Day 274, Sunday March 23rd
We have a good sleep although around 11 pm Dawson gets up to
release the surge bridal as the wind had changed. The day is bright and starts off with an
exciting “Toast Bar”, as we had some homemade bread we had bought in Hatchet
Bay. While we are enjoying our toast and
coffee we listen to the Abacos cruisers net to find out what is going on. Once the net is over we start to consider
what to do and where to head. This
discussion is quite long as we have two main goals, 1) to get down to Little
Harbour to visit the foundry gift shop as Dawson wants to buy a bronze turtle
sculpture, and 2) find a safe haven for us during the upcoming cold front. The cold front is expected to bring winds in
excess of 20 knots from all compass points, with Chris Parker adding his
recommendation of seeking shelter by Monday night. In the end we decide to head the 16 miles
north to Hope Town while the cold front passes and then to head back to Little
Harbour for the shopping after.
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| Julie at the helm |
It is 10 by the time we make the decision so we quickly pull
the anchor and head out. We’ve chosen to
head to Hope Town for a couple of reasons, 1) offers 360 degree protection and
2) and a number of amenities to keep us entertained for the 3 to 4 days we plan
on being there. There are lots of boats
on the move, so it now turns into a race to see who can get to Hope Town first
and secure a mooring. There is sufficient wind to sail on a couple
of legs of the trip but not for others (due to the track you have to follow to
stay off the sandbars) we only put out the Genoa and motor sail. We get the feeling the 4 boats ahead of us
are heading for Hope Town as well so must beat them there. About 3 miles along our route the Explorer
Charts offers an alternative shallow draft route which would cut off about 2
miles. We talk about this and decide
that as it is a rising tide (about 2/3 risen) and the shallows sounding is ~5’
(we draft 5.5’) we will take it. We have
found the Explorer Charts to be very accurate all through the Bahamas. It still is somewhat nerve racking as we
cruise over the sand bank and see we only have a foot under the keel, but a 1
foot is the same as 100’. We make it
with the shallowest reading being 6.5’ and we are now well ahead of our
competition.
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| Last mooring ball in Hopetown |
We arrive at the entrance to Little Harbour just before high
tide and cruise into the harbour followed by another sailboat. Hope Town offers excellent protection but
only on moorings, if we don’t find a mooring we will be looking for plan B. We spot an empty mooring as soon as we enter
and quickly tie up, the mooring has a note that it is set up for a max of 40’
boat. We are 40 feet but a heavy one and
it makes us wonder if it will hold
us. We see a number of other empty
mooring and make the decision to drop the one we are on and get one of
them. We quickly make our way through
the harbour and find that all the empty moorings have bottles marking them as
reserved. Julie makes the snap decision
to head back to the one we left before it gets taken. We tie up again as two other sailboats pass
by looking for a mooring.
Just after we tie up the owner of the mooring comes up to
collect his fee ($20/day), and Dawson ask about the 40’ max. His answer is that he and his neighbouring
mooring had issues with the mooring over lapping with boats greater than 40’,
neither of the them would move so the harbour board told them they could only
service boats up to 40’. So the issue
was with length not weight.
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| Walk to Da Beach |
Once we are settled at the mooring we head off for a walk
around town. We know the town and Cay
well as we spent around 7 days here during our Abacos tour in Nov/Dec. We end up walking the beach about 2 kms up to
a beach bar we knew aptly called “On Da Beach”.
We enjoy an excellent cold Kalik and then walk back to the dinghy. Upon arrive at the dinghy we decide to do a
dinghy ride to see where our friends boat Comocean is tied up. During the ride we spot another Caliber 40
and head over to say hi. We are quickly
asked aboard and have a great time talking about calibers and our adventures
with our new best friends for ever Dale and Debbie. We make a date with them to join up for Bingo
the next day at Captains Jacks. During
the conversation, it turns out they know Randy and Lee from Silver Maple who we
had met in Cape Eleuthera and that they are in Hope Town as well. We say good bye to Dale and Debbie and head
over to say how do to Randy and Debbie.
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| Debbie and Dale on Lyric (Caliber 40 LRC) |
We catch up with Silver Maple since we last spoke while
enjoying a drink on their boat. We firm
up the bingo for the next day and tell them we will be back tomorrow. We head back to Jazzebelle getting back just
after 6 having enjoyed a great “do lots and get nothing done afternoon”. We have a late dinner, a game of Kings
Cribbage and yes a coffee and then off to bed we go.
Cheers
Dawson and Julie
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