2008.02.27 Yup...you guessed it ...Hope Town !

We are getting complaints about our lack of blogging….and since it is raining today this is a perfect day to catch you up a bit.

Picture of a perfect front coming through... my husband tells me... perfect for what you say... well read on! 

We have a couple of things to report at long last...

First of all after two months at the dock at Hope Town marina, on the 21st of Feb. we finally severed all our umbilical cords, the many dock lines that secured Soli to the dock, she was like a spider in the center of her web, ready to withstand a hurricane! Then the power line and water hose were disconnected. I had very mixed feelings about casting off, sad about leaving our dock neighbours, Pat on Legacy, Margaret and Joe on Highlander, but I must say I am ecstatic about swinging from a mooring again. We are in the middle of the harbour, much more in the thick of things, about a hundred yards from L’Equipe, we are always bow to wind and weather and have enjoyed sunrises over the harbour and eating dinner in the cockpit every evening.

Second BIG news event is that David actually went swimming in the ocean not once but TWICE… this is really something as he never went in deeper than his knees last year….
Doesn't he look like Neptune rising out of the sea?

Marcel and Gail inspired him, the water was deliciously warm and we then went to the pool at the lodge and rinsed off in fresh water (saves on showers on board as water preservation is now an issue).

We enjoyed it so much we dragged a very willing Pat to the beach with us the next day!

Having said that, a couple from Quebec on board Lorelei, Jean Pierre and Marie Francoise who were swimming with us on Monday reported spotting 4 sharks patrolling the same reef area yesterday… they are probably just sand sharks and not likely to attack anyone, nevertheless it is impressing …. MF was hiding behind her husband in the water hoping they would not be hungry any more after consuming him!!!!

Yesterday Jacqueline and I and quite a number of women in the anchorage attended a “talk and lunch” at the Harbour Lodge. We got all dressed up (meaning good boat shoes for me instead of Crocs and the skirt without the holes). It was very interesting, five women who live on the island, one of them a direct descendant, eighth in line from Wyannie Malone. They were talking about their memories and life on the island, some going back to the fifties…. Things like no electricity and running water.

Sounds a bit like on board Soli, we need to generate our own power with a wind generator and a little gasoline generator to keep our Link 2000 (battery system monitor) happy.

We also need to collect rain water or buy it from a marina who is making it with a reverse osmosis (desalination) process….this is not “life in the big city. ...but then again that's why we are here innit'

”Some people are starting to mention the “B” word (as in going back) and although I don’t really want to think about it we have to start thinking where we are going to go when hurricane season starts and we need to be north of Cumberland Island (border of Florida and Georgia)We have on hand a couple of guides for Maine and are starting to explore the option of taking Soli up there for the summer. There are a lot of good points going for that scenario, it is only a few hours drive from Montreal and would allow for an easy commute for my mean driving machine (I mean David not the Volvo). We would also be taking Soli back to her birth place since she comes from New Casco Maine… we have asked Clarke aka Superman to check into it for us…he is quite excited about it.The guides cover all sort of things which are typical to Maine and which I am not too familiar with, such as fog, much larger tidal range, 10 feet or so, lobster pots everywhere (must mean lobsters in our tummies) and rocky bottom to watch out for instead of the soft sand of the Bahamas, definitely much more challenging navigation but we are pretty well equipped with radar, chart plotters, GPS etc…. It sounds like an adventure and we just might do it…. Still have a few weeks to decide… stay tuned.

As I was saying it is raining today and I love it… firstly Soli is getting a very nice fresh water shower (I just got one myself putting our herb garden out for a drink, it is obscenely big and consumes close to a litre of fresh water a day)… we are collecting this precious manna from heaven, we have pails in strategic spots where clean water runs off our dodger.

Last downpour we had, Steve, on board Sea Echo next to us came out on deck with a bar of soap and took advantage of it…..well, maybe he did not have a bar of soap but it makes a better story! Life at the end of a hook.... replenishing water and power....who said we were on vacation ?? but we love it.

Suzanne, Jacqueline’s sister is coming back on Sunday for another Bahama fix… I am sure she is looking forward to escape Montreal for a bit. I hope Heinz is not planning of sending her home with this acquisition he made at the Hope Town fair (fund raiser for the fire department!) . I think Heinz was trying to support the whole department single handed!

And now to inquiring minds who wish to know … Feb. 27th and the beard lives on!

Are you happy now CJ? did I burble on enough?

Now I need to go and do battle with our iffi wifi to post this to cyber never never land.... it sometimes feels like it , especially today, I deleted the first posting and ALL THE PICTURES trying to delete an extra space so had to do it all over again!