Safe Harbour for awhile

Back in Hopetown!! A couple of big blows coming in tomorrow and Monday so we wanted to seek safe cheap harbour for a few days. Certainly Hopetown is a good choice although not free.

We pulled anchor this morning around 8:30am and went into the fuel dock at Marsh Harbour Marina and took on 27 gallons of diesel and 160 gallons of water and a couple of gallons of gas for the dinghy. Not bad for a couple of weeks on the hook. Most of the diesel has been burned by the generator.

The wind was setting us on the dock so a get away was a little difficult. I set up an forward leading spring line to an aft cleat and backed down on it to move the bow away from the dock and hopefully into the wind. It worked pretty good but when I pulled away from the dock the Lifesling and dinghy rubbed a piling. Not the best exit but nothing damaged. I do hate going into the dock after a few weeks on a hook and or mooring.

The ride over to Hopetown was “boisterous”. The wind was on the beam at 15 to 18 kts – again more than forecast. We made the entrance just 30 minutes after high tide and had plenty of water. We came into the anchorage and only a few moorings were available. We tried one Lucky Strike green mooring but it was reserved when we got closer. I saw another but another sailboat was closer and took it. It was back out and an Alley OOP mooring. The wind was against us and we had trouble picking it up. Took nearly three attempts and then the guy that beat us to the green mooring came over and offered to take a line to the mooring ball when we missed it the third time – I was grateful. It is tight in here and difficult to maneuver at slow speeds close to boats.

The rest of the days has just been spent relaxing and riding around the dinghy to see who is here. Many boats we recognize from the radio but none we really know.

Ohh well we can make the best of it here and will probably be here for 5 days or more given the current forecast. I knew there would be hell to pay for the fine week of fine weather we have been enjoying.

Ohh the weather – low of 66 last night and high of 82 today. But don’t worry we will suffer this weekend when this strong cold front coming through tomorrow will hold our high temp to 63 on Saturday. A good day to bake bread..