Hope Town

March 20, 2007

We’re in Hope Town, still…
Last week we sailed up to Man-o-War Cay to drop off our genoa (the larger, older sail that flies from the front of the boat) with a sailmaker to restitch the UV protective cover which was fraying. We then sailed over to Marsh Harbour for some final food and supplies provisioning before heading south to Eleuthera and then the Exumas. After sailing through Man-O-War to pick up the genoa, we returned to Hope Town on Friday to wait out a cold front. The cold front passed and we’re ready to go, but a series of strong HI pressures are causing high winds and seas in the entire Bahamas, all the way through Saturday. The forecast for almost every day is: 20-30 knot winds with 7-11 foot seas at 6-10 second intervals. Whisper could easily sail to the Exumas in these conditions, however it would be hard work for us and quite uncomfortable. We’ll stay put for the time being, but Hope Town fever is setting in!

Hans parents, Roger & Karin, are arriving at Staniel Cay in the Exumas on April 13 for a two week vacation. We’re very excited to see them and to spend time together in the Bahamas. We would like to leave the Abacos by April 1 in order to arrive at Staniel Cay ahead of the 13th, so hopefully the winds will calm down in the next two weeks!

In the meantime, we have a new list of small projects we would like to complete so we’ll stay occupied while waiting for the weather. Yesterday we worked on stopping the leak in the rudder post. We think we were successful, but, as with all boat projects, it usually takes a third try for a good solution! One of the next projects we’ll tackle is permanently installing the SSB antenna. It’s a very simple job, but it requires one of the cockpit lockers to be emptied in order to fit a human (usually Kristen since she is smaller) inside.

Sorry there are no pictures to accompany this update. We’ve been a little lazy with the camera lately. We look the same, except Hans has a new haircut and a shave!