Hope Town is a festive place for Christmas – as long as you like mostly sunny & 78 degrees! While we missed their annual Christmas show at the little Community Center, there are enough lights & decorations around to get into the Christmas spirit. Their church bells even chimed Christmas songs after their noon & 6PM bell tolls. Of course, the most notable lights are the ones trailing from the Hope Town lighthouse. While those lights are LEDs powered by a generator, the lighthouse’s beacon is the original 1862 kerosene light rotated by 700 pounds of weights, hand- cranked every 2 hours – the last such lighthouse still in operation in the world.

Our great nightly view of the Hope Town Lighthouse.

Our first week in Hope Town had occasional showers with so many rainbows we almost got tired of looking for them.

Catamarans have certainly taken over the Bahamas.

Ooops – don’t worry – just a rental!

Our mooring is near the Sunshine Freight Dock – the Grand Central of Hope Town. Hope Town is the settlement on Elbow Cay, which is a small island & even though only 4 miles from Marsh Harbour, everything has to come over by boat, ferry or freight boat. As the freight boat arrives, dozens of little trucks, vans & even golf carts descend to load up in an orchestrated show. To supplement these daily deliveries, every one of the dozen daily ferry boats (on the left) bring an assortment of packages & boxes along with residents, visitors & workers.

Our “job” this year was Gene’s “Advance Crew”. His family & friends were arriving for a week to a rental villa. We (along with Maryella) helped with transport & pre-arrangements of boats & golf carts – paid with lots of laughs & perhaps a Pina Collada or two…

Hard to drive by without taking more pictures.

As the winds really kicked up the ocean.

Back to reality aboard brought on our “usual” projects +1. The placement of the table posts had always bugged me – way too close for my big feet – so …. just move them!

Almost disaster in paradise … our generator began producing less & less voltage (108 volts instead of 120 volts). Even though our solar system is great, the sun is lower this time of the year along with cloudy days produce only 1/3 of our usual solar energy, so we really need our genset to work properly – especially as it’s the only way to power our watermaker. After a few e-mails with the genset manufacturer, the tech finally mentioned “did you try swapping out your capacitor?” What the heck – didn’t even know there was one. Very fortunately the previous owner had a spare one hidden away & replacing it took care of the problem. Next problem was with a worn-out exhaust blower (which helps keep the genset cool) – jerry-rigged with a different type of blower until we get back to the U.S.

Christmas Babka – Lori’s family’s tradition continued on through the years in our various homes & boats.

We’ll be using Hope Town as our base for the next few weeks. On the calm days we’ll head out to visit our favorite anchorages, make water with our watermaker & stop over at to Man-O-War Cay or Marsh Harbour for groceries. Around January 20th, we’ll begin to journey the 70 miles south to Spanish Wells, on the northern tip of Eleuthera.

Merry Christmas wishes to all & Happy New Year!

One minute we’re deep in our Bahamas prep, catching up with old cruising friends (including dinner with the folks who bought our Maine Cat sailing catamaran 10 years ago!) – the next minute we’re leaving – with just 6 hours notice!

This is why we do this – motoring into a gorgeous sunrise on the calm Bahamas Banks.

Well, it indeed went that quickly. We knew we were missing a great crossing window on that Thursday, but we simply couldn’t be ready in time. Mail & packages were still arriving, we had a rental car & a paid-for slip thru the weekend, and, and, and … While we would be ready the following week, the weather for the next week or so was looking terrible & we didn’t want to wait 3 weeks for a crossing window like last year … so can we get ready in 6 hours!? Decision made at 9 AM, untying dock lines at 3 PM & out the Fort Pierce inlet at 5 PM.

An overnight passage – our least favorite thing – something we say we’ll never do again – here we go anyway! While sailors usually “take watches” while the other sleeps, we’ve never been very good at it – we mostly both stay up all night, then crash for 12 hours the next night. Fortunately, the roosters crowing & other Bahamian morning noises didn’t wake us until 8 AM. Ahhhh … all’s good now ‘mon!

That’s us on their web cam at a fairly empty Green Turtle Club in Abaco, Bahamas (early in the season). We raced the last 12 miles at 16 knots as when we called the marina, we found the Customs official might take the next ferry back to the mainland & wouldn’t return until Monday – that would leave us in a bit of legal limbo with Customs & Immigration, so we zoomed on in.

Bahamian lobster for our celebration lunch the next day, along with their house specialty “Tipsy Turtle Rum Punch”.

On our way to the Bahamas in the Atlantic Ocean (half-way between Florida & the Bahamas) we were startled by a strange appearance on our chartplotter screen. A large ship seemed to disperse a dozen smaller ships, each with their own AIS transponding symbol. Our course was going to be clear of them but then saw dozens of flashing lights seemly coming from a slightly different area. We later learned they could have been “hi-flyers” – not boats, but fishing markers used by fisherman long-lining for swordfish or tuna & sometimes used by researchers. Other than these, just the usual cruise ships, freighters & tankers – easy & calm seas – we made the right decision!

Meanwhile back in Florida before our hasty departure …

Loading up yet another cart of necessities.

Our Bahamas prep is always intense & no, the bourbon is not optional!

One of my “fun” projects was to replace one of our depth transducers (detects the water depth & sends to our displays) – again. I had installed a new one 2 months ago while hauled out (easy), but turned out to be defective. They finally sent me a replacement, but replacing while in the water is a little more challenging as when you remove the transducer you basically open a 2″ diameter hole thru the bottom of the hull with its resulting 2′ high geyser! Work quickly or else!

Thanksgiving carving aboard a cruising boat (replaced cushion foam in our dinghy seats).

Once I was done with the carving knife, Lori created a fantastic real Thanksgiving dinner – with pumpkin pie for dessert!

And Lori sent out her 250th Etsy order just before we left – Congrats!!!

We have an easier, calmer Bahamas season planned this our 12th season. Rather than always at anchor, continually moving around to avoid windy weather, we have 2, month-long stays pre-planned. Our first will be mid-December – mid-January on a mooring in Hope Town, Abaco and then a month at a private dock in Spanish Wells, Eleuthera. Both great locations to use as a calm base, while cruising around exploring on the nice weather days.