Hope Town, The Abacos, Bahamas

February 23, 2007

We arrived in Hope Town on Wednesday afternoon and picked up a mooring in the crowded harbor thanks to some inside information from Brad on the catamaran “Mothra.”

On Thursday, the Hope Town Sailing Club hosted its bi-monthly cruisers’ race which is open to any cruising sailboat as well as local boats. We were excited to participate and attended the skippers meeting at 9:00AM. After getting briefed on the rules, we quickly dinghied back to Whisper and started stowing things away, hoisting the genoa and getting ready for the race. About 11 boats came out to race and they ranged from 18 feet to a 48 foot racing, carbon fiber, catamaran “Lickety Split” captained by our friend Toby. Needless to say, he beat us by over an hour, and all the other boats beat us as well and we came in dead last. Sorry Whisper for loading you down with all of our stuff! On corrected time, however, we came in second to last! It was a beautiful day nonetheless and it was fun to practice sailing maneuvers. The Sailing Club hosted a BYOB awards ceremony after the race, complete with lots of appetizers and munchies. Toby and Brad joined us back on Whisper for drinks and then we hit the “bar scene” (two bars!) in Hope Town.



Lickety Split sailing past us.


The second leg of the race, all the boats running downwind and Whisper keeping up the rear. It was rather difficult for her two competitive captains to come to terms with last place...


The awards ceremony at the Sailing Club after the race.

This morning, Kristen went back to the Sailing Club to attend a seminar on Ancient Celestial Navigation led by Steve Dodge and on the way back to Whisper stopped off at the grocery store and picked up a hot, freshly backed garlic & herb baguette. 6 hours later, the baguette is history! We went snorkeling this afternoon off the beach and the water temperature is much warmer than it has been. This evening we’re going over to Carla & Gordon’s boat, “Gray Fox,” for dinner. They are a young couple who are nearing the end of their year long cruise.


The beach at Hope Town on Elbow Cay.


Kristen snorkeling.