Solitaire I

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.!