A Day in Marsh Harbour – Dec 24, 2021

Marsh Harbour, Bahamas

We needed to get up early today to take the Ferry over to Marsh Harbour, as it was our only hope of finding a freight forwarder to ship back my work computer. Normally we would have taken over the boat and anchored for the night but apparently there were still unmarked sunk boats sunk in the harbor, and we were uninterested in taking the chance of hitting one. I think we were both shocked to see how much devastation was still left untouched after the hurricane. It was like nothing I have seen since the Xenia tornados when my parents took us over to see the damage as kids.

While we were waiting for the ferry, very nice South African man sitting near us started chatting and he was a builder working in Hopetown for the next few months. Well, there was certainly plenty of work for him. We chatted with him on the ferry most of the way over. We took off walking to the shipping place and he pulled over and asked if we wanted a ride. Well since we were professional hitchhikers now (this being time #2), we hopped in and away we went. Very nice guy and he dropped us at the shipping office saving us a 2 mile walk there.

We went to three different shipping places and after the third we were still out of luck. Tired, sweaty, and discouraged, we took a seat on the front steps of a little plaza in front of a few shops. One happened to be the Bible bookstore and a sweet old lady who asked if we needed help? We told her our dilemma and apparently, she knew a guy for that! We took his number and arranged a meeting at the only gas station around which was of course a few miles down.

He appeared to be a legit freight forwarder who had an export license, so we handed over our package and the cash. Again, things that happen here that I would never do in the states, but the sense of community here is amazing. I was thrilled we had found a way to get this done and we grabbed more cash from the only bank we could find and tried to get a sim card but had no luck. We made our steps goal today at around 18,000, were exhausted, and out of options, we made the long trek back to the ferry and home.