Lighting The Lighthouse

We arrived in Hope Town just in time for the annual Harbour Rats tradition of decorating the lighthouse. There were a few obstacles to overcome this year, but the mighty 'Rats' persevered. First problem was that the storage building, where some of the lights and the specially made rope to bring them up to the top are kept, was still barred shut from the hurricane (plus the door was falling apart to start with). Luckily Dave brought the 'key', aka a crowbar.

Then Spirit Mark and Dave set to work on gaining entry until Mark spotted a snake.

While everyone else stepped back, (more like RAN back) Dave enticed the snake onto the 'key' and put it in the bushes.

Once inside, the guys discovered that our rope was missing and a new one had to be made. Surf Song Doug, went back to his boat to get a new line, while Dave found a huge shackle for a weight, so the line could be lowered down from the top of the lighthouse.


The rest of the process went quickly and flawlessly, since we all have done this so many times before.


This year we also had the help of a couple of girls that are missionaries and St. James Church Youth leaders. They were so helpful and ran up and down the lighthouse stairs with whatever was needed up above.

Schooner, from s/v Spirit, also showed her support, but always kept her eye to the sky..."I see you up on top, Mom and Dad!"

It's always great to see the lights, especially that first night when they get turned on. Comments were even coming over the VHF radio about how good they look. What a fantastic feeling to know we were instrumental in putting them up.

Defeating The Whale

It wasn't much of a war though. The Whale Cay Passage was more like a pussycat this time, thankfully. There were 3-5 foot long rollers and hardly any chop at all, with light wind. New Horizon did a bit of rolling herself, when we were beam to the waves.

We had everything, inside and out, stowed and tied down. The skiffs are towed at different lengths so they don't run into each other. Green Turtle Cay fades in the distance.


One year the waves were so steep as the they 'felt' the bottom rising up from deep to shallow water, that we barely made it out the pass. We couldn't turn around though, once we made the decision to head out. If we got beam to the sea (sideways) it would have hit us broadside and rolled the boat over. The waves were breaking almost across the whole cut that day, but luckily the freight boat Legacy (sistership to the Legend that we took to Green Turtle Cay last year) was coming the other way, surfing down the waves, so we knew where the deepest water was. Perhaps we shouldn't have trusted her captain, because just recently the Legacy went up on the rocks in another cut, trying to come in from the ocean in a rage. It took days to get it towed off and brought to Freeport for repairs.

Here is Whale Cay, and on calm days we have anchored behind it on the Sea of Abaco side with the skiff and hiked to the oceanside. I can't believe that Dave has even hiked out as far as this light!


You can see the difference in the water color between the deeper ocean blue and the shallow sandbar in the Sea of Abaco.

Out in the ocean Dave drives, as the boat rolls from side to side.
For me it was "one hand for the ship" and one hand on the camera...what I do for blog material...ha!

We passed the 'Leopard', a commercial fishing boat that is used as the mothership. The four skiffs that they towed then go out fishing during the day, and return at night.

The channel back into the Sea of Abaco is much easier to transit, since it is much deeper than the northern side. Back in in the late 1980's Disney bought a portion of Great Guana Cay and turned it into one of their island paradises that their cruise ship visited. They had to dredge out and mark the channel and turning basin (we actually saw the gigantic equipment that did this). Unfortunately they hadn't taken into consideration how bad the sea could get and the ships rolled so much at anchor, they abandoned the whole project after a few years (a fun place to explore the ruins). The channel and markers are still there, which really helps us boaters. This little island is called Shell Bank Cay, and is really just a spoil bank made from the cruise ship dredging material. We remember when it wasn't even there, and now there are even trees on it.

As we continued motoring on south, we passed the Vi-Nais, the temporary replacement freight boat for the Legacy, that brings in supplies to Green Turtle Cay.

Since all systems were working fine (except for a bad exhaust leak filling up the inside of the boat with diesel fumes, that needs to addressed..SOON) we motored on to Hope Town and picked up our mooring. Even before we arrived people were calling on the VHF radio greeting us. Once settled, we did some harbor touring and visiting. It's great to be back!

This May Be The Day

The wind has eased and hopefully the waves. Two sailboats just left and I'm pretty sure they are heading to the Whale Cay Passage. We will listen for their reports on the VHF radio and probably head that way shortly. Unfortunately the tide is opposite of what it should be. An outgoing tide against the east wind and waves coming in, makes the waves larger. However, if we wait too long for the tide to change, it gives us less time to get through to a safe anchorage with another cold front and high winds on our tail. The days are too short.

More from "the other side"...hopefully!

"You're So Beautiful When You're Angry!"

The rage in Abaco continues. However, here in White Sound, the wind has finally started to ease and the boat isn't as frantic as it has been the past several days. I would go as far as saying it's almost relaxing...and the winds are only down to 15 m.p.h.

Now hopefully those ocean swells will lay down, so we can escape and head further south.

More Teasers For The Motorheads

Back in Daytona, we arrive at the Turkey Run in style! Parking problems solved!!

It's exciting entering the speedway through the tunnels. The burnouts sounded great too!

Wow!, a mid-engined, retro-sleeper-cab, roll-back, hot-rod hauler.

Dave's favorite, a 6400 series Chevy twin-boom Holmes wrecker from the early 50's, for sale, $8,900.

What color Shelby would you choose? This line-up of brand new replicas started at $75,000.

How about this jet engined Corvette Stingray funnycar!!

This 59 Chevy was shaved and moulded, it looked like it was ready to take flight!

COUPES ARE FOR CHICKENS, this 2 door rat-rod was as low as they can be!

When one GMC 6-71 blower is just not enough.....

How about this 3 wheel Isetta with it's matching outdoor bar-on-a-trailer?

A 34 Ford 3 window coupe done up in Harley Davidson trim.

Dave can't decide which classic gas pump he likes best. Wouldn't one look great in front of the shop?

Carol agrees that size DOES matter!

Wouldn't this look great being towed through the Pashley trails by the Farmall tractor? It even spins around! I WANT ONE!!!!

This Willys has the tallest intake hardware I have ever seen! It is higher than the roof!

When a beautiful T-Bucket is not enough, arrive in style carrying it on a 1927 Chevy roll-back hauler!

This pretty pink pre-war Chevy carried these two great looking antique cycles all the way from Quebec!!

Santa and Mrs. Claus even came to town for the event in their own 'streeet rod'.

Here are some numbers about the grandness of the Turkey Run, 4,000 vendor spaces, 2,500 cars, just in the car corral section, 4,800 show vehicles and 125,000 admissions over 4 days, it was GREAT!!

And here in Abaco, the wind blows on...

Intermission

It seems like we just started our winter cruising season and it's already intermission time! While we wait for the sea to get calmer and the ocean passes to stop raging, we thought we would make a couple of posts on the 2011 Daytona Turkey Run Car Show.

These first bunch of photos are actually motorcycles called 'Rat Rod Bikes'. They were made by a company called After Hours Bikes. To see their website click HERE.

Pictures and comments from motorcycle guru Dave:

I deeply appreciate people with an overactive imagination, these builders really think outside the box..........



These bikes started out as late model metric cruisers, however one is from Milwaukee.



The really cool feature was air ride suspensions that would let the bikes park on the ground without kickstands.



I do believe that these bikes couldn't pass a N.Y.S. vehicle safety inspection. Florida dosen't have vehicle inspections.



The identity of the actual brand of bike was almost impossible to distinguish.



It was just a matter of time before someone applied the rat rod design philosophy to motorcycles. I think they should be called GHETTO CRUISERS.



These creations are almost 10 feet long.



There are a lot of one-off fabrication and design here. You don't build these things with parts you buy on e-bay!!



I wonder what they are like to actually ride...........



When 4 of these things came cruising in, the crowd just stopped what they were doing and started snapping pictures.



I have seen a lot of variation on the motorcycle as a vehicle in my 45 year involvement with them, but this was over the top!!



It was the most extreme thing I had ever seen done with a motorcycle.

Stuck in White Sound

Literally! Dave has informed me that when I put the boat in reverse yesterday (at his request), it wedged our anchor under the mooring block. This should be interesting trying to get it back out again. For now though, it's great that we don't have to worry about dragging anchor in the windy weather. We knew that the Whale Cay/Don't Rock Passage wasn't in the cards for us today when we woke to see the Bahamas courtesy flag almost flap itself into shreds. Later in the day, we heard someone talking on the marine VHF radio saying that the passage was pretty nasty. Definitely not something for us to attempt, towing two little boats behind us. The wind is predicted to be even higher the next few days, so by the time we get to Hope Town our personal floating marina of boats should be all cleaned up and organized.

To see New Horizon in White Sound (the little white square blob in the distance) on the Green Turtle Club's web cam, click HERE.