2008.01.27 Hope Town

Today is a very special day for, although being a number of other people’s birthdays, it is particularly my Mother’s, who is celebrating her 94th today. Happy Birthday Ma !!

We called my sister and brother in law to wish him a happy day yesterday and their son whose birthday it also was today. There were 15 family members sitting down for lunch, too bad that we were unable to be there. We heard that it was a beautiful day in Salisbury although chilly when compared to here! That said it has not been so warm here today with rain and increasing winds as another Norther passes over the island. We shall not complain however !

On Wednesday (23rd) last week we went racing once again, although on this occasion did not take “Solitaire 1” but sailed on her sister ship
“Breezi” with Rolf, and Matt, who did the actual sailing. He is the head instructor for the Hope Town sailing Club’s active junior squadron, so we thought that we had a good secret weapon.

It was a light air day and thus not one that the boat is particularly suited to and although we were fifth across the line at the finish, Rolf ended up being presented with the “most sportsman like sailor” award which is the polite way of saying you were DFL (dead f***last” !!!)  I didn’t feel quite so bad about our similar poor showing two weeks previously….. Obviously there is something very wrong with the club’s handicapping system !!!

Talking of racing we had some excellent shots of “Solitaire 1” during the race taken by one of the race committee. It is not often that one sees good shots of one’s own boat so these were especially appreciated.

Apart from this excitement, what have we done ? On Monday we took a trip into the big city of Marsh Harbour and went to the airport to pick up spare parts for the engine which had been flown in by Yellow Taxi from Florida. A visit to the Bahamian customs – a look at our cruising permit - $10.00 stamp duty and we had our oil filters and zincs. Since we were in Marsh Harbour Catherine had a list for Maxwells, the supermarket which was next on our trip into town. A quick tour with me exhorting Catherine to “remember we have to carry this” and we were out of there with my rucksack full of engine spare parts, salad fixings, and bread, and towing our little shopping cart on wheels also full, but in fairness to Catherine not overly so.

The next stop was the Batelco office to buy more minutes for our Bahamian telephone and whilst there we met up with a couple that we had last seen in Green Turtle – Jim and Beth from “Madcap” from Ottawa. We caught up on our news and then left to walk back to the ferry terminal, whilst they were making final preparations to depart for Eleuthera. The walk to the ferry was done in about forty minutes where I blessed having a super comfortable rucksack and being able to pull a shopping cart with big wheels. So back to the boat.

Another big event this past week was that the mail which we had had forwarded from the bank arrived at Hope Town post office. I went in and the post mistress, said that it had been there since the 18th (7 days from Montreal, which we thought was excellent) and she had tried calling us on the VHF radio but we had not replied. It was nice to get our mail, several magazines and a number of Christmas cards for which we thank everyone. We are next looking for some spare parts for Catherine’s glasses – one of the nose pads fell off, and was lost . She called the optician in Montreal and they have mailed us two new ones.

Such is the minutae of life here on Elbow Cay. It has been raining quite hard today, and for here, has been cold today, so we have been boat bound, that means that tomorrow I shall have to bail out the dinghy, and likely pump it up too, before we can use it . The dinghy is the bane of my life and I have to confess to disliking it intensely. We have still not got the inflatable floor to stay inflated properly nor yet the keel. As soon as we return to the USA it will be packed away and we shall be buying ourselves either a Caribe hard bottom or an AB hard bottom and to heck with the expense !! A strong, reliable dinghy is an absolute must when cruising and our Zodiac is neither strong nor reliable. The hard bottom RIB dinghies will be heavier to lift aboard and will not pack into such a small space as our present one but we shall manage – we have an electric winch to give us a boost if needed and the final alternative is to hang it off the stern on davits.

Our plans to this point remain fluid – shall we stay here or shall we move on – it remains to be seen, we just do not know !!

All for now with a final happy birthday and congratulations on making it to 94 to my Mother !