The "Ambition" crew - Cindy and Merrill
The Hopetown Burial Society!
One of the colorful homes on Elbow Cay
The beach at Hopetown and notice the doggy! This was right before he came up the path and jumped up on us with sandy, dirty and wet paws!
The Sea of Abaco was finally calm enough for us to dinghy over to Hopetown on Elbow Cay. Their Fire & Rescue Department was having a fair to raise money for new equipment. There were hamburgers, hotdogs, a silent auction and even a demonstration by the US Coast Guard! It was weird to hear the Coastie’s helicopter because you just don’t see or hear those at all here in the Bahamas! We walked around Hopetown looking at all the beautiful houses there - it’s just so colorful! Every time I find a house that I think is my favorite, another more colorful one pops up around the corner.
Last night we said our goodbyes to Merrill and Cindy aboard ‘Ambition’, a Beneteau 411. They are leaving later today to go down to the Exumas (although the weather is crappy today so they may be delayed). We all tried to convince the Long Gone captain to follow along, but we’re trying to get back to the States in time for him to fly to OH for Easter break to see the girls. Our plan is to leave on Tuesday morning with another Hunter (a 450) named Tomlin II. They too would like to leisurely sail north taking in the sights that they missed on the way south. Our tentative plan is to go to Treasure Cay first, perhaps over to Great Guana, onto Manjack, Spanish Cay, Great Sale and then onto West End to wait for a window to cross the Gulf Stream. After that it will depend on weather - we can choose West Palm or if the Stream is really pushing us, we may try for Ft. Pierce or even points further north. It’s just hard to plan with cold fronts coming down every 3 days or so.
As we were saying goodbye to Cindy and Merrill, Lew and Teresa came into town from Norfolk. They are on 'Enchantment' - the Cabo Rico motor sailor that we were with for about 4-5 days coming south. It was great to see them again and the plan is for them to follow along to Treasure and Great Guana before coming back here to Boat Harbour. They will leave their boat here until May and then take her back to Norfolk. Because of the comings and goings, we thought that was reason enough for a party aboard Long Gone so Chris threw on a pork tenderloin and some chicken and the girls and I cooked green beans and mashed potatoes and kept the wine flowing. We definitely won the prize last night for the most bottles consumed in this marina!
It’s going to be hard to say goodbye to the Bahamas as we’ve just had such a wonderful time. The water here is unbelievably blue and even though we’ve had cold fronts one after the other (and the locals declare this the coldest winter ever), it has been great. We’ve learned a LOT on this trip! It’s even harder to say goodbye to the great folks we’ve met along the way, but we’re still keeping in touch with the cruisers that we’ve met on the way to the Chesapeake so good friends truly never lose touch. We're also looking forward to being back in New Bern and hanging out with all of our friends at home whom we've really missed! Wish all of you could have come too!
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