16th January2010. Happy birthday Allan!!!!
Our last writing was from Green Turtle Cay and the Leeward Yacht Club, a very nice new facility and one that we would recommend to anyone passing that way.
On the way back to the boat, we stopped in at the Abaco Boat Yard to see if we could find our friends from Montreal’s boat, which is stored there for the summer . Not only did we find the boat, but we founds our friends – Jean Pierre and Marie Francoise – looking frazzled having just arrived from Montreal, about thirty minutes earlier with a whole stack of gear, food etc and madly cleaning and stowing.
A final stop in town at the liquor store – can never have too much rum and gin on board – another quick stop at the boat yard to invite our two frazzled friends for supper , which was accepted and so back to the boat.
We had a lovely evening with them…MF was a little “decouragee” and I know the feeling well, commissioning a boat at the beginning of the season can be overwhelming, especially as in their case not having ample supply of free water to clean the boat before you can stow anything.
Anyhow a nice hot meal, good French music and wine and they felt restored and ready to face the task at hand…we will surely run into them again soon.
Top up our water tanks, remove the engine from the dinghy and we were pretty well set for a short hop around the Whale passage and on to Guana Cay. It would have been nice to go all the way but that was impossible since we needed a high tide to get out of Black Sound and another high tide to get into Hope Town harbour.
We sailed at 06.45 hrs on the 14th and had a very civilized passage through the notorious Whale passage, a very gentle swell and were able to sail or motor sail most of the way to Fisher’s Bay where we grabbed two moorings and relaxed. We put the dinghy engine back on and went into town, visiting most of the watering holes, Nippers and Grabbers , they did not get any business from us although it was pretty quiet…we finally came home to have happy hour on board Indian Summer
An early start on the 15th once again and we were on our way by 06.30 hrs, unfortunately with a head wind which made sailing impossible and slowed our motoring, but we still made Hope Town harbour entrance very shortly after high tide . An easy entrance and our buoy was awaiting us !! Home again !!
It is so nice to be back here and within a very short while there were various friends and acquaintances gathed around the stern of the boat in their dighies welcoming us back and asking how the trip had gone……. Slow and windy was the main answer that we gave !!
So, we are now settled in, we have declared this weekend as a holiday and we are relaxing and reading and have also gone for our first walk on the beach. Maybe tomorrow we will go out for lunch and we have already signed up for the first of the ladies lunches on the 26th January. Not much has changed, although there is a lot of work going on at the marina, and if everything one hears is to be believed, it will be very smart in a year or so time - maybe too smart for us ! Hopefully there will still be buoys available for those who do not wish to spend too much !
I am writing this in our cockpit – the internet has been excellent here so far – such that we have been able to talk to family on skype with little problem. Long may that last.
It has been warm, sunny and windy…. ideal conditions for our electrical power needs for between the wind generator and the solar panels, plus of course our new digital thermostat for the fridge and freezer we are completely self sufficient. I hope that we do not have to start the generator too often.
I think I must go, delicious smells are coming from the galley and I guess supper is just about ready. Good night.
20th January 2010
Looks absolutely lovely especialy from a wet cold and windy U.K!! Not really complaining as we're very cosy here. Lol Salisbury folks
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