Walkabout

We just got back to our mooring in Hope Town after taking a short ‘walkabout’ cruise to some of the other islands. First we went to stock up on supplies in Marsh Harbour on the main island of Abaco. That is when we learned about the devastating earthquake in Haiti and the possibility of a tsunami tidal wave as far north as the Bahamas. We heard the next day that the tsunami watch was not in effect for very long and that BASRA (Bahamas Air Sea Rescue Association) had sent a helicopter down to the lower Bahamas to check on the wave height. When they saw that the swells were only about 2 feet, they notified the Coast Guard and the watch was suspended.

After spending time in the ‘big’ city, we motored over to the island of Great Guana Cay and picked up a mooring in their settlement harbor. We joined up with 8 other boats from the Hope Town Sailing Club, who were on the first BIC (Brief Informal Cruise) of the season. 18 of us went to lunch at a restaurant called Grabbers.



Then the fleet captain had made arrangements for us to get a tour of the Baker’s Bay Golf and Ocean Club being built on the northern end of the island. This is quite an elite development and when we arrived there was a 200ft. megayacht berthed there.

We had a bit of a tour around the marina village that they are building.

By the way, that is our cruising friend Di in the red coat, standing next to Dave. She is 80 years young and owns and captains her sailing catamaran, Caesar's Ghost.

We were also shown a 2 bedroom condo selling for $2.2 million, and then a 3 bedroom condo selling for $3.5 million! These weren’t even houses, and they were so close together that if you went out onto your ‘private’ veranda, you could just about shake hands with your neighbor.




Talk about opulence though. It sure was a sharp contrast and the exact opposite of what is going on in Haiti.

Wednesday night we also had what the sailing club calls ’heavy duty’ appetizers and cocktails on board Ankers Away, with 22 people congregating in their 48ft. boat. We even contacted some of our fellow Harbour Rats that are still in the U.S. for health reasons, via Skype, and sang the Harbor Rats Theme Song so they could join in the festivities.


We arrived back ‘home’ just in time for the wind to start blowing again, as another cold front approaches. Our watermaker parts have arrived and there are several other projects we need to do, so our walkabout had perfect timing.