2007.03.06

I haven't blogged for a few days as we have not moved from Hope Town, Elbow Cay for 5 days now...we are very comfortable here in very good company ....

David counted some 50 boats in the harbour when we went up the light house a couple of days ago....can you spot Soli?

Amazing what a good zoom will do....

2007.03.06.

It is five days since we put pen to paper and we have spent the last five days sitting on a mooring in the centre of Hope Town Harbour and what a pleasant five days it has been too.

As Catherine reported in our last episode we anchored outside the harbour awaiting the tide, ‘cos the channel into the harbour is a bit “iffy” for our drafts, but once you are in the
harbour there is no problem at all.

We successfully found the two mooring balls that we had reserved with Truman Major – our Bahamian fishing expert and local entrepreneur and relaxed !!!

The first two days of our stay were filled with celebration as Hope Town was celebrating the anniversary of its founding by the loyalist settlers, of whom we have spoken in the past.

These celebrations also coincided with the opening of their museum (which we have yet to tour) -

Many things to see, from a Bahamian craft fair, to Bahamian cuisine, to maypole dancing, beautiful knees contest, etc etc.

At times it is quite a job to find a parking spot for our car…..(dinghy) as the snap shows.

Dominating Hope Town harbour is the lighthouse, officially with a 15 nm range but you can see it at 20 nm. This is one of only three lighthouses which are still worked as they were in 1932 when they were built, the other two are in Inagua and San Salvador, Bahamas.

We were fortunate in that we managed to arrive 10 minutes before the official closing time and were allowed to stay to watch the lantern being lit and the experience was well worth while ! Anthony, the son of the previous lighthouse keeper, proved a mine of information and showed us how everything worked.

First the kerosene has to be pressurized so that it will feed up into light – 80 pumps about like an old fashioned water well pump. Next the preheat flame must be lit and finally, after about ten minutes of preheat, the actual lantern flame is lit. The wicks are made locally. The lenses, made by Monsieur Fresnel, revolve on castors, in mercury, entirely operated by a series of weights which hang down the length of the lighthouse, part of the keeper’s job is to wind the weights up every two hours throughout the night so that the lenses which give the light its characteristic 5 flashes every fifteen seconds . Anthony worked until midnight after which his relief took over. The whole thing is very simple but marvelous engineering made by Chance & Co. of Birmingham, England, however its age does pose a problem, as it is becoming increasingly more difficult to find spare parts for anything that may need replacing. Anthony also told us that there was some discussion as to whether the light should be made automatic, however that may not happen as it is a great tourist attraction. To read more on this light go into the link that Catherine posted last and look for the link to the lighthouse. All in all a very enjoyable and intensely interesting evening.

Our other big event to date was this morning, when Truman Major arrived at 08.00 hrs to take us deep sea fishing. Heinz, Catherine and I departed with much excitement, Jacqueline preferring to remain behind. Five big rods trailing from the boat, two using outriggers, and it wasn’t long before there was the cry from Trusman of “fish on the line” and Heinz was in the chair pulling in our first Wahoo, estimated at about 25 lbs. My turn came soon after and we landed in very short order another two 15/18 lb Wahoos – delicious eating.

I also had a fifteen or twenty minute battle with a very large fish, for every four foot of line that I managed to reel in he took out about three so progress was decidedly slow ( and very tiring on the arms and shoulders I might add ), However it was not to be for all of a sudden there was a jerk and then nothing – it became the fish that got away !!

Our final catch of the day went to Heinz who managed to snare a beautiful 20 lb MahiMahi or Dolphin – beautiful colours and quite a fighter but it was landed. All too soon it was time to return to the harbour where Truman showed off his expertise at cleaning and filleting the fish at the same time giving his family of pet snappers an excellent lunch. So now our respective freezers are loaded with Wahoo and MahiMahi steaks so no need to ask what we shall be eating for some time to come. Luckily we all like fish and have even just had the first two fried for lunch – amazing to think that three hours ago this fish was wild in the Atlantic…….. you cannot get much fresher than that!!

We probably will spend at least the rest of the week here. We have good wifi and the town is quite delightful. The beaches are gorgeous with nary a soul on them and the water is quite warm and getting warmer every day although none of us has swum yet. Yesterday walking along the beach we saw a fairly large ray gliding by and also what was probably either a sand shark or a nurse shark quite close to the beach .

I think that I have gone on long enough so will hand over to the chief.