007.03.22

We are in Conch Resort & Marina, in Marsh Harbour and the boat across from us is having a wild party…. Fortunately the music is of my vintage (they are playing “Stop in the name of love” at the moment!) and not rap or hip hop !!!! Hopefully they will pipe down by the time we are ready for bed.

I was reading our past blogs and it seems that all we do is eat and drink… well, sustenance of body and soul is an important part of the cruising life…. It feels like we are always preparing meals, baking bread, taking and adjusting provisions inventory or doing dishes… right now one major project is to find ways to prepare all the fish that D & H caught ….some is still sitting in our freezers…. I wish I could send some to Merate ….so far we have had it pan fried, cooked in papillotes on the barbie, in a wonderful casserole with spinach and potatoes and of course bouillabaisse….. We will gladly accept recipes !!!! Pic of J's pork tenderloin with mushroom gravy and veggies !!!!!

We do a lot of other things… really… we walk a lot, preferably on the beach, do maintenance on the boat, some of us are forever varnishing…. Boats can be very high maintenance mistresses….cleaning a 40 foot boat can be as much work as our condo…sand everywhere …we do not have that problem at “Le Fort”…. D works on line with the office or on the phone or Skype (when it works…”Hello, hello… can you hear me???”)
We explore the islands, meet many people, chat and exchange info…We met a very nice guy a couple of days ago, a Montrealer, retired Air Canada Captain. Since he had just put his wife on a plane for home, we had him on board both boats for a little home cooking. He had met Jem’s crew in Westend about a month ago…small world!
Our last day on Elbow Cay was indeed very special …I had a wish list and threatened not to leave Hope Town until it was completed…it included a ride on a Donnie ferry which we had done couple of days prior…. What a marvelous experience… D & I are people watchers and the mix of kids, returning from school, in all their great uniforms…. tourists coming to or leaving this magical island, housewives with stacks of provisions from the “Big Island”… my eyes were taking numerous pictures that I did not dare take with my camera.

The other thing was to go snorkeling to the reef on Hope Town beautiful beach… I got to do that too!!! The water was great and although it did not look like it from shore the bottom dropped rapidly when we got to the reef….I had to be careful to remember which way I went through the reef so I could find the same channel back out to the beach, as the coral was just at water level and I could not have swam over them… they can be quite sharp and the waves would push you against them…at first I went out without my flippers but came back to get them, as I thought speed would give me better control in maneuvering my way around… the fish that populate the reef are wonderful… beautiful colours and shapes …. I haven’t snorkeled for a long time….I think Maui was the last time and I thoroughly enjoyed it but I must say I kept looking behind me to make sure the shark we had seen exploring the reef a couple of days ago was not back….

I will leave you by sharing a few more pics of Hope town....