And, Then...She Left Without Me!

Leaving Man-O-War behind, on March 20, we sauntered slowly south to Hope Town where we anchored in between two islands. We had tried for days to get a mooring inside the harbor, or even a slip at a marina, but none were to be found. Too much going on in town. It is a more touristy place, with lots of cute little cottages along the shore, several nice shops and restaurants. They were having dinghy races, planning for an Easter Egg hunt (in the reefs), and the town was hoppin'. We spent the day in town, walked all around, went to some shops, ate at a couple of nice places, and got groceries before dinghying back to the boat. All was well and we spent the night with several other boats anchored outside the harbor. The next day, we were going to be out all day in the boat sailing, so we decided to have breakfast on shore before heading for Little Harbor, about 30 miles away. Had a nice breakfast at a beautiful resort called the Abaco Inn overlooking the Atlantic, took a walk on the beach, and began to dinghy back to the boat, and dinghied and dinghied and dinghied.... The boat was not where we left her. She had decided to leave without us. The anchor had given way and she had drug anchor for about 100 yards towards a sand bank. It could have been worse, however. She decided to stop in 7 feet of water and no harm done.

After making sure everything was okay, we got under way again towards Little Harbor, which is nothing but a little harbor (duh!) with moorings and Pete's Pub and an art gallery. Pete, like his father before him, is a sculptor, and has a beautiful little art gallery and an outdoor pub in this little unassuming harbor. We were able to pick up a mooring here, enjoyed lunch at Pete's, long walks on the beach, and through the little settlement.

On Easter morning, we went in early to beach comb, picking up shells, coral, etc., and came back to the boat for lunch. We had just finished an early lunch and I was relaxing on deck when an airplane flew over pretty low. It circled and came back again and I saw that it was a seaplane. I went back to my book until a very loud noise rousted me from my perch to find that the plane had landed behind us and was taxing into the harbor, just like a boat. When it went by, there was a Miami Dolphins logo on the tail. The plane taxied right up to the dock, turned around, docked in a space Live Now couldn't get into, and the team, or members of it, got off, had lunch at Pete's, got back on the plane, and an hour later they were taking off. Don't see that everyday.

From here, we are making our way to Nassau to pick up John's brother, Craig, and our niece, Eleni, who plan to spend 10 days with us here. We will also be leaving the Abaco chain of islands and making our way to the Exumas.