January 26, 2018 - January 31, 2018
The winds have been between 20-30 mph with gusts up to 40 mph for two days. Trying to sleep in these conditions has been a challenge. Even though the harbour is well protected on all sides the flatness of the land and the strength of the wind allows the wind to whip into the harbour rocking the boats and moving them about. At night the sound of the mooring lines groaning stimulated my imagination. I’m good at imagining catastrophe especially while laying awake at night. First, I thought the boat would break apart and wondered how we could save the cats and ourselves. Next, I thought about the mooring breaking loose and sending s/v Rainy Days careening off into another boat. Again I wondered how to save ourselves. Finally, I imagined another boat breaking loose from its mooring and careening into us. Sleep during these 40 mph gusts, as you can imagine, was impossible. Fortunately, none of those scenarios occurred and by Saturday morning the wind had died down a bit, but was still too strong to allow us to move about the Abacos.
We spent time walking the streets and beach of Hope Town snapping photographs of the endless beauty of the island.
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s/v Rainy Days is in the front of the mooring field here.
You can see how the harbour is packed full of vessels.
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The wrecked sailboat was finally broken up and sunk by the reef
leaving the pristine beach empty of debris.
It was a little too chilly and windy for swimming on this day,
but when the weather is nice you can snorkel right off the beach.
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The lighthouse is a prominent feature of the Hope Town “skyline”.
I took this picture from the dunes above North Beach.
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| The streets in Hope Town are marked with hand painted signs on old wood. |
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| There are feral cats in Hope Town, but this one was sitting on the wall around its house. |
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| Of course, I have visited all of the quaint gift shops in the town. |
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| We discovered a great little restaurant and enjoyed their excellent flat bread pizza on two occasions. |
We, also, visited a couple from Annapolis that we met in Isle of Palms who live in a cottage on the north end of town. I wonder what it would be like to live here for the whole season in a cottage. I think my wandering days are not yet over.
One evening I attended an a cappella choral concert at the St. James Community Center. The talented group was from Princeton University and gave three concerts this week. I throughly enjoyed the performance. Listening to the group's arrangements of contemporary music was a welcome change from our usual evening entertainment (watching the sunset and relaxing).
Between excursions into town we enjoyed relaxing in the sun (when it wasn't cloudy and overcast), reading, and writing.
We plan to leave for Marsh Harbour on Thursday to provision and wait for a weather window to continue our journey.
Thank you for reading my blog.
