Saturday, March 22, 2014

March 22, 2014 - Catching up

Well - I would never have thought so much time has passed and so many things have happened since I updated the blog.  I guess i will just try to capture the many highlights and try to be more vigilant.

Not to short change anything, but here goes.

First, after our great crew of Brian, Raquel and Patrick left to go back to the
US, we decided to hang around the Abacos a little longer.  We went back to Treasure Cay for a night before continuing on back to the Bluff House - still one of our favourite spots!  There we met up with some of our very best friends of 20+ years, Jimmy and Cheryl. It was great to see them and we were so glad and honored that they would make the time to come and see us.



We had a wonderful time, even though the weather was not the best we had seen.  We managed to get a day sail in and Jimmy and Cheryl seemed to enjoy that.
Salty had his regular swims at the beach - his fave place!



After t hat, we moved on to Hopetown again making the trek and preparations for moving south from the Abacos.

I am having difficulties with internet so am unable to upload photos beyond Treasure Cay, but, will add some when I'm able. From Hopetwon we made a long haul down to Little Harbor where we anchored in a  quiet little cove with some new friends we met who sailed down with us. Jason, Kelly, Riley and Dewey (their 2 dogs) are aboard s/v Chance. We sailed together the next day to Spanish Wells where we all moored for a few days to wait out a passing weather front.Tthe town was amazing with some of the friendliest people we have met so far. the dogs all ran on the beach together and had a great time. We were invited to happy hour at Tom & Jeans house where we met other cruisers who gave us great advice on getting further south in the Exumas where we would pick Austin up from the airport in Georgetown. We only had 2 days to make the 145 mile trip due to the bad weather. Jason & Kelly had engine problems so could not make the journey with us but we are hoping to catch up with them soon. We set off at 0 dark hundred on Wednesday morning with a goal of reaching just north of Staniel Cay (just over halfway and an ambitious sail for our boat) as we neared our destination we had made good time and decided to carry on further. We finally anchored in a beautiful little cove at Black Point at 9.30pm. it was our first sail in complete darkness and made it interesting anchoring in the dark! We had accomplished a 103 mile trip and saw the sunrise, the sunset and the moonrise all in one day. When we woke the next morning we discovered a castle & a beautiful beach sitting on the shore just off our stern!! We took pictures and will post them when they upload. we had a very pleasant sail through the Cove Cay cut to the Exuma Sound along the rugged coastline of many small Cays and rocks. we sailed for quite awhile alongside a tall ship under full sail on the horizon, we arrived at Emerald Bay Marina around 5 and quickly got settled. our boat looked quite small next to the many mega yachts (over 100' long) that were moored around us. The slip next to us held an older looking sailboat that looked like it had done some hard sailing. they were from Norway and had sailed over from there!!!! we again met many wonderful people and made more new friends. We ate dinner at the Grand Isle Resort and then walked along the beach to Sandals, beautiful resort. We rented a car Saturday and picked Austin up. It was great to hug him again (I'm sure he felt the same way)!! we drove to Georgetown and stocked up at the grocery store. It was obvious that there is a lot more poverty and unemployment in this area than the Abacos. today we will set sail and head back towards Black Point where we will explore some of the Islands with Austin and hopefully meet up with Jason & Kelly again. Will update when we're able.  

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