Provisioning and a BIG WHOOPS

We had been in Hopetown for more than a week and the groceries were getting a bit thin. There are groceries available here in Hopetown but they are about 1/3 higher then they are in Marsh Harbour. Water in Hopetown is 38 cents a gallon and only 20 cents in Marsh Harbour. We needed 150 gallons.

The weather had finally abated so we went to Marsh on Wednesday afternoon late and anchored. The forecast had medium winds forecast but they were much higher than forecast overnight -- so what else is new! Fortunately the ol ROCNA anchor did us proud on short scope. There were 40 boats Wednesday night and 50 Thursday night -- getting a bit crowded.

Thursday we hit the MAx wells grocery around 10 am. Surprisingly there were empty areas on the shelves -- mostly dairy, bread , and produce. They were stocking so we worked around that. We spent $182.00 and still were able to carry it all with us back to the dinghy dock.

We did some other shopping but didn't buy much. Now Thursday night we had a dead calm so it was a comfortable anchorage then.. Big wind is expected tomorrow night or Friday so we wanted to get back to our mooring before the wind built. Unfortunately High tide wouldn't be till 5:01pm so we had to kill time. We called HArbour View MArina a little after 9am to come in for fuel and water - the water tanks were near empty. They had space at the fuel dock but a large trawler came in immediately and occupied the space so again we had to kill time before we could go in. Once in we took on 130 gallons of water and 15 gallons of diesel. It took more than 30 minutes to load the water -- pressure was LOW.

Now we had time to kill so we went to Man O War Cay to walk the ocean beach at low tide. As we approached the beach the chart showed plenty of water but there was a light green patch -- usually shallow water. I approached slowly and the depth went from 12.0 to 11.0 to 9.0 to 6.7 and 6.2ft. I could see the rocky bottom plainly. I hit reverse then backed and headed for deeper water. We didn't bump but we were close to running aground on a falling tide with wave action --- not good.

We decided to skip the beach and cruised slowly by the 2.5 miles of Man O War. We then ducked behind Sandy Cay and anchored for lunch and kill time to 1pm before going in to Hope Town. I needed the mid tide to get in.

We were near Point Set rock and had lots of cruising boats go by. At 1 pm we pulled the anchor and headed to . It was dicey but we got in and just as we approached the Hopetown Light Marina the freight boat Carib III left the dock immediately in front of us. Now I had the right of way but he is a 70 foot steel hauled boats so I backed down and stopped and station kept till he went on.

We found our reserved mooring okay and picked it up but another boat was on Victoria Gaye's reserved mooring. I shouted at a passing dinghy that I didn't recognize and sure enough they were on that boat. They apologized and moved on just before Victoria Gaye arrived. Ohh boy that was close.

The Lighthouse which has been under repair for several days and has been dark is running tonight. Even though we have only been here about 2 weeks now this places feels like home. We will be here longer now. The forecast is for high winds -- 20 - 30 kts with higher gusts for the next 3 days. That's a lot but here we can still get off and walk the town and beaches.

Ohh will we ever leave again?? Sure when we need cheaper groceries and beer.