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Saturday
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Arrived late in Hope Town |
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Sunday
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Checkout cruise with Ron Engle.
South from Hope Town toward Tilloo Cay |
| Monday
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Bags finally arrived. Sailed
to Baker's Bay at the northwest end of Great Guana Cay |
| Tuesday
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Dove the reefs off the northeast
side of Great Guana and then sailed to Green Turtle Cay |
| Wednesday
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Sailed to Marsh Harbor |
| Thursday
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Dropped Kate in Marsh Harbor
and then sailed to Fowl Cay and Man-O-War Cay |
| Friday
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Back to Hope Town |
| Saturday
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Back to Florida |
After a nice dinner at Capt. Jacks, we retired to the Cosmic Mariner for some peace and quiet in Hope Town Harbor. About 10:00, we were startled by a concusion bomb exploding over us. Were we under fire? I thought it was a Jamaica Mistaka in the Bahamas. But no. Seems Senator Tom Harkins daughter had gotten married at the Hope Town Harbour Lodge earlier in the evening and the reception included some fireworks. The display went on for half an hour with pieces of flaming debris dropping around the boat.
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John and Nancy started Sunday morning with a walk through Hope Town. John was shirtless since his one and only shirt was the one he was wearing on the plane it was getting a mite rank. They ran into Vernon of Vernon's grocery and lay preacher. He opened his store to John and Nancy and gave them four shirts. These Ralston Foods shirts became the unofficial crew uniform.
Later Sunday morning we took a checkout cruise with Ron Engle of Abaco Multihulls. Ron takes care of the Maine Cat fleet on Elbow Cay. Since we still had no luggage, extended the cruise down past the southern end of Lubbers Quarters.
In the afternoon, we walked around the town. Note the lovely flowers extending into walkways.
Had dinner on the boat. Note the beautiful flower arragement on the table. I think someone had sticky fingers during our walk.
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Our luggage arrived on the first ferry from Marsh Harbor and we got under way. Destination, Great Guana Cay. My intent was to anchor in the harbor at the settlement. But, as we approached, a serious storm was passing south while it was clear to the north. We kept going to Baker's Bay at the northwest end of Great Guana Cay.
The chart shows where we anchored Monday night and the snorkeling spot we went on Tuesday morning.
Baker's Bay turned out to be a lovely spot. The bottom was littered with star fish and we had visits from the local laughing gulls. Yes, the star fish went back in and lived happily ever after.
Baker's Bay also not a bad place to just hang out on the trams.
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We dropped Kate off on the shore so that she could do a run. Nancy, John and I took the dinghy around the NW tip of the island to the reef.
This is avery nice snorkeling area with structure coming up almost to the surface from the bottom 20 feet down. Saw one grouper but he was really spooked and did not accept our invitation for dinner.
The beach on the NW tip, ocean side is extrodinary. Pristine white sand. Ours were the only tracks.
We met back up with Kate who had a nice run and then explored the abandon cruise ship facilty on the island.
After another quick dive, we headed for Green Turtle Cay.
On the left is a view of the town of New Plymouth on Green Turtle. After anchoring in Black Sound, we explored New Plymouth and had the obligatory Gombay Smash at Miss Emily's
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Wednesday morning we went shopping in New Plymouth, gassed up, and filled the water tanks. After all that we got off a little late on our trip to Marsh Harbor.
The two pictures on the right side of this montage illustrate three things I really liked about this boat. Two are actually apparent on the picture.
1. The trams are a great place to relax.
2. Despite the breeze (note the candle lantern being blown), Kate's beer sits unassisted on the deck. (Lower left of picture)
3. Not quite so obvious. Since we were running late, we sailed through don't rock channel. A deeper draft would have forced us outside at Whale Cay and put miles on the trip.
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Thursday morning we dropped Kate off in Marsh Harbor. She was flying back to West Palm and then taking a liesurely drive to Orlando to catch the plane to Denver. We left Marsh Harbor and headed out to the Fowl Cay Marine Preserve for some diving. Little did we know that the plane from Marsh Harbor was way late and Kate had to drive like a maniac to get to Orlando in time to make her flight.
On the way to Fowl Cay, we put the dinghy down and John snapped three pictures of the Cosmic Mariner under sail. All three photos were great but I like this one best.
We anchored on the sound side of Fowl Cay and took the dinghy around to do our snokeling.
Fowl Cay is a preserve so of course we saw all sorts of fish that would have make a nice dinner. Near the end of the dive, I picked up a large conch from the bottom to show to John and Nancy. Immediately a torpedo sized baracuda showed up as if to say, "Park Ranger sir. Put down the conch." He then proceded to follow us around for the rest of our time in the water.
That is me and not the cuda in the photo.
Thursday night found us anchored just off of Man-O-War Cay. We had tried the harbor but it was so crowded that I feared a major fire drill if the wind shifted in the night.
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Friday morning we went ashore at Man-O-War to explore the town. Although it was a holiday, Man-O-War was pretty busy.
The town is very picturesque. This tree is decked out in floats.
We visited the canvas shop and boat factory but because of the holiday the boat factory was not operating.
We left Man-O-War at lunch time and layed in a course to March Harbor. The auto-pilot handled that nicely while we had lunch. (While on look out of course)
Just outside of Marh Harbor, we turned around and headed back up wind to Hope Town. No account of a trip to the Abacos would be complete without a photo of the Hope Town Lighthouse.
During the afternoon, we climbed the lighthouse and took a shot of the Harbor including the Cosmic Mariner moored front and center.
Had dinner ashore. Little did we know that electricity had been out in Hope Town since about 2 o'clock in the afternoon. The beer was a bit warm and the dinner had be cooked on a set of charcoal grills. Hey, it's the islands, enjoy.
Unfortunately, this was the end of the vacation. Ron came and checked out the boat. He then dropped us at the ferry dock and headed off with the Cosmic Mariner.
We got to the airport in plenty of time. Plenty of time. The plane was about 2 hours late and for a while there was some question about whether there would be a plane at all. I was thinking it would have been a real problem if this had happened to Kate on Thursday. Only later did we find out it did.