boats

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Hanging out in Hope Town 3/23-3/27

keep Eagle Rock to port and line up the range before making the turn into the harbor. The post in foreground is part of the range.

“The harbor looks busier than when we were last here”, commented the Captain as we rounded the corner and entered Hope Town harbor. Well, five years ago we had a narrow focus; get on that MC41 and sail around Abaco. Although the harbor appeared full, many moorings (once you looked closely) were open and most were not marked with a “reserved” bottle. We selected a double green along the SE side fairly close to Nike, a privately owned MC 30 (for sale) and Moondoggy a MC30 in charter. Captain Ron was engaged in the full afternoon orientation with this week’s charter family. He stopped by to chat  afterward and while I’m not really sure he remembered us, he was complimentary about the boat- hey if he’d only come sailing with us!

Ortolan on mooring with Moondoggy returning from orientation

A few days later, Present Moment came out on to the mooring; she’s a MC33 –the only one (so far) with deep blue hulls- very sharp. That charter kicked off Tuesday morning. Captain Ron lives up the creek which extends off of the harbor and has a decent sized dock where he can work on the charter boats before bringing them out a mooring. A convenient set up for everyone with the ferry dock only a stone’s throw away.

Hope Town offers the deprived cruiser many services, eateries, shops as well as the very long Elbow Cay beach. Not that we feel deprived anymore after 3 weeks in the Abacos, but Hope Town is so charming and compact, one simply cannot resist. Thus the shopping song could be inserted here!

Better than all the T-shirts, trinkets and sundresses calling “take me with you”, was my exciting find on the beach. Nestled in the sand, completely visible near some dried sea kelp, was a hamburger bean. The one and only sea bean that turned up, but now I have a collection of two sea beans!

Each evening around 7:30, the light house keeper begins his job- maybe he’s just a volunteer. The distinctive Elbow Cay red and white striped light house is one of the most photographed in the world AND the only hand-cranked, kerosene lit one in use. One night Mother Nature, Zeus and Thor joined forces to produce a lightning, thunder and rain storm like I’ve never seen. First, we noticed cloud lightning toward the east. Not long after the light house began its sequence (5 seconds of flash every 15) the huge bank of storm clouds to the north chimed in with a lightning show lasting 6- yes, SIX hours. Was hard to tell distance, although we knew it wasn’t real close to us; but folks at Treasure Cay 25 miles away probably thought differently.  The display was amazing; we’d never in our lives seen this much lightning. I know someone who would have thought this a very cool show. As the storm edged closer- around 11m- you know- stuff always gets interesting when you want to hit the sack, the wind whipped up and rain poured down in sheets and buckets. Thunder and lightning continued to hold our attention while we wondered how much water the dinghy could hold before sinking!

Tuesday was museum and post office day. The Wyanie Malone museum is nestled in the heart of downtown Hope Town and is loaded with interesting displays. You can spend an extra 20 minutes to watch the video program about Abaco history and heritage.

Thank goodness we don't have to squeeze into the likes of these

We picked up a post card to send to Benj in Italy- figured we’d get our 50 cents worth… if it ever arrives.

I didn't dress to match on purpose- honest

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Lovin’ and Leavin’ Day – 2/14

Loved our time, would love to stay, conditions are right to leave today. Monday’s forecast showed 3 good days beginning Tuesday – good meaning East to ESE winds at less than 20kts –  our cue to depart on schedule. Once away from George Town we’d lack access to weather reports (SSB receiver will not receive Chris Parker’s weather) for the next few days or more.  Baked bread for sandwiches and made a small batch of chocolate macaroons (easy and I had the ingredients as any respectable chocolate lover should).

One final run to town – I sure won’t miss that ride – for more fishing supplies at Top II Bottom, Androsia fabric for the  headboard and curtains I plan to make, cheap booze (most hard liquor costs less than in the States and we found a Chilean wine label, Lazo, that sells for $7.15 or $5.75 if you buy a case- we bought two cases to save more!) and a spin through Exuma Markets. I passed up the chicken feet in favor of normal looking boneless pork chops and chicken breasts, scooped up two ripe avocados and shrugged at the lack of fruit; we’d have to make do. The market carries a good variety of foods but often runs out of items. We’ve tried to make do; when I wanted applesauce for pork chops and the choice was either peach applesauce (ugh) or none, we bought two apples and made our own. (Benj, take note)

We weren’t able to hook up with Celise/Spirit so accepted Puff’s evening invite. Our final beach walk took us in right when our new neighbors, Matina, a Lagoon catamaran, landed with their darling dog Farley (named after a well-known Canadian author). We walked over to the ocean side along the beach (so this is what you do with a dog) and shared our cruising life stories with Matt and Tina. Matt owns a very cool wind surfer and we learned he was the one zooming along through the harbor.

Enjoyed another cruiser-chat evening aboard Puff with two other couples about our age; one on a 26ft monohull- now that’s gutsy. Seabiscuit stopped by for a short time so we finally got to catch up with them- their dance card fills up fast!

Elizabeth Harbour- off Gaviota Bay (the "holes")

Tuesday morning arrived looking as promised and we raised the main shortly after the anchor, waved farewell to Polar Pacer and off we went. Two Cuban yoyos went out once through the cut and we struggled to sail with the wind SE at only 8kts.  But we did, 4.5 to 5kts, hoping for fish, running the water maker and enjoying the ride.

Six hours, 33 nm later and fish-less, we arrived at Lee Stocking Island, home of the Caribbean Science Research Center. Six brand new screw-type free mooring balls are available, so we took one. Only a caretaker was in residence so no tours could be had but we grabbed a trail map and off we went. I foolishly left the camera on board, figuring we’d come ashore Wed morning, but that was not to be.