Day 177, Monday, Dec. 16 - Day 1 with the boys

Day 177, Monday, Dec 16 - Day 1 with the boys

The day starts off like most days, a relaxing start with coffee in the cockpit, only now we have 4 people.  The day is partly cloudy with a bit of wind, the plan is to sail over to Hope Town in the afternoon.  It is about a 2.5 hour sail but will have to wait till late afternoon to have high tide to enter the harbour.

Blake getting ready for the snokel

In the morning, Julie and Dawson make the trip into the immigration office to see about having their visas extended as we were not able to do it at the airport.  The office is located about 1.5 miles from the water front in the new government building.  The building is quite stunning featuring a center courtyard. Although the building was nice we found no joy at immigration as we were informed that we can only apply for an extension within 7 days of our current visa expiring.  Oh well the walk was good exercise.  

Ross looking very smart in his wet suit

The next part of day has Julie, Ross and Blake head over to Mermaid reef to do some snorkeling while Dawson will stay on the boat to install the new water pump Ross brought.  Ross had hauled in some boating supplies from Canada.  The three snorkelers have a great time as mermaid reef is a protected area and has some stunning amount of aquatic life.  Dawson finishes the new pump installation as the crew arrives back from their snorkeling adventure.  The trip featured a very large spiny lobster sighting along with a large lion fish.

Ross demostrating his newly developed skills

Prior to upping anchor Ross puts on a juggling show for us.  This is a skill which Ross has been developing over the last year.  One of his house mates is an accomplished juggler and has taken Ross on as his apprentice.

Around 2 o'clock we pull the anchor up and head over to get fuel and water and then head out for the 8 mile trip to Hopetown.  We have a nice sail over and are tucked away on a mooring ball by 5 pm.  This time we take a ball close to the Hopetown Inn and Marina so we can access their Wi Fi from the boat.  We end up alongside Blue Moon; a boat we had first met up with at Green Turtle.  Linda from Blue Moon informs us it is bingo night over at Captain Jack's at 6 so we head over.  $40 later and no winnings we are back on the boat.  It was a fun time but would have been better if one of us had of won, the prize for a game was in the $150 range.

Back on the boat we have a meal of chicken and lobster, a couple of games of pigs and we are off to bed.
Cheers
Dawson and Julie