Well- it's time for the sailing wife to update the log. Let me start by saying that every morning I wake up and say-somebody pinch me! It is so absolutely gorgeous here -like a movie set. The water is incredible- more beautiful than Hawaii or Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands. The Abacos have the world's 3rd largest barrier reef and the water colors change constantly. Being here is another world and living aboard is too. We are in the company of world travelers who all share the same dream-sailing. Everyone is very humble- no talking about what you did for a career or what you do or don't have-just not important and it's so refreshing! The Abaconian people are very friendly. We have had locals bring us fresh caught lobsters to the boat-women come selling fresh baked bread in baskets or offering to do your laundry. The food is VERY different- no big grocery stores here-whatever arrives on the boat from Florida is what there is and it is VERY expensive. Local bread is wonderful and cheap-but a loaf of Wonder bread will cost you 4 dollars and milk is 7-8 dollars a half gallon. Only butter -which comes from Britain, (this is a British commonwealth) or Switzerland is cheap. There are no t.v. stations-one radio station and a movie theater somewhere! We snorkel and George spears lobsters-yum! and look at unbelievable coral heads and tropical fish-we walk everywhere or ride bikes-nothing is close by-George has lost 15 pounds from the exercise alone! Everywhere we go people constantly say they can't believe how beautiful it is here and how everyone should do this or see this. You need to be flexible and have a sense of humor but most sailors have just that. When the sun is setting each evening- people blow into conch shells to "blow the sun down." All over in the distance you here these shells being blown and it's like being back in time. We have wine with other sailors or just enjoy the sunset together. At night, I lie in our cabin looking up though the hatch at the moon and gazillion stars and I think" somebody pinch me!" //JB

We headed over to Hopetown which is a sail of only about 6 miles from Marsh Harbor. The weather has been perfect here for so long it is a joke! The entrance to Marsh Harbor is a bit tricky and we had to wait till nearly high tide to get in with our 5.5 ft draft....tides here are about 3 feet. It was well worth the wait as Hopetown is as pretty as a picture postcard with a snug little harbor and a red & white striped lighthouse, colorfully painted little houses and beautiful flowers. We picked up a mooring (no anchoring in this small harbor - the moorings are so tightly spaced that if you have a 45+ ft. boat you can't take one as you'll bump into the next boat! )
We ran into our friends Jeff and Diane on LadyDi (a Hunter 410) on the beach. They are from Long Island and are moving to Charlottesville VA but have taken a year off to go sailing complete with 4 year old and one year old!
Jeff entered the cruisers race the next day and we climbed to the top of the lighthouse and watched the whole thing and looked out over the beautiful string of Abaco Islands and reefs for nearly 2 hours. The lighthouse was built in 1870 and is powered by kerosene fuel and MANUALLY operated still. I can't imagine climbing those 101 steps several times a day! Seeing the fresnel lenses and the pressure kerosene tanks and all the gears is incredible. You have to get on your hands and knees to climb out to the lighthouse catwalk but the view is wonderful once you do!

We stayed in Hopetown for 3 days shopping and snokeling and beaching it and then headed back to Marsh to pick up a part. Arriving there we found all three of our friends boats from Canada and invited everyone over for a "sundowner" - We started talking about places to go and fishing and lobstering techniques and hot spots and the rum punch was great...Well about 4 hours later we decided we'd better have dinner! We swung gently at anchor in a light breeze and another day came to a close.

The next day was perfect as well so we decided to head over and explore Man-O-War Cay. MOW has two harbors and  we took a mooring in front of the small settlement. (295 people live here). This was founded by British loyalists and the population is largely white and speaks with British accents and is quite religious (no liquor here). They've survived by boat building, fishing and tourism. We enjoyed the stay for a couple of days and then it was time to head on back to Marsh to check on our e-mail and re-provision. More to come...this is de life mon!