March 11 to March 21, 2017

Hope Town

Saturday, March 11th, we left Lynyard Cay and headed for Hope Town.We had a wonderful time in Hope Town catching up with friends from our previous trips.  After anchoring out for a night we were able to pick up a mooring in the very crowded harbor next to Scott and Kitty on TAMURE and the newlyweds Walt and Lynn on IOLAR.  Hope Town is a beautiful town with charming Victorian style cottages with intricate and imaginative woodworking and gardens full of flowers. Throughout town there are public access paths to the beach. The most prominent landmark in town is the candy cane striped lighthouse.  The Elbow Cay Light is the last hand operated lighthouse in the world.  The lighthouse keeper has to carry kerosene for the lamp and wind up the turning mechanism. 

Hope Town is not only beautiful, it is delicious.  We went for long walks everyday and  made several trips to the top of the lighthouse to justify the coconut ice cream, the meal at Wine Down & Sip Sip,  the fresh out of the oven cinnamon buns and bread from Vernon's Grocery,  the fancy coffee and muffins at the coffee shop, appetizers at the stand up at the Sailing Club, and lunch at the marina.

 

Marsh Harbor

March 17th was the anniversary of CORRET's delivery to Maine.  This has been an amazing year!

We moved to Marsh Harbor in time to watch the world's shortest St. Patrick's Day parade.  After the parade there was free green beer and jello shots at the end of the parade route.  A 5 minute parade is thirsty work!

We spent the next two days in Marsh Harbor re-provisioning and doing laundry.  We had a chance to have a brief visit with DAGNY and OUR DIAMOND and had a fun evening on SEQUEL. 

Green Turtle to Great Sale Cay

On Sunday we had decent weather to get by "The Whale" as the cut near Whale Cay is known.  This cut is notorious and is impassible during bad weather.   We spent the night at the Green Turtle Club on Green Turtle Cay. 

Monday we saw our first Bahamian parrots as we were leaving Green Turtle.  We then had a great sail to Great Sale Cay where we spent the night.  When we arrived there were over 20 boats in the anchorage waiting to cross the Gulf Stream.  Most of the boats left very early in the morning. We decided to wait until noon time so that we would arrive in Ft. Pierce after sunrise. 

Crossing

My goal for crossing the Gulf Stream is for the trip to be boring and to have no interesting stories to tell about the crossing.  It is nice to meet a goal.  The day was clear, the sunset was spectacular, the seas were calm until 9:00 p.m., then we were able to sail until 1:30 a.m. when the wind shifted to the usual on-the-nose direction.  The waves were 3 -5 feet with a 10 second period and only a chop on top so it was relatively comfortable.  The sky was filled with stars so it was a beautiful night to be at sea.

We reached the Ft. Pierce inlet at 10:00 a.m. where we had planned to anchor and rest from the crossing. We had such an easy night that we had enough energy to keep going and headed up to Vero Beach.