MERMAID!!

Ahhhhh Mermaid Reef. One can’t go to Marsh Harbour without a visit to Mermaid Reef. Unfortunately the water is too cold (for me) to snorkel today – 68 degrees – so we just visited it. Just beautiful.

The Junior Junkanoo was okay last night but started much too late. It was supposed to start at 6:30pm but didn’t start until 8:30pm . It was 65 degrees with a stiff breeze so we were very cold. Sorry blood thinned by tropical sun has 65 degrees as COLD!!

I took a few pictures but they were just so so. Tonight is the senior exhibition but I’m not sure if we will go. We will see.

This morning we did some provisioning – sewing buttons, beer and rum – just the essentials. I bought some Gosling Black Seal and some ginger beer (Old Jamaica) and will try my first “Dark and Stormy” tonight – 2 oz Gosling, 3 oz ginger beer.

The day has been quite windy and cool so it was great for walking around town and the reef but kind of chilly on the boat.

The weather forecast has some unsettled weather coming in tomorrow night so I made arrangements to go into a marina – Mangoes Marina for a couple of days. It is time to clean the boat and fully charge the batteries as well as ourselves. Haven’t been to a marina for a stay since before Christmas at GTC.

Well enjoy the pics of Mermaid Reef.

Real Salty trip today

On the move again… Finally left Hope Town. It is difficult to leave a secure harbour once you have been there awhile.

That cold front last night came in late and had just passed this morning when we needed to leave Hope Town on a favorable tide. It was blowing 17 kts from the W-NW and should have been N-NW at 20. Hmmm good reason to stay?? No we left any way. It was time for a different view.

We had no problem leaving but the 2 foot wind chop nearly on the nose was creating a lot of spray. Our enclosure kept us dry but ohhh the windows – just salt encrusted!! We only went 7 miles but ohh the crust was worse than we got in a 26 hour 155 mile\crossing of the Gulf Stream!!

Once into Marsh Harbour everything laid down.. The anchorage was sparsely populated and we got a primo spot in front of the Jib Room marina. Great WiFi There.

After sorting thing out we went to town and did some light grocery shopping. On the way back we cruised over to Hollywood Georges Conch Salad stand to get some Conch Salad. He was just in the process of whipping up a new batch. We watched him extract the conch from the shells and dice all the fixins for the salad —he is a virtuoso with the chef knife.

Back on the boat for some lunch and of course – conch salad – ummmm good.

Then later in the afternoon we went over to Mangoes Marina and made a reservation for a slip for a few days beginning Sunday. We need to clean the boat, charge and equalize the batteries, and weather another strong cold front coming in Sunday night.

Tonight some light entertainment of the crew from Celtic Cross then on to the Junkanoo Exhibition of the juniors tonight. Seniors tomorrow night.

A Beach'n day

For a “Strong frontal passage” today has been a fine day. I don’t think the wind ever reached 20 kts today.. Forecast was for 20 – 25kts. Well the day is not over yet but it is bright, sunny, and warm.

We spent the day on a couple of long beach walks. The sea was kicking up a bit but for the most part very nice. The sea glass hunt was dismal though. Only a couple of pieces found.

We spent a good part of the day reading also. Late this afternoon we went on a dinghy ride to see who was here and we found a boat with the hailing port Galion, OHIO!! You don’t see that very often. We hailed the boat Lee-Ann. We met the couple Gary and Janet Stoffer and shared some stories about Galion and Ohio. We had never met these folks when we lived in Galion. We left in 1975 and they arrived in 1979. Ships passing in the night I guess. It was a nice visit.

Other than that I just fretted over the weather to decide what to do next… This cold front is supposed to actually pass in the early hours of tomorrow and blow strong but be down to 10 by late tomorrow. The tide has us trapped here because low is at 11am tomorrow and I need to be 3 hours before or after to et enough water. Thus leave before 8am or after 2pm tomorrow. I guess we will opt for the later and just head to Marsh for Junkanoo on Friday night and Saturday night. Friday is the Junior competition and Saturday is the senior. I’ll see if I can get some pictures of these “seniors” performing in Junkanoo. I suspect “Senior” is 16 and over.

Enjoy the beach pictures from today.

Double Sunday's this week

Who says there is only one Sunday in a week?? Today – Wednesday – feels like Sunday. At least we treated it like one until I went to the grocery and bought the fixins for some Chicken Souse tonight – store is closed on Sunday.

Today was a lazy day. After reviewing the weather forecasts for the upcoming week we decided to just stay put. Another cold front comes in tonight into tomorrow and again on Sunday. Thus only one day – Saturday to get around the Whale Cay and that will be questionable. So we will stay here 2 more days, then head to Marsh Friday and go to the Junkanoo exhibitions Saturday night.

Today we just did some beach combing on a new to us beach and found only a corroded penny. We came to a very neat and old cemetery and walked through it and then went back to Karen’s most productive beach and found one piece of sea glass.

The rest of the day is just enjoying Hope Town and planning a fine dinner of Chicken Souse tonight – Karen made fresh bread yesterday.

Ohh we did stumble over a sail boat at the Harbour Town Marina that hails from Galion, Ohio – you don’t see that very often. In fact it is the only one we have seen. Unfortunately no one was aboard.

Should be a quiet evening tonight until the cold front approaches. Supposed to be blowing 20 –25 out of the SW by morning. Right now it is just 15 and getting lighter.

Still Here!!

Wellll we decided to stay another day here in Hope Town. The wind was marginal, the seas were lumpy and what can I say – tomorrow should be a cake walk to Treasure Cay. A short one though because another strong cold front is forecast to come in tomorrow night so we need to be in by then. Then a big blow Thursday then what looks like very moderate weather for several days.

Thus just cooling our heels in Hope Town today.

We did take the time to go back to the Wyannie Malone museum and watch the 30-minute show that was not available when we previously visited it. It was worth it. Always learning more about this place and the Abacos. Really very colorful history.

We took time on this cool day of a high of 68 degrees to make some more bread and restock the larder with some pasta. Made sure we gave our business to Vernon’s Grocery too. Vernon is a very honest man.. The other day on the VHF he announced that someone had been to his store and dropped their grocery list and money. He said both were available to the appropriate person. What a guy!!

We also picked up some more Red wine. There are 2 Spirit stores here –Lighthouse Liquor and Lighthouse Marina liquor. The one in town has a better selection and slightly lower prices.

Not much else happening. Just spending time listening to the various nets in the morning and reporting conditions on the BASRA weather net at 7am on 4003 USB -- those with SSB can listen for me. This is a 7 day a week volunteer job. I think tomorrow I’ll join the Cruizenheimers net at 8:30am on 6227 USB. The propagation is pretty good now.

Lasts night visit to the dirt dwellers in the cottage ‘Crows Nest’ was very nice. The cottage is much nicer inside than I thought it would be. We visited with the dwellers Jack and Jane and the crew from Celtic Cross. It was so nice we skipped playing Jacks at Captains Jacks.

No plans for tonight – just munch on home made bread I guess.

What Cold Front??

That was anticlimactically!!! No cold front last night!! It was dead calm all night into the morning. However around 9:30am the wind did pick up and blew pretty moderately 18 –20 with some gusts higher and a little rain shower. Now it has cleared off and is just blowing nicely. The wind speed is marginal for the wind generator. It is producing nice current flow 10 – 20 amps and just below overheating so a good day I would say.

Karen went for a long walk on the beach this morning at low tide (before 9:30am) and found a bunch of sea glass today. I did some cleaning on the boat and changed the spar plugs in the Outboard – it is definitely running smoother.

Not much else happening today. Saw a sailboat come in near high tide and tried to dock at the Light House marina and ran squarely aground under power. It is amazing to see a big sailboat –probably 40 feet – just suddenly stop with a lurch forward. Fortunately he got off and landed safely at the dock.

Only one boat left the mooring field today and not others than the run that ran aground came in. Everyone pretty much hunkered down for this frontal passage.

The harbour is not bad with this wind and we can get around easily in the dinghy. We have been invited to a happy hour at a cottage of a friends of Ian’s and Sharon’s on Celtic Cross later this afternoon and we thought later we would try a game or two of Jacks over at Captain Jacks tonight to see if my luck at dice carries over to JACKS—really modified Bingo.

Wish me luck.