2007.02.20

Well, we have all survived yet another big blow….gusting to 35 knots…some people said 49 but we never saw it on our wind speed indicator… Today was just beautiful and although we were supposed to hop over to Hopetown on Elbow Cay, we heard at the cocktail party (The Royal Marsh Habour Yacht Club’s which sports four new members!!!) last evening and around the marina that EVERYBODY was going to Hopetown today so we decided to stay put… the Webers, on anchor did what they do best…. Heinz varnished and Jacqueline baked and the Allins likewise.. David washed the salt off Soli’s hull while I walked into town in search of an internet café so I could post some pix to our blog… ‘tis a mission I tell you!! Right after breakfast this morning I went for a shower and then I stopped at “Curly Tails” … that is a bar but the bartender does not come in until 1030… the connection was non existent… next I stopped at “The Florance Café” (that’s the way they spell it ….not a typo) ….their cappuccino was awesome but their connection did not measure up …so I took the bull by the horn and went straight to the headquarters of OII (Out Island Internet), which is the wonderful provider we have joined as they supposedly work ALL OVER THE BAHAMAS !!!! Well… it was not their fault of course… it was MSN….. it was my wifi card…. Maybe my computer… he did not dare go as far as telling me it was ME!!!! Anyhow I stayed there until I had done and updated everything…. By then it was about 1400… I then walked back to the boat and it was low tide….so I called David who pulled on some rope to bring her in so I could get on board. I told him all my adventures and we walked back to OII so he could work as well… I then walked over to the grocery store bought a few things and walked back to the boat… by then it was really VERY LOW TIDE … I mean the boat was 6 feet lower than the dock and about 4 feet away….it has to do with the new moon, so I needed to pull on the bow line to bring the boat closer, but by the time I got to the ladder, the boat had moved away again… I have learned a lot of rope walking tricks on this trip ... but I would have had to be Mary Poppins to get on board on my own and D was still at OII so I went over and asked Tony (dock master) to please pull the boat in. … which he kindly did…. By then I was exhausted, so I tucked into “The Forest” by Edward Rutherford (the author of Sarum, which I finally finished) and had myself a little quality down time. Talking about books I hated to finish “The other Boleyn girl” which Fil had recommended… this is history and suspense wrapped into one most enjoyable book!!!! We then dinghied over to L’Equipe for a cocktail/supper where we enjoyed some of the goodies that Karina had brought from Montreal with yet another magnificent Bahamas sunset…. Back home I always mean to “go for a walk” to exercise…. and unfortunately seldom do as I sit by the computer all day… here I have to walk all over the place to get to use the computer… that’s a much better formula, don’t you think? Still waiting for my Corrie fix!!!! A brief note from me (junior blogger) …… the docks here are quite different from those to which we are used – they do not float up and down with the tide which in this harbour is around four feet so as Catherine has said there is quite a lot of gymnastics to get on and off at anything other than close to high water. Since the lines must be slack enough to allow for this up and down movement it does mean that the boat is not always (read rarely!!) alongside the dock. Quite different to Lake Champlain or Lake St Louis!! The cocktail party of the Royal Marsh Harbour Yacht Club was, as it turned out, quite a lot of fun, only about an hour and a half, but free rum punch (which cannot be bad!!) and we met a lot of fellow cruisers and a number of old hands at the Bahamas. Some of them had been coming here regularly for as much as fourteen years and worked at various unpaid jobs, such as the local library and the informal cruisers net on the VHF. Every morning at 08.00. We are getting used to rising at 06.30 hrs to listen to Chris Parker for the weather and then tuning into the cruiser’s net at 08.00 hrs. The R M H Y C has a meeting on the VHF every Monday, Wednesday and Friday which is fun to listen to also. As Catherine has said I spent a lot of the morning washing the hull of the boat and rinsing the salt off it, not sure that there is much point since we are in salt water and it will get salty again when we leave this harbour, as we intend to do tomorrow, but it looks very nice after it has been done and it keeps me busy! It is a wonderful quiet evening now – quite a change after the howling winds of the last couple of days. Our drinks and munchies aboard “L’Equipe” were, as usual, fantastic. The harbour was flat calm , the sunset brilliant, a picture perfect end to the day. It seems that the weather may be changing and we are coming to the end of the Northers which keep everyone on their toes – let us hope so . It is bed time, (22.00 hrs) - a last quick tot to help me sleep and tomorrow is another day!! G’d night !!