Yes, we haven’t provided an update for a while. We apologize.
Those of you who have been checking our blog maps though may
have noticed that we have moved about since our last report.
But, a word about Marsh Harbor. It is a much larger town as opposed to the
others we have visited. While not as
diverse as cities in the U.S. they do provide access to a variety of services
and goods such as a large grocery store (smaller version of a Harris Teeter or
Giant), banking, hardware marine stores, etc.
No Walmart or Sam’s Clubs however.
So you can imagine we did take advantage of these to replenish certain
items like fresh meat, eggs, veggies, milk, cash, etc. It’s not all sand over here.
We again met fellow boaters here and there while getting in
our requisite 10,000 steps while walking about motivated by our Fit Bit watches
that record our various physical activities daily. Thanks Josh for suggesting these to us.
While in Marsh Harbor Gerry experimented making bread with
rapid yeast; something she hadn’t used before.
Worked great and quickly, and we have been enjoying it daily.
Another Marsh Harbor experience was living through the storm
of 2016, our first squall. About 8:30 at
night last Tuesday for about 2 hours the wind whipped up to 35 knots and once
blew at 50 knots for a few minutes. The whole boat shook and shook for a while,
felt like you were on the end of a whip.
It was raining sideways so hard you could not see anywhere. You did not want to go outside. We kept looking at each other asking when it
was going to end. Fortunately everyone
in our area of the anchorage did not drag their anchors so we all stayed in our
relative positions. A few weren’t so
lucky and a couple of boats came in contact with each other. One had to cut their anchor chain to remove
themselves from the pickup.
The next day on the Cruisers Radio Ne there were numerous
reports of lost items. A lot were
recovered later in the days, found floating in the harbor or blown ashore.
We finally departed Marsh Harbor last Thursday under motor
and travelled down to Little Harbor, Abaco.
It’s a small harbor somewhat the size of Cambridge, MD, our home port.
While there we visited Pete Johnston’s Gallery. A local sculpturer whose works are displayed
in a wonderful southwestern style building which is quite a contrast from the
local island architecture. He is an
accomplished sculpturer in his own right having trained under his father, Randolph
Wardell Johnston who had done some famous works displayed internationally. Quite an accomplishment using a remote
foundry virtually in the middle of nowhere and completely off the grid. Everyone in the area is powered by solar
energy. You should see the size of the
batteries used. It was impressive.
Pete Johnston also has Pete’s Pub there in Little Harbor, a
wonderful stop for libations and fabulously delicious food which we absolutely
enjoyed. The best fish we have had in a
long time, ranking right up there with Charleston’s finest restaurants. Was too good to pass up. We had lunch and dinner there on Friday.
On Friday afternoon, Radeen and Hayden Cochran of Island
Spirit arrived in Little Harbor after having crossed over from Royal Island,
Eluthera and together we had dinner catching up with each other’s experiences
since we met here in the Abacos last year.
They are pretty prolific bloggers and maintain a very informative blog
at http://www.islandspirit35.blogspot.com.
On Saturday morning as the weather report looked favorable
to sail back north to Hopetown both the Cochrans and we took advantage of that
weather window. It was a nice downwind sail
for the most part up here to Hopetown, at least for a couple of hours. We motored the last hour up through White
Sound since it is shallow at the entrance and it was low tide. Although the chart has it marked as 4.5 feet
in one spot, the lowest we all saw was 5.2 feet.
Upon arriving at Hopetown we both were able to locate mooring
balls in the harbor to secure our boats.
Our friends Barbara and Doug Lienhard were able to help us secure the
mooring ball next to them. Later in the
day we enjoyed each other’s company at the Hopetown Inn and Marina swimming
pool and later had dinner together at Captain Jack’s, a local Hopetown
favorite. Wish us luck there when we go
play bingo with them on Monday night.
Grandma would have enjoyed that.
Real (large) cash prizes are offered.
Last night Gerry fixed an even better fish dinner than
Petes, pan searing a fresh wahu fish that we bought at the fish cleaning
station here at the Hope Town Inn and Marina.
Well that’s the latest.
We plan on staying here at least a week or so before we start heading
back.
Here are some more photos:
Enjoy,
Gerry & Larry
Galileo
