We spent a week in Hope Town after our friends, Jan and Dutch Daut, arrived from Wyoming. Pete and Amy Brubaker, good friends of the Dauts, live in Hope Town and hosted us for dinners, escorted us on a walking tour of Hope Town, and in general introduced us to the important and fun things about Hope Town. Pete runs the cruisers' net on Sundays and Mondays. We listen to that every morning faithfully as we learn all the activities for the day, the menus in various restaurants, and other information such as new arrivals and departures among cruisers. Since one meets many cruisers throughout the season, it's nice to know when friends arrive or leave.
Anyhow, back to Hope Town. Hope Town is a small, quaint town with colorful cottages all with names like The Jib, Green Shutters, Hibiscus, etc. We frequented Cap'n Jacks, one of the waterfront restaurants where Pete & Amy hang out. Every night there's something going on during happy hour from Bingo, to Trivia, to Red Hat meetings--cards for ladies who come wearing some version of a red hat. Lots of fun. One wonderful day we took advantage of the calm Atlantic side and went snorkeling on the reef in front of the Harbor Town Lodge. Very worth doing! Of course, the precursor of lunch at the lodge and follow-up of drinks poolside provided great enjoyment as well.
Another day we took in the famous Hope Town lighthouse. We climbed to the top--some 100+ steps circling up and up and up. It's the oldest manned lighthouse in the world with a fresnel lens. (Mike says you can google this for more information.)
While in Hope Town, Pete took Mike and Dutch fishing on his fishing boat, Whippersnapper. Alas, the fish weren't biting, so they were back somewhat early. Of course, Jan and I had decided we would shop in their absence and took the dinghy to shore. However, we were chagrined to find it would not start for the return trip. We decided we'd try rowing, but the wind had picked up and the tide was coming in instead of going out. What a joke! Fortunately, just as we were pondering our next move, a dinghy came in looking for a place to tie up. We offered our space, that is if they could get us going. A 12-year-old boy, Nick, hopped onto our dinghy and darn if he didn't start it right up. I'm happy to report this was a one and only occurrence of my not being able to start the dinghy.
Towards the end of the week, Mike decided to take advantage of Dutch's skillful assistance and climb the mast to inspect all the fittings in preparation for our crossing back to the states. Our mast stands 64 feet--not a task I was looking forward to, but Mike said he loved it. Thanks to Dutch for managing Mike's ascent and descent so carefully.
After a week in Hope Town, we headed to Nippers at Great Guana Cay for their Sunday pig roast and of course, their famous rum drink--one apiece was surely enough; then on to Treasure Cay where we walked on one of the most beautiful beaches in the Abacos, enjoyed rum & tonics and pina coladas around the pool, and soaked up the sun. Working our way back to Marsh Harbour, we stopped at Man O' War Cay, a thriving community famous for boat building and its canvas bags of all sorts--totes, backpacks, purses, etc. On our way back to Marsh Harbour we spent the night anchored outside the Sea Spray Marina on Elbow Cay and enjoyed cocktails and appetizers at the restaurant and followed by a gorgeous sunset. Of course, no sunset is complete without Mike signalling day's end by blowing the conch horn given to us by some friends we met in George Town. He has mastered this performance handsomely. The next day we snorkeled at Mermaid Reef where the fish are plentiful, beautiful and seem to look for snorkelers to feed them.
We bid adieu to Jan & Dutch Saturday morning and welcomed Steve Olson Sunday evening. Steve was very excited about being on open water out of sight of land. So the following morning we left at 9 a.m. expecting to be in Georgia by late Wednesday. Although we managed some sailing through Loggerhead Channel near Whale Cay, shortly thereafter the wind died. The good news was that the crossing was very calm with moonlit nights; the bad news was we had to motor most of the way. However, it was a good crossing with Steve, Mike and I taking turns with 2-hour watches. We only saw a couple of boats as we left and a couple as we neared Georgia--with the exception of at least 20 shrimp boats off Jekyll and Saint Simons Island. These were barely visible through the thick haze caused by the wild fires in Georgia. However, we did have occasional pods of dolphins frolicking around the boat. On Tuesday, Steve caught a 50-inch mahi-mahi! What a beauty!
