Back In The Limelight

Dave came home with another Hope Town Sailing Club awards glass today. This time for 3rd place in the Sunfish class. We have quite a collection now!

As the competitor who came in second said about not winning, "always a bridesmaid, never a bride." 😉

Lows & Highs

Yesterday we took Ken and Noah to Man-O-War to do a little exploring and shopping. First we stopped at the Low Place for a swim and to check out the skinny piece of land that almost separates the north end of the island from the south end. It is only wide enough for a golf cart and it can be rough on the ocean side, but calm on the Sea of Abaco side, as it was that day.

Last night we were able to see the Space X rocket that was launched from Cape Canaveral as it went almost over our heads. It started out very red on the western horizon and got white as it went higher (photo by Marcia and Dan on Cutting Class).

It was a perfect ending to the day and we were so glad the clouds had mostly cleared to watch the launch from our back dock.

Sailing Sozo

We have been taking advantage of the nice weather, and the east wind was perfect to take Ken's Compac 23 sailboat Sozo down to Tahiti Beach and back, late yesterday afternoon. The sails went up and the boat flew down and back. I followed in the skiff and brought Terri back to Hope Town once they arrived at the sandspit.

The guys especially had fun and Noah learned how to steer. 

Once they were unsupervised on the trip back though, they REALLY had a good time!

Is that really Dave? LOL It's good we have done so much the past few days because it was rather rainy today. However Ken and Noah went fishing, caught some fish, cleaning them here at our docks. That's when 3 nurse sharks and a 10 ft. bull shark swam though! Wish we could have taken photos of that! Thanks Terri for the other photos though.

Back To Guana

Today was a perfect day to take Walkabout to Great Guana Cay to show Ken, Terri, and Noah a bit of the island. We walked the back roads towards Grabbers, but continued on until we made it to the ocean and its spectacular seven mile beach.

I think that everyone couldn't wait to get their toes in the sand. The ocean was calmer than the Sea of Abaco.

You gotta hate the crowds though! 😉

We ended up at Nippers for lunch. It certainly is a colorful place. Once again the whole island was very quiet, but on weekends and especially when the Barefoot Man and band are in town, it is wild.

The guys went snorkeling on the reef afterwards, and then took a quick dip in the two pools.

Walking back to Settlement Harbour and the boat, we found the famous Nippers Dynahoe again, but nature is taking over as the brush grows up around it. Notice the toilet seat in the trees. LOL

The south wind picked up on the way back to Hope Town, but it was "on the nose" and Walkabout handled it great. What a fantastic outing and so much fun to show people places they have never been before. As an added bonus we even saw several Tropicbirds which means Spring must really be right around the corner!

Fierce Competition

There were 16 Sunfish out racing today including real pros. Of course they ended up getting the first few winning places, but Dave came in a very admirable 5th. He was also very consistent earning 5th place in all three races of the series. Go USA 4846, his favorite boat!

The wind was higher than predicted and it got pretty wild out on the course with Abaco Dinghies, Sunfish, Optis and 420 one design boats all racing at the same time. The 420s started with the Sunfish making it even more challenging.

The windward mark roundings were quite exciting. That's Dave on the far left...

Talk about close!

I was out in our skiff Safari watching with my friend Valerie...until the wakes and chop forced us back into the harbor before vertigo set in (that's us in the background with a 420 and Sunfish racing).

(Thanks to Lauren, Art, and Jane for some of the photos in this post.)

All Is Well

Have no fear, everything is fine with us and we have been doing a lot of everyday projects, a few days of sailing Suja, and of course, taking care of sailing club business. Bummer...still no one has taken photos of us zooming around the harbor in our green daysailer though.

We did go to a beautiful Bahamian wedding last Saturday. Our marina managers' daughter got married at the Hope Town In and Marina, and there were many very prominent locals and relatives from neighboring islands and Nassau in attendance. We were honored to have been included and although we didn't think we would know anyone, it ended up that we did, plus we met a few new people too. It was a lovely evening.

Yesterday there was a VBIC (Very Brief Informal Cruise) planned for lunch at Cracker P's on Lubbers Quarters. Some of the Abaco Dinghy owners decided to sail their boats down, but when we left, there was no wind. Instead, we loaded up the kayaks in the skiff and anchored off the restaurant beach. We kayaked down to the southern end of the island, and across to Cuby Jack Cay, a tiny barrier island on the cut to the ocean.

Heading back north to Tahiti Beach, there were lots of boats on the sand spit. A busy day of shelling for the tourists.

We made it back across to Cracker P's just in time for lunch, and in fact we were #2 for our orders...thankfully! About 60+ members showed up and the place was packed.

Meanwhile the wind had picked up from the north...something not predicted at all. We were really glad we were in the skiff, although it was a bit difficult getting back to the boat with the kayaks. Dave came back later to see if the Abaco Dinghies needed assistance, but they all made it back to Hope Town on their own.

Now it's time for more adventures with the Gibbons family that are in town this week, and there are two races scheduled. It should be a fun time so stay tuned!

3+2=2?

Yes, we are back to racing again! It is has been a busy couple of weeks with make up races and on Wednesday and Friday, the two part Hope Town Cup was held. Beautiful weather for it with 8-15 mph winds on both days. In Wednesday's race Sunrise came in 3rd (only 73 seconds separated 2nd and 3rd place) and on Friday they came in 2nd, this time with Dave at the helm. They had a fantastic start when most of the other boats were on the other end of the line going over too early and just about running into each other.

Dave snuck right in close to the committee boat on the opposite tack and sailed on by, leaving everyone to catch up. Of course the bigger and faster boats did, but the handicaps help in this regard.

After the handicaps were tallied and the scores added from both days, it ended in a tie, but the tie breaker was the results from day 2, so they earned a 2nd place glass. So 3+2=2!

Meanwhile on day 2, I was helping the race committee on the 70 ft. Nomad. This is the Abaco Rage Sailing Syndicate's home base and support boat when they go to the work boat races in George Town and Long Island.

They invited anyone who wanted to go and see the races and were ferried out to the boat. Not only that, but they served drinks and food. Day 1 had burgers, dogs and wings, and day 2 had homemade conch chowder and wings. it was a nice stable platform to run the races from and everyone had a great time in the Voodoo Lounge. Of course silence ensued during the starting sequence and the finishes, so the race committee could concentrate on the job at hand.

There was even a drone taking photos and videos...I love the big H for the helo landing 😉 which in this case was the drone landing spot.

Now I think we get a break from racing for about 10 days. That doesn't mean we won't be out sailing in our Abaco dinghy or daysailer. I just wish someone would take a photo of us because we have had a blast sailing into some really tight spots with Suja. Oh well, maybe someday...

Tragedy at Sea

I normally keep this blog very upbeat, but the past few days have been hard on everyone, especially the locals here in Abaco. On Saturday, a mayday came in from a charter catamaran crew saying they had found bodies floating in the Sea of Abaco. Within minutes a dive operator and member of the Guana Cay rescue group was on scene. Hope Town Volunteer Fire and Rescue headed that way also. The area was searched and more bodies were found on the neighboring islands. The Royal Bahamas Defense Force joined in the search and the U.S. Coast Guard was called in to help. Two C.G. helicopters were flying overhead for most of the afternoon, as well a C-130 plane that we could hear even at night (thanks Nancy for the photos).

It ended up that a Haitian sailboat smuggling between 45 and possibly up to 87 people (reported by immigration to the Nassau Tribune) hit the reef off of Fowl Cay near Man-O-War and sank, most likely the night before. 15 people were rescued that day and 2 more the next day. Unfortunately the number of those that perished has skyrocketed. Right now 28 bodies have been found, 12 of which went down with the wreck, so divers were called in. Many of these Haitians do not know how to swim and stayed with the boat, probably huddling below decks. From what I have read there are still other bodies that they cannot get to because the wreck is on them. This has been so hard for the local volunteers who have been out on the water daily collecting the deceased...they certainly are not used to having to do this kind of grisly work. Even though we may be out having fun, racing, and going about our daily lives, this humanitarian crisis still weighs heavily on our minds.

More Racing

Dave has been on a roll this season with racing both in the cruising class and the Sunfish. Today he came in 3rd overall in his Sunfish again, but he would have placed even higher except for the final race. The first race he led the whole way (by a lot!) and finished first. In the 2nd race he finished 3rd. In the 3rd race he was 2nd until he tried to round the leeward mark just as an Abaco Dinghy was doing the same.

This pushed him way off course and the 3rd place competitor passed him by going close to the mark. By the time he finished, several others passed him too.

It was great to see two past commodores, Dave and Stafford, out sailing in close quarters during one of the races...

Our friend from home Jim Ryan did much better today too. He even flipped his Sunfish and got right back up and finished the race.

It was an interesting day on the water with 6 Abaco Dinghies, 4 Junior Sailors in Optis, and 13 Sunfish. I think it set a record for the number of boats on the course, along with quite a few spectators. Definitely a good time was had by all.