Bev Is Here!

Bev arrived and we spent two days in Summer Snow while waiting for Neil and Linda to arrive.
We are in the Coconut Cottage now so I have not had Internet service lately. I am posting from the coffee shop today. I must be a "regular" now because they make my triple cappuccino automatically.

Neil and Linda arrive on Monday and we spent the day sightseeing at Tahiti Beach and the lighthouse.

On Tuesday we went on a snorkeling trip with Froggies. Froggies is a great little mom and pop type snorkel/scuba company. They took us to the National Park out at Fowl Cays where we snorkeled at two different places. We all saw many types of fish and the coral was absolutely beautiful. I saw a shark but I guess he wasn't hungry because he left me alone. It was only a couple of feet long so wasn't very scary.

On Wednesday we went sailing and ended up at Man-Of-War Cay. We had a nice lunch at the Dock and Dine restaurant and Bev found a neat bag and hat at the Sail Shop. The Sail Shop is where they make all kinds of stuff out of sail material. It is very high quality and all hand made. Then we went to a gift shop before heading back to Hope Town. I wanted to get back into the Hope Town harbor with some "tide help" so we had to hurry back. We bumped the bottom once in our approach to the harbor entrance and I had to turn to a safer line.

Today the wind is really piped up so we are having a "rest" day catching up on email and blogging. We will spend the rest of the day at the beach and probably go out to the Abaco Inn so a nice dinner tonight.

Slip....Ouch!!

To get from Summer Snow's cockpit to the cabin below deck one must use these steps. The picture is looking straight down into the cabin and as you can see there are three steps. On Wednesday after the race I was so hyped up from racing that I went down the steps in a hurry. Bad move! I slipped on the second step and ended up down on the cabin floor.

Now picture in your mind those teenage gymnasts or dancers that bounce around and do the "splits". Then picture a 66 year old sailor doing the "splits". Not a pretty picture I dare say! There is no pill powerful enough, short of a 38 special, to handle the pain. Needless to day, the last few days have been bad to the point that strangers that see me walking stop and ask me if I'm OK. I'm sure they think I didn't make it to the restroom or that I rode a horse to Hope Town.

This is the gap between Summer Snow and the dock at low tide. It seems like we are always at low tide. I hope no one has a video camera on me when I get off the boat because I have to carefully get to the outside of the life lines and then sit on the edge of the dock. Then I scrunch over onto my side and roll over so I can get on my knees. Then I grab the post and pull myself up. The good news is I'm getting better every day and expect to be fully mobile when Bev arrives :>)

Hope Town Sailboat Racing

I had good and honest plans to do my laundry today but my neighbors, Ace and Suze, came over and asked me if I wanted to be in the Hope Town Sailing Club race today. I said "sure, what's the deal?" They planned on entering the race for the first time and were looking for crew. They are on a large motor sailer (Aces Wild) and their main objective was to be able to go the the awards party Friday evening.

The race started at 10 AM and we followed the Hope Town race boat "Rage" out of the harbor to the race starting point. All sailboats over 18 ft are welcome to race and cruisers are encouraged to participate in this "fun race". This particular race is not only their regular Wednesday race but also the first part of a two day race event in which the winner has their name inscribed on the Hope Town Cup. We had no expectations that this huge motor sailer could compete with the cruiser-racer sailboats or the pure race boats but just planned on having a fun day.

We came up to the start line in very good shape only to have another boat (we named the captain of that boat Captain "Bleep") jammed us off the line and we had to tack around and start late. Ace said "I thought they said this was to be a 'fun' race". He and Suze have a lot of experience having owned many sailboats and participated and won many races but assumed that this was to be a "just for fun race" as advertised. Unfortunately Captain "Bleep" didn't get that memo. We did have fun and Suze made us a great lunch during the race. One of the highlights was when Ace used great timing and tactics to force Captain "Bleep" into an extra tack just as he was trying to round one of the markers. We had a fun day and may enter the second leg on Friday and will definitely go to the Friday awards party.

Sorkeling Off The Beach

We went snorkeling off the beach at Hope Town on Sunday. The water temp was great and we did not need wet-suits to keep warm. On Monday we went down to Tahiti Beach and swam and snorkeled there. They are both great beaches with easy sandy entrance.



There are fish everywhere you look in this part of the Bahamas and I am looking forward to going down to the Land & Sea National Park which is a protected area south of Elbow Cay.



Snorkeling is easy and fun so I don't think I'll be interested in scuba diving but scuba is very popular here. The last picture here is Tahiti Beach which is very popular for swimming and just getting some sun.

Sailing out of Hope Town

We didn't get an early start but did spend some good time sailing on Saturday. In the photo you can see what the water looks like in the Sea of Abaco. It is primarily "line of sight" type sailing which is to say you can see where you want to go most of the time. It is important to use your charts just the same to avoid shoals and to double check depths. Most of the water is 8 to 10 ft but as you approach cays you often must follow specific sailing instructions to avoid the skinny water. The lighter areas in the photo indicate shallow and sandy bottom while the darker areas are coral or grass. Usually the lighter the color the shallower the water but you also must learn to recognize coral heads that come up close to the surface. They are often indicated by breaking water but at high tide you must rely on charts and local knowledge.

My advice for sailboats going to Hope Town that draw 5.5 + is to approach the enterance using published sailing instructions and tide. When in the harbor avoid the shoal before the anchorage areas by watching the water color and favoring the port side. If you do that you should have no problem with a 6 ft draft. I can tell you that the bottom is soft sand and it is easy to back off if you don't hit it too hard or have a wing keel.

Sailing to Hope Town

Josh Wegner arrived on Thursday on the late flight. He got situated in Summer Snow and then we went over to Snappa's for a little food and beer. Back at the boat we talked and laughed until late. Morning arrived revealing another beautiful day and we walked down to Jamie's for breakfast and then got ready to set sail. We managed to get off the dock at 11 AM with Dennis's help.

We sailed to Hope Town on a beam reach in a brisk breeze . We had a nice sail but I was anxious to get to the harbor entrance because we need a little tide help to get in the harbor. We fired up the diesel part way there to speed our progress but we had a soft grounding on the way in anyway. No big deal, we backed off and slowly felt our way around the problem area. Once in the harbor general we had good depth.

I radioed in to the Hope Town Marina and Aaron, the marina manager, was there to help us with our lines. They have a special deal right now, you can stay in the marina or hang on a mooring ball for the same price. Let's see, walk to the shower in the morning or dinghy in to the shower in the morning? I thought about it for a millisecond and took the marina option.

We secured Summer Snow and then took the marina provided dinghy over to Captain Jacks for an early supper and then to the Sugar Shack for ice cream and coffee. We returned to the boat and did our phone calls before retiring with our books. Tomorrow we plan on a big day of sailing on the Sea of Abaco. The wind should be 13 - 17 out of the SE so that should make for a lively sail.

Trivia Tuesday

Some of the long term sailors at Harbor View put together a trivia contest Tuesday and fun was had by all. The contest trivia included "life long learning" and sailing stuff. It was held at the Harbor View Pool, BarBQ & Gossip area and started at 5 and lasted until about 9 or so. Everyone brought food to share and meat to grill. There was lots of food and deserts so no one went away hungry. We divided into teams of 5 and my team included 3 attorneys, a dentist, and myself. My team didn't win but we did OK finishing 4th in a field of 7.
Jeff, the dentist on my team, came over this morning with a radar problem so I spent the morning and part of the afternoon with him fixing it. The problem was just a broken bolt in his back stay mounting bracket so wasn't too complex but of course the bolt was in a "hidden" location so we had to remove a pin from his back stay so we could drill it out and re-tap the threads. The stay had heavy tension even though we loosened the turn-buckles and jib halyard. We ran the main halyard back to a cleat on the stern and tightened it to further reduce tension. We were finally able to drive the pin out with one of my big punches and then used the punch to realign the holes for re-assembly. Jeff wasn't too confident that we could get it back together but he didn't know the old diesel mechanic had a few tricks left in him ;>)