Had a great long weekend with the cousins and Steve did his magic on the disk, saved most of the files and has taken the disk and old PC back with him. We had a great time catching up, had some great sailing to Guana @ 7 and half knots with Steve at the helm.
The Abacos is a major culture shock to us in that many of the islands around Marsh Harbor are loaded with tourists. Hope Town is like Martha's Vineyard of the Bahamas.
We had a super easy ride here from Eluethera five days ago, traveled with Makana and Cookie Monster. It's a fairly long passage - longer than the trip across the gulf stream to West End. We arrived @ Linyard Cay on Wednesday last week, cleaned the bottom of Zusammen the next day (we were losing .8knt due to hair...), and then went snorkeling at Sandy Cay. The kids thought the reef was better than the Aquarium @ Cambridge Cay. I'm not sure I agree, but it certainly was spectacular. We then ran up to Hope Town through some super skinny water and met up with Three @ Sea and Dharma. Fun reunion dinner ensued @ on Da Beach.
I met a fella in Hope Town, Sammy, that manages a marina and is also a lighthouse tender. We got an invite to climb the lighthouse that night with the kids, and light the 1860's vintage kerosene fired light and wind the mechanism. Amazing. The light has Fresnel lenses and a kerosene fired lamp that woks like a giant Coleman lantern. Sammy has to climb the 101 stairs every two hours to re-wind the mechanism to keep the lenses spinning.
We left Hope Town on Saturday with Steve and Gina aboard and sailed up to Guana Cay and also made a run to Baker's Bay and Spoil Cay for some shelling.
We'll be heading back South tomorrow to around Linyard Cay for some diving and hanging with Cookie and Makana as well as Dharma and Three@Sea. Sounds like Osprey, Chere and Celilo will be up in the Abacos on Thursday. We'll be taking over the Abacos soon.
I am going to fly to NY early next week. Sounds like Elsa isn't doing all that well.
We spent a few days in Linyard Cay, enjoying the peacefulness of an island with no settlement. Dharma, Makana, Cookie Monster, and 3@Sea were all achored alongside Zusammen. The water was clear and beautiful, and I enjoyed some exercise swims with my friends which were much needed. The kids built an impressive fort on the beach with help from some of the men. The ocean bottom was all sand and grass except for on 5 foot section of reef. On the teeny reef, we found 4 HUGE lobsters. Unfortunately for us, and fortunately for them, lobster season is over, so we left them in peace. We left Linyard on Wednesday evening to return to Hope Town, to sit on a mooring for the big wind coming thru on the weekend. Osprey, Celilo, and Chere will all be joining us in Hope Town. Can't wait to see everybody!
