lot of Kalik Llght, one of the local beers.

Next to the dock, we watched Tristan Ingram (Fatty to his friends) prepare conch salad from scratch.

VERY time-consuming. Removing the conch from a dozen of those heavy, spiral, pink-lipped shells.

Cleaning the conch, dicing onion, tomato, green pepper, habaneros, salt and lime. Kind of a ceviche. We took home a container, and I can’t wait to try it tonight. Here’s some photos of him making the salad.

Lynn is sitting in the shade of our awning, on her computer as usual, and commenting on how nice it is to be here for a month and not have to worry about wind and weather for our next passage.

Life is good.