Hope Town at Last

We spent the week-end getting Motu Iti ready to launch on Monday:  re-attach the boom, put on the sails . . .

and make sure all the lines and rigging are properly attached and unencumbered.   Here is Goldwin tying off the outhaul.

By Monday morning, we’re ready.  Motu Iti gets strapped into the travel lift . . .

for her ride to the service well.  What a pretty boat.

Drum roll, please.

Down she goes.

Almost there.

And this is the “after” picture of the inside of the boat.  Cozy.

We took the boat across Black Sound to Pineapples’  “Other Side” dock to buy gasoline for the dinghy and then left Black Sound, anchoring outside to be ready for an early departure Tuesday.

We left at dawn so as to reach Don’t Rock at high tide.

Don’t Rock is an actual rock – in the distance—that marks a shallow draft passage –  7’ at high tide and we need 5’ under our boat not to be aground.  Look at the color of that water!

This route, on the west side of Whale Cay, eliminates the longer passage to the east of Whale Cay, which requires a rock n’ roll trip into the ocean at a place where ocean waves, used to 1,200’ of deep water, rear up and get steep and nasty as they encounter the 20’ deep Sea of Abaco.  The Don’t Rock route is also shorter – saving about an hour of travel time.

We arrived in Hope Town at noon.  With plenty of time to launch the dinghy, install the solar panels, and fill our solar shower bags.  Runabouts cruised up to welcome us back – what a wonderfully friendly home-coming.

Soon we were at Cap’n Jack’s for conch fritters – sitting on their deck overlooking the harbor and admiring our view of Motu Iti on its mooring under Hope Town’s iconic lighthouse.

Glad to be here.