Hope Town plusses and MINUSES

When we're using some on-land service, it is hard to get on the internet/phone after dark because we've been back at the boat before then. Lew just signed up for OII for a week so we should be in better contact. It is so much easier to do the internet and make phone calls from the boat. I can't tell you how much of a "Challenge" it is to use the internet at some beach bar!

We are in Hope Town and I LOVE IT! It has charming small houses on little bits of land with lovely gardens and palm trees waving overhead. The streets are one car width wide but everyone drives golf carts or bicycles so that isn't much of a problem. The shapes of the houses remind me of Cape Cod and particularly Nantucket. However! ... imagine the gray houses of cape cod in every pastel shade available, and combinations thereof. Most of the trim is white but sometimes you'll see a white house with bright yellow trim (for instance) and maybe a bright turquoise door. I could draw and paint for a week! There's a candy striped light house that dominates the western vista. At night it is so lovely, high above the water-level harbor lights. (There's another wonderful painting op.)

We did gift shop shopping and I got myself a perfect T-Shirt! ;-) It is of a Curly Tail lizard. I photoed a couple of them fighting on the street. They are only about 6" long. And I hit a close-out sale of some other T-shirts, adult size. We grocery shopped. We did two loads of laundry. We ate lunch at Capt. Jack's and fed the big fish off their pier that gather like pigeons in a park. All in all it was a great day.

As might be expected (?) Lew hates it here! He feels claustrophobic. He is bothered by the Atlantic surf crashing on the rocks about 1/2 mile (as the crow files) over the land to our east. I can barely hear it. I feel all snug in a very protected harbor, let the weather do what it must. However, as I write this he's riveted to the Cruisers' Net to see if we can leave this morning, safely. If we leave, we'll have a day sail to Little Harbour on Abaco Island, which is more protected by the barrier Cays. We're on Elbow Cay, which sticks out into the Atlantic the farthest of all the Abacos. It seemed he was having nightmares the past two nights so I guess we'd better go somewhere he's more comfortable. I was hoping to connect with the artists here. Sigh.
I'd better close. We hope all is well with you.

Lew Responds:
Florrie is right. I hate it here. The moorings are piled up extremely close as are all the housing. It is as if they are trying to squeeze everyone into a subway car which is already overflowing. The noises are all wrong as I don't want to hear crashing surf while I am trying to sleep. I guess I am getting claustrophobic. Since it is not a good weather window for going south we have compromised and will return to Marsh Harbour until we get a good report for going south.