Rage-aholics

Dave may be down, but not out. He wouldn't miss the opportunity to sail on the Abaco Rage, even when sick. That's because he has now become the mainsheet guru. This can be such a strenuous job that it requires an assistant to help 'tail' or pull the line.

This picture tells it all.



They have already tacked around the mark, Stafford is trying to get the boat to 'answer the helm', Dave and Billy are pulling in the mainsail, Pete is positioning himself on the high side pry, and hidden under the sail is Bobby.

Friday's Spring Regatta was a good one for Dave not to miss. All during the race, a rental boat kept 'stalking' the Rage around the course. After the finish, the skiff came up to the crew, and a man asked them if they would shake out the reef in the mainsail, so he could take more pictures. The photographer turned out to be Benjamin Mendlowitz, who takes photos for Wooden Boat Magazine and their prestigious calendar! We'll have to keep a look out to see if the Rage becomes even more famous than it already is. If it happens, I'll be sure to post something here and on the Rage's blog, which I am now the editor of! The link for that can be found here and on the right sidebar.

Preserving Our Light

Last week was an exciting week at our red and white, candy striped lighthouse. A group of experts came to Hope Town to inspect and assess the condition of our Elbow Reef Light Station. This included Ed Gunn, who is the executive director of the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse in Daytona, and has over 10 years experience restoring Fresnel lenses. Also with him was Steve Varhola, who has developed tools for removing the strips which hold the curved glass pieces of the lantern room's exterior glass in place. What a fantastic opportunity to meet these talented people!

Several of the protective outer glass panes have deteriorated and broken over the years and need replacing. Until more curved glass can be made, pieces of lexan were brought in and installed.



As you can imagine from a lighthouse built in 1864, plenty of restoration is needed. The Bahamas Lighthouse Preservation Society is an amazing group that is striving to preserve this one of only three remaining manually operated lighthouses in the world. It’s a never ending battle between the elements, politics, money, the threat of automation, and getting the help they need.

Help is what we do best though, and spearheaded by Dave, we have now started up a group of enthusiastic volunteers that are trying to do whatever we can to assist around the lighthouse and grounds.

We had our first work party and we accomplished so much in one day. Our emphasis was to clean up the grounds, and concentrate on the storage building, which will hopefully become a future workshop.

BLPS director Annie Potts and Jerry Whiteleather, lighthouse engineer (who knows everything about the light and every part and tool), first gave us an introduction about all that has happened and what needs to be taken care of in the future. Heinz and Dave show a piece of the lens that fell out.





Then it was time to get to work. Cleaning up the trash that had blown in from the hurricane and gales was arduous but straightforward, and we removed much refuse off the premises.

The storage room is packed full of spare parts that needed to be categorized and organized, right down to having pictures taken of them. All shelves and floors had not been cleaned in many years. It’s so overwhelming that you wonder where to begin?


Leave it to the women to “git ‘r’ done” though. Aletha dove right in. She has experience being a missionary in Honduras and rebuilding schools.



Dave discusses work with Annie while the ladies sort tiny parts.


Linda and Patti are caulking gurus!



Outside the building, lights, windows, and doors needed repairs and caulking.



How many GUYS does it take to do one window though?



Lunch break with a view.



There’s still plenty of work for the volunteers to do. For now though, the grounds look so much better and give a better first impression to visitors. Plus the storage building is now secure and ready for the new glass panes to be stored and worked on.



It was a fun day and a great way for everyone to learn more about this national treasure. What a privilege to float happily in the harbor right underneath it every winter.



Footnote: I have added a link to the Elbow Reef Lighthouse website on the right sidebar.

Not So Bright Side

The beginning of the end of a great weather period. Talk about "March coming in like a lion?!" This year it certainly was true. It was very ominous as the cold front approached and at one point looked like a waterspout was forming.




It all dissipated though, and we were left with gray skies and lots of wind. For the past two days it has been blowing at least 25-35 m.p.h., with many higher gusts. The noises all the boats make around us is amazing, and especially the sailboats with 'stow away' sails. These are sails that furl up into the masts, but the slots where they roll up, howl and whine in the breeze. Then New Horizon itself is swinging around wildly on her nice safe mooring lines, but the waves make it rock, and then jump up and down. Today it's like living in one of those 'bouncy bounce' kids playhouses.

The bad weather came at a good time though, because both Dave and I have been sick. We have come down with what is 'fondly'(HA!) called the Hope Town Grunge or Crud, an upper respiratory virus. It has spread like wild fire through the islands, but unfortunately this 'fire' isn't doused quickly. Average recuperation is 3 weeks. I don't think anyone has gotten over it without going on antibiotics and/or prednisone. Gee, now Hope Town really is living up to its nickname 'Hollywood', with half the people hyped up on steroids! I can be included in that bunch because my asthma is an issue. I have to admit that I caught it first, 10 days ago, and Dave started in 2 days ago. Living on a boat with two coughing, blowing, sneezing people is not fun when we do it at different intervals. We just can't get away from each other. Sometimes we do it in unison which is much better!

No one wants to hear about all that though, and we just say, "this too shall pass." For now it's blowin' a hooley and I better go out check the mooring and dinghy lines!

Sculling 101

Hope Town held its Heritage Day Celebration this past weekend, with a huge turn out from all over the Abacos. This year focused on the Wyannie Malone Museum, but they also had six Abaco Dinghies set up for people to learn how to row or scull them. Dave and I were key people in getting these wooden boats bailed out (they took on water through their planks, since they had been stored on land until recently, and had yet to swell up once in the water), and then towed them over to the dock where the festivities took place.





The dinghies drew a lot of attention, and even the ladies came out to give it a try. It is a lot harder than it looks, that's for sure! The oar is long and heavy, and has to stay in a small notch on the back of the boat. Then you have to get it underwater and make it 'swim' down to push the boat ahead. If you don't keep the right angle or movement, the oar pops back up to the surface. I couldn't do it on my own, but Dave assisted.







Mercedes, the grocery store manager, did the best out of all of us, after a lesson from Harold Malone, who owns a couple of the dinghies. Her sculling talent must be in her blood from being Cuban. She's so funny and a ball of fire, laughing the whole time, and talking so fast you can't understand her.



Last year, only the guys that participated received shirts that said "A Gentleman and a Sculler". This year they presented the the women with shirts too..."A lady and a Sculler". Here we all got together for a photo while dancing and showing off our shirts.



Afterwards, I gave Dave a ride back to Harold's house, as we returned the boats back to his dock.



We certainly do enjoy the diversity here in Abaco! We never know what we will be getting involved in next.

Dog Day Afternoon

Yesterday was a perfect day for a VBIC (Very Brief Informal Cruise) to Johnny's Cay, just outside of Hope Town. There were about 20 of us that brought our dinghies and skiffs out to the little out-island for a picnic.





Notice how the trees have been damaged from Irene, but the foliage has returned.



Dave and Bill refine their Abaco Dinghy sailing skills. Always be ready to duck when that low boom swings over your head! No wonder Sam has named this boat 'Nothin's Easy'.



Best of all, I think that the dogs enjoyed being on this island the most.

Penny (and her owner Chris) from ChrisDeke enjoying the sun.



Miniature or toy poodles make great boating dogs, and there are several in the harbor. They don't shed, love the water, and are very friendly. I don't have a picture of Belinda B's Pete, but he is our favorite and loves everyone. He recently went blind, but that hasn't stopped him from going to the beach. He seems to have adapted really fast. Ankers Away now have a gorgeous reddish brown poodle, that loves the beach so much, they have named their dinghy 'Rusty's Boat'.

Another one of my favorite dogs to watch is a yellow lab named Rudder. His owner Sid, never goes out in any of boats without the dog. He even races his Abaco Dinghy with Rudder as crew.




This is Simon from Interim, a Westie. He's getting on in age, but is still really spunky. Although he loves to go to the beach, he doesn't get to go very often because he has too much fun in the sand.



Speaking of sand...what is that thing?


It's actually golden retriever Schooner from Spirit, making herself smell really good by rolling in an old sponge.

Mark and Kim telling Schooner it's time for a bath!



Seeing the fun the dogs were having made us really wish we had one again, but it's "not in the cards" right now with our lifestyle and my allergies. Oh well, after seeing Schooner's condition, maybe it's best to enjoy everyone else's pets and leave the cleaning to them!

Progress

The new marina and resort here in Hope Town is progressing along quite nicely. It has been interesting watching the barges come and go with building materials, equipment, and even trees. One night, we heard the inter-island freight boat come in after dark, which seemed really strange. It pulled up to the marina's seawall and shut off its engine, but kept its generator going. All the Harbour Rats were really wondering what was going on until the next morning, when we discovered that the pool was filled with water! There must have been a huge fresh water tank down in the hold, and the generator that we heard was the pump to transfer it into the pool.

Before...



And after!




Sunday is the only day that workers aren't present, so it was a great day to explore the premises.

Chairs, tables, and umbrellas have arrived to be used in the pool and bar area.



Pretty woodwork in the bar.



Kitchen equipment arrives.



More landscaping is ready to be planted.



It will take a lot of power to support this resort and marina. Looks like a bunch of spaghetti right now.



The view of New Horizon, out in the harbor, from the docks.



Here's a test for you. What's wrong with the above picture? Hint...look at the sailboat in front of New Horizon. It is backwards, caught on its mooring lines. This happens periodically when boaters run over the lines and the buoy lines get caught on the rudder or worse, the propeller, which could cut it. All you can do is put another line from the boat to the mooring to take the pressure off, and remove the lines. The boat in the picture also put an anchor down. If they had let the stern line go and were just on the anchor line, they would have run into us. Luckily that didn't happen.

While exploring the marina and boatyard next door, we came across two new moorings that are ready to be dropped into place in the harbor. You can see that they are large concrete blocks with chain through them, and then lines attached to that.



There's still plenty of work to be done at the new resort, and I have a feeling that we will be watching its progress for quite some time.

Outside, Looking In

Here in Hope Town Harbour, we spend most of our time on the inside, looking out. Even when we go boating out in the Sea of Abaco, it's still considered to be 'inside'. Yesterday we changed all that for a few hours when we were outside, looking in. The light westerly wind was perfect for carrying the kayak over the sand dune and kayaking in the ocean. It was so much in the lee that there was barely a ripple breaking on the beach. That made it even easier to get into the kayak without waves washing over us.



Once out on the water, we paddled about half a mile out to the outer reef, weaving our way around the shallow inner reef. We could really distinguish the dark colored coral heads, and at times the tops of them would come out of the water in the trough of the small swells.

This is what Hope Town looks like coming from the ocean, but almost impossible to get there with all the reefs. No wonder 'wrecking' (or wracking as it was also called) was such a popular pastime and occupation before the lighthouse was built!



Back near shore we kayaked past East Point, which is the easterly most point of the island, and the elbow part that Elbow Cay is named after.



On the south side of East Point there is a nice swimming hole and the water is crystal clear.



We couldn't resist taking a quick swim, once we got back to the beach. The 75 degree water didn't feel too bad, especially since it is February. Not only just February though, it was our 34th wedding anniversary too! What a great day to look back and remember all the many things we have done in those years, and how lucky we are to be able to live the lifestyle we do.