Hope Town 26.03 2008 

 Well, we are still here once again on our mooring in the middle of Hope Town harbour. The weather is cool for this part of the world but still a lot better than most of our families are enduring !! Today we said a sad farewell to Marcel and Gilles on “Northstar” as they are heading back North, Heinz and Jacqueline on “L’Equipe” went with them as it is always much better and safer to travel with at least one buddy boat. It feels strange not seeing L’Equipe moored at the entrance of the harbour as she has been most of the winter but it was time for them to go, they need to have some work done on the boat under guarantee, we chose to remain behind and go our separate ways. Our plans for the future are now taking a much firmer outlook, after much thinking and discussing we have basically decided that the boat will go back to Thunderbolt, in Savannah for the summer. We had really wanted to take Soli to Maine for the summer but then realized that as well as spending time and catching up with our children and grand children in Montreal, Toronto and Quebec City we also had plans such as a couple of weddings, one in the South of France and the other in New York City that we would like to attend, then return to the Abacos next winter… it just made no sense to bring her 2000 miles North and then 2000 miles back when we would not have that much time to spend on her over the summer. So our plans for Maine will go on hold until the summer of 2009. We are presently thinking of leaving here towards the middle of April, weather permitting, and making our way back to the US mainland and Thunderbolt. 

Thank you Alice and Jim, (“Arcadia”) for giving our names to Claudia and Peter Hornby of Plattsburgh, NY……. We met them at Hope Town Marina this morning and spent a very pleasant half hour chatting with them. They left today, but we have plans to join up together, possibly on the way home as we are both going in the same direction and particularly for the crossing of the Gulf Stream….. there’s always safety in numbers for that particular stretch !! We are not worried however as there should be other boats going in the same direction as ourselves in the next few weeks. So what have we been doing………???? Well beach walking is a large part of our day and we have been spending time with David & Hannya from “Dovelena” (means holiday in Croatian) a British couple who live in Bournemouth, my old stamping ground and an area that I know very well. Also Reg and Val from “Aquabella” another British couple from Cumbria, who leave their power boat in Green Turtle for the summer. The six of us had a delicious Easter lunch of grouper at the Abaco Inn on Easter Day ( sorry no lamb here! ) and then walked a different beach in the rain….then back to Soli for a nice cup of tea! Catherine, on Tuesday went to a ladies lunch at Hope Town Lodge where she learned all about chocolate from a chocolatier … I have yet to see the results !!! Over the past weeks we had been growing more and more concerned about the state of our batteries so on the Saturday before Easter we took the plunge and ordered another three from the store in Marsh Harbour. They were delivered to the Marina there in thirty minutes ….. a most impressive record for the Bahamas and I was able to pick them up courtesy of the two Joes (“Highlander” and “North Wind”) who just happened to be going there to pick up Jim from “ Legacy “ . Back on the boat I was able to remove the old batteries with the help of Marcel’s muscles and connect the new ones. We docked at the marina on Monday and spent two days thoroughly charging the new batteries and we now hope that our electrical worries are over for the couple of years or so !!! These batteries do not have to be filled with distilled water which is a good thing, as both of us were notoriously bad at remembering to check the water levels, perhaps one of the reasons why our last ones did not last as long as they might have. On Easter Monday, courtesy of Joe and Margaret of “Highlander” about ten of us went to Little Harbour and Pete’s Pub for lunch. We sampled “Blasters” three types of rum and various fruit juices …… very delicious !!!! A good lunch and a tour of the foundry completed the day…… there is something special about careering over the water at twenty plus knots in a small 22 foot boat…. You cover a lot of ground (or should I say water) quite quickly, compared to the stately way in which “Solitaire 1” covers the same distance … we watched a heavy rain storm and much lightning and possibly even a mini tornado over Marsh Harbour and were thankful that we were going in the opposite direction at full speed. We later heard that some boats briefly saw sixty knots of wind in the harbour which surely tested the ground tackle! I think that I have just about shot my bolt so far as blogging is concerned and will now leave it to my editor and chief blogger to finish this up, possibly with some pictures, but am not sure of this. A happy birthday, once again to my baby brother…… still not in the sixties like the rest of his siblings !!!!! Binow and over to CMA.