Monday, April 20, 2009

What's for dinner? Mutton, Honey








Author: Doug



On a mooring, Hope Town Harbor
Thursday, we had nice weather so we left Green Turtle and decided to head for Marsh harbor. Marsh is "south of the Whale" which means that it, along with the other islands in what is known as the hub of the Abacos is on one side of the Whale Cay passage. Green turtle is on the other.
Going through the Whale requires about a 4 mile stretch in the open Atlantic, out one potentially bad inlet and in through another. The Whale is known for reaching a sea state that the locals call a "rage," which means the seas break all the way across the inlet. Very nasty and totally impassable. One of the cruise ship companies built a little pleasure island in Baker's Bay, just inside the Whale a number of years back. They even dredged a long, deep channel into the bay, most likely wrecking a lot of the grass and reef that was there. But after using it for a few years they abandoned the whole thing. Often times the Whale was just too rough for them. Too rough for a cruise ship. That's rough.

There is one other way through though, a passage called the "Don't Rock." The Don't Rock is much more protected, though not perfect. Most people in deeper draft boats don't use it though because it is shallow enough that you have to visually pilot your way through. It has a bad reputation as being a prop wrecker.

We had a moderate day, 4 to 6 foot swells in the ocean, the Whale rough but passable. Or a rising tide and good vis for the Don't rock. I figured all those hours of staring at shallow water had to be worth something. We went through the Don't Rock. Kind of an anticlimax in a way. We had 5+ feet all the way through.

Marsh was OK, we stayed at the Jib Room marina. They have a great bar, which reminds Jen and I a lot of The Pub, in Road Harbor, BVI. We stayed there two days, the highlight for me was seeing Simon Rake and Scrape with Brown Tip. We bought a new camera in Marsh as well.

We left Marsh and had a very short trip to Hope Town. A quote from Jen about Hope Town: "I could marry this place!"

In 2007 we had to turn back before we got here, so Hope Town was a real goal for me. It is all I hoped for (bad pun); tiny narrow streets, fairy book houses, clear water, an awesome lighthouse. This cay is much hillier than the others so far. It is very, very cool.

I can't believe how close the moorings are in this harbor, some of the big cats that are on them have maybe 6 feet between them. You could pass the Grey Poupon to your neighbor.

The next morning we headed for Little Harbor and stopped on the way at Tahiti Beach. Truly, Tahiti Beach and Tilaloo Cut must be one of the worlds most beautiful places. Everywhere you look the area is pure magic.

We hung out on the beach for 4 or 5 hours then headed SE. We had strong easterlies though, it was calm and nice in the lee but too rough in two of the passes we would have to traverse on our way to Little Harbor. So I used the 180 I keep in my toolbox and we went back to Tilaloo. On the way I caught a decent Mutton Snapper. We grilled him last night.

We also took the dinghy and went to Cracker P's, a cool bar on a nearby island, Lubber's Quarters. Cracker P's has a great laid back sorta vibe, so we stayed for a while. The boys played volleyball and chased curly tailed lizards. Jen fell in love with a huge dog (musta been 120lbs, more like a donkey really) named Bigfoot and wanted to bring him home with us on the boat. I played Cracker P (the owner) in two rounds of darts and beat him both times.

Not a bad kinda day.
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3 comments:

  1. It sounds like y'all are having a great time! We are enjoying the blog....keep up the good work.

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  2. We just found your log and we are loving it! Gandolf, Bilbo, and Jake the Fish are doing great!
    The Paris Family

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  3. We are having a lovely vacation via your blog. Beautiful photos and lots of adventure. Can't wait to see what we are doing tomorrow! Logan has the same shirt and shorts that Bryce is wearing in the above photo. Funny. Sonya and Family

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