2nd Race, 3rd Place

In the second cruising boat race of the season, Sunrise received 3rd place honors after the handicaps were tallied. The winds were boisterous, starting out at about 15 mph and increasing to over 20 by the end. Luckily there were 4 crew onboard including the skipper, Milton, who owns the boat. They used both of their new Carbon Kevlar sails and the Capri 25 looked quite impressive!

In the middle of the race, the pin that holds the headstay on to the foredeck broke and the whole rig got quite wobbly. Dave found a long bolt, some washers, and a wingnut and crawled up to the bow, with one of the guys holding his ankles so he wouldn't go overboard, and he jury rigged the headstay so they could continue on their way. If not for that, they probably would have finished in at least 2nd place.

They all had fun, but I bet they were totally exhausted by the time they got back to the dock.

 Next up, Sunfish and Abaco Dinghy races!

Thanks once again to Will for the fantastic photos.

Swelling Up

Our Abaco Dinghy Dandy was put in the water today. First though, the forklift that launches the boats had to be fixed due to a flat tire. It is quite a challenge to repair something this big here in the islands, and certainly it can't be done in Hope Town. The wheel was removed and brought by boat over to Marsh Harbour, where a truck repair shop supposedly got it fixed (it ended up having a big slice in the side).  They put down carboard to keep the tire from making marks on our nice new dock.

After the wheel was installed, we grabbed Brandon and Charles to get Dandy launched before they completed their backlog of work from the forklift being out of commission. One of the advantages of living in the boatyard! Brandon easily lifted Dandy off the trailer...

Then carefully Dave and Charles laid the boat over on its side and it was brought over to the 'well' to be lowered into the water...

I ran and got our skiff, picked up Dave and Dandy, and we brought it over to its high visibility slip out front of the marina for the remainder of the season. Tomorrow we will put the mast and boom on.

This year though, the boat has been taking on a lot of water, more than in previous years. That means it has been out of the water too long and the wood needs to swell up. Dave is leaving a little bit of water in it to help that process. Hopefully in the next couple of days, the wood will swell and the seams will seal up. Then she will be ready to sail around the harbor again.

Oh, and the forklift tire repair? Tonight Dave walked out in the boatyard and the tire was flat again. Good thing all our boats are in the water now, since they will have to repeat the process or wait for their newly ordered tire to arrive. That's life in the islands!

Another Fuel Up

Chop Chop took up our whole dock when it stopped to fuel up on its way out of Hope Town Harbour! I bet the fuel tanker needs to come in now to replenish the supply. 😉

Extreme!

During the Christmas and New Year's week, there have been some really exotic vessels coming in and out of the harbor, each more extreme than the next. How about a 41 ft.center console with twin Seven Marine 627 hp, built from a Cadillac NorthStar V-8 outboard motors. These engines cost $80,000 each and had frenched in purple LED lights built in to the cowlings, plus 5 bladed props.

Wouldn't you love a ride in this 57ft. MTI center console with 4, 400 hp supercharged Mercury Verado outboards? It held 660 gallons of gas and cost just shy of $2 Million! Reported top speed is 68 mph. It had a triple tiered stereo system that required an additional diesel generator to run it. We really worried when the owner wanted a slip at our marina for the night on New Year's Eve. Luckily he never showed up!

We liked Chop Chop, an 88 ft. Riva Domino luxury motor yacht that cruises at 34 mph (I didn't realize I had taken a selfie when I took the last shot...

Yachts were supersized and extreme outside the harbor too. Anchored out was the luxury yacht Italian built Mangusta called Incognito. It cruises along at 34 mph with its 4, MTU 16 cylinder engines.

Incognito was traveling with an expedition yacht called Shadow that was its support vessel carrying all the water toys.

With all we have seen, I can't help to wonder, what next? I guess that's why Hope Town is called Hollywood!

"Cake Topper"

It has been a week of seeing extreme things around Hope Town, which I will write about in my next post, but the item that "topped the cake" was this...

I had just returned from a walk to the north end of Elbow Cay, when I heard a float plane land out in the Sea of Abaco. This wasn't that rare as we know that the owners of Anna Cay have one that brings the family in occasionally, and we have seen it about once a year. The prop noise kept getting louder and louder though, and I knew it was heading this way and ran for my camera. Thank goodness it didn't come in last week when the harbor was so crowded and hard to maneuver.

Then, to everyone's surprise, it picked up a mooring and waited for the Hope Town Inn and Marina to pick up the guests. That's when Dave and Jack (the other co-owner of Suja) sailed by and right past it!

Once again, we never know what we are going to see in the harbor! 

Kayak Safari

Our weather has been phenomenal the past couple of days! We have been wanting to go on a kayak safari, but had to come up with a place where it wasn't quite so busy as it is here for Christmas/New Year's Week. We loaded up the two kayaks in our skiff Safari and headed down to White Sound, about halfway down Elbow Cay. We anchored in the shallows and started paddling and exploring in all the little nooks and crannies. It was low tide and we were able to see lots more than is usually visible. How about a storage tank of some sorts...

Then there was this oddity that Dave thought may be some kind of fuel bladder. I tapped on it with my paddle and it was really hard.

This boat has been high and dry since one of the hurricanes (Sandy, I think). However, this time we saw an engine that was taken out and lay on the bottom.

What a perfect example of a Bahamas built boat that was scuttled in the shallows. The exposed ribs show how well it was made.

This is the first house that we rented for a couple of weeks way back in the 1990's. It has changed a lot since then and the new owners have enlarged it quite a bit with additions.

Looking towards the new houses being built by the Abaco Inn, we noticed a very strange light in the water...aliens? 

Nope, it was an underwater light installed near an expensive looking house. It must look great at night!

These new homes being constructed are as hurricane proof as possible with no overhangs and close together beams. They need to be heavily built since they are right on the edge of the water.

This bathroom must be for the construction workers. What a view of the Sea of Abaco if they left the door open. LOL...

Last but not least I found the old White Sound Buoy that marked the entrance to the channel out in the Sea of Abaco. Now we know why we missed it at night last spring when we were going home at night from the bonfire at Tahiti Beach (see blog post HERE). No light on top! Good thing the whole buoy was replaced.

Another fun adventure and we are looking forward to more...soon I hope!

2018 vs. 2019

Happy New Year! 2018 set a record for the number of posts written on this blog, so apparently we had a busy and fun year. Hopefully I can continue that trend in 2019, but no guarantees. It all depends on what is happening or whether we are just in our day to day to routines...not that we have a routine 😉!

To start out this year, check out this YouTube video about The Best of the Best which centers around the workboat races and Abaco's skipper extraordinaire (who Dave races Sunfish against). It also features shots around Marsh Harbour and of course Hope Town. Keep an eye out for the quick view of our apartment over the marina and next to the lighthouse, and of our green daysailer Suja on the sailing club beach. Click HERE and enjoy.

Wishing you all the best for the new year!