2011.02.19 BACK in Hope Town

Let’s see what happened since last time we had a chat…

St Valentine’s day was very exciting we had ice cream!!! Oh and David did the dishes after supper….he usually mostly dries.

Off on some mission, I am sure!

We went for a long walk around the north end of the island and saw some very nasty clouds closing in …some of us sought shelter under a large beach house and sat on their kayaks as we waited for the rain to stop…members of our party went on and got caught in a tropical downpour and were thoroughly drenched….nothing like a free fresh water shower!

Guess you cannot see the rain...this was our view from underneath the beach house!

We went to "on da beach" for lunch...

Anne and Rick "shared" some exotic drink.

We had a Sabre 402 invasion…well not quite an invasion, but after Excalibur left we thought she came back but no it was another S402, La Belle Helene, so of course we had to go over and welcome them to Hope Town harbour.

On Tuesday we had one of the ladies luncheon “Cay Topics”…they are always great fun, there are definitely some very interesting people around these islands and they love to share their lives’ experiences .

Tuesday evening Rolf and Susan came over for supper and brought some gorgeous greens from Rolf’s garden…yum, arugula etc…

Not need to have a tug of war....there's plenty for everyone!

We do have to sort of watch out for Portuguese man of war…these beautiful blue jelly fish with very long tentacles can be quite nasty if stepped on!

Now did I say "BACK in Hope Town" yesssss ...we actually cast off our mooring ball yesterday  (Friday)and went for a little trip and an overnight anchoring in Tahiti Beach. Well ,for you Soli blog aficionados, you do realise that this is the Tahiti Beach at the South end of Elbow Cay....for you delusional new comers maybe I should have left you dreaming of Soli floating around the middle of the South Pacific for a moment longer.

So we followed Aquabella out of the harbour as they led the way down the shallow channel to Tahiti beach..the tide being so high we had no trouble.

OMG ...It is not what it looks like!!!! David is checking the anchor through our glass bottom bucket....beat diving on it!!!

After anchoring we had lunch and then dinked to the beach.

I always enjoy the sea life in TB, lots of them are left stranded by the receding tide...they really look so pathetic and move us to pick them up and put them back in deeper water...I just could not pick up the beached Sea Cucumber...he looked just too revolting, but have no fear he will survive, nature is wonderful, most of them have the ability to wait until the tide comes back...provided of course that they are not beached by an exceptionally low tide like we have during full moons (as now) so we did move them to deeper waters.





We met a nice couple on the beach and I was remarking how I keep taking the same pictures year after year...he told me that I was very lucky to be able to be so boring with the same pictures...and he is so right!
So if you'll forgive me QED....

We had left Soli in a fairly quiet anchorage and found her surrounded by neighbours upon our return!

2011.02.12 Hope Town

We went to Susan and Rolf for lunch, it was as usual delicious and she had of course made her famous foccacia…the other guests were a couple of ladies who had worked for the UN and had traveled extensively, so the conversation  was far from dull.

We then proceeded to both come down with huge colds, which is a first for us in the Bahamas….but apparently a lot of people were sick this year…I went through one box of Kleenex in 2 days…David insists we caught it in Marsh Harbour, shopping in the new huge and  air conditioned Maxwell…better stay away from civilization I guess!

After a couple of days of feeling sorry for ourselves, we figured the best thing was fresh air and vitamin D….where else ..Da beach! Aside from this Egret looking bird ….the beach was ours.. not a body in sight in any direction.

The sea fan was not there...my feeble attempt at creativity!

I think Rolf told me you can eat these...a little vinaigrette maybe!

Once back on board, we saw Iolar entering the harbour, we had indicated a nice mooring for them….but it was a good thing that David got into the dink to greet them as Iolar seemed to be drifting away from the ball instead of towards it….the transmission had just decided to pack up at that precise moment! Dave and Gilian (Jilly-Q) jumped into their dink and came to the rescue, they basically pushed her toward the buoy as David pulled with a line to tie them up…the rescue operation was successful and we celebrated by going …you guessed it…for a walk on the beach!

The boat still needed to be fixed though so Truman towed her to Man-O-War Cay for repairs…Oh BTW the catch phrase of this season is “Cruising = fixing your boat in exotic places” a lot of truth to that unfortunately!

Life goes on at a leisurely pace….we  have mundane occupations…

"Glassing" with the experts Gail & Bruce (Orient Express)

David with his new toys...All & Shout!

Changing the oil , assorted filters and zincs is always loads of fun.

And of course topping up our water tanks for well deserved  showers after all that grease monkey fun! The Simple Siphon http://www.simplesiphon.com/products/worked a treat...thanks Mike!

On Friday the fishing boat comes to town...steamed lobster tails...sweet!!!

Jean-Pierre et Marie-Francoise (Nid O) came for a cinq a sept en Francais...bonne pratique pour David!

We walked to “On da beach” with Chris who had to be a rebel and ordered a Sands and snubbed our fav Kalik!

Another favourite lunch spot to walk to is the Abaco Inn

Chris went back to the UK to his family and Amelia Walter's daughter arrived...we hope she has the same wonderful weather Chris had.

A few days ago, David called me up to see this beautiful boat entering the harbour…"I think it might be a Sabre….is it a 42 or a 45"…"I don’t know,David, but count the side ports …3 small, 2 large and one small... looks like a 402 just like Soli"….so we had our sister ship pick up the buoy right next to us…her name is Excalibur and she is hull number 73 2 younger than Soli.... 3 of us in the harbour, considering the whole fleet is probably around 80 is pretty impressive.

Kid sister....isn't she beautiful.

We, of course, went to meet Helen and Keith to congratulate them on their good taste in selecting their boat and they invited us on board for dinner along with Gail and Bruce….a delicious meal and great company.

And the most momentous event of late is …yes…you are not seeing things….David Allin in the water….all the way…actually swimming in the ocean.!

The usual beach combers with Anne and Rick (Exegi)

Pristine!!!