Rebecca and Abbie visit

Hi Folks,

Publishing our blog a little late this week, because we have had our daughter, Rebecca and our niece, Abbie with us enjoying this great place for just over a week. Unfortunately, the weather went downhill in the early part of their visit, but it came back in the end and they went home this AM relaxed and tanned.

We had gotten back to Hope Town last I wrote, but I neglected to tell everyone about the fabulous Key Lime pie made by Vernon, the local grocer and baker. He also serves as minister for a lot of the weddings that happen in Hope Town. It turns out that this is a wedding destination place, because it’s so beautiful. Plus he could make a living on key lime pies alone, if he chose to. The Required Trip to the Top of the Hope Town Lighthouse

We walked around, key lime pie in hand, had lunch overlooking the water at Captain Jack’s, and then went back to sleep and read through the rain and wind that were kicking in. Wednesday morning we awoke to a torrential wind-driven (clocked at 49 knots) rain, but instead of hiding, Abbie was the first to jump outside in a bathing suit to take a shower in our cockpit. We all joined in, to the somewhat astonished looks of other cruisers, moored all around us, but it was a definite highlight.

Then magically the weather improved so much that in the afternoon, we went to the Hope town Lodge on the beach and went swimming in the ocean and lounged at their pool. It got even nicer the next day, so we repeated the same scenario and went snorkeling on a reef off the beach. Visibility wasn’t up to its normal standards because of the recent storm, but it was Abbie’s first time snorkeling and the fish were smiling.

The next day we sailed up to Man O’War Cay and met up with some friends that we had not seen in a while. It was hot, so we took our dinghies out to a sand bar that was about 2 feet deep and set up a bar at the sand bar. Neat.

Saturday was the 22nd annual Man O’War flea market and fair. All of the cruisers were there. A big event with local stuff for sale. Ronnie bought a palm frond bonnet to keep on the boat, Arnie bought a big machete to open coconuts ( having struggled with a hammer and screwdriver the previous night to do that). The best thing was the bbq chicken along with beans and rice and mac and cheese, Bahamian style ( like a pudding cake). Enough food to last us 3 days of leftovers. Hermit Crab Races at Man O'War Fair

After the fair, we sailed back to Marsh Harbour – it was a Saturday night at Snappas, the local friendly pub with Brown Tip, the maniacal DJ. Loud and fun with dancing and rum. Abbie and Becca finished the evening in the heated marina pool where we were staying, dancing to music from Snappas.

Sunday was beautiful and the plan was to snorkel at Mermaid reef. We spent the entire afternoon there doing just that, with the biggest, friendliest fish we have seen down here. A local was telling us that a guy whose house overlooks the reef will shoot anyone he sees trying to catch or spear a fish there. That’s why the fish are so friendly – all they know is that people feed them. That evening we skyped a conference call with our son Ben and Dennis, Abbie’s dad who had just been down here recently, and had a great time chatting. Skyping, for the uninitiated is a computer to computer (or phone) way of calling. If everyone joins, skyping each other is free, otherwise it’s 2 cents per minute to call someone – not bad. A whole lot better than our satphone, which has been really disappointing. We can never get on, because of lack of satellites. We just heard that there is a class action suit starting claiming consumer fraud against Globalstar. For those of you considering buying one, I would have to recommend against it. Abbie and Ronnie Blowing a Conch Horn Duet at Sunset


As I said in the beginning, the girls left early this morning, and we had a great time with them visiting. We already miss them. Ronnie and I cleaned up the boat a bit, got needed food and propane ( for our refrigerator) and are now pondering, with all our friends coming to visit us in the winter, whether we will need a bigger boat!

Talk with you next week.

Arnie and Ronnie