It’s Tuesday morning here in beautiful Hope Town, Abaco and I am now less than a week away, weather permitting, from my departure for home. With my crew Chris and Ian arriving on Friday evening, we should be ready to shove off, weather permitting, over the weekend or Monday. There are provisions and fuel to get on board and then we have to make our way north through Whale Cay Passage (I wrote about this passage recently), across the banks and out into the Gulf Stream for the run north.
I have been worrying that I would have made all these arrangements, have crew arrive and we would be stuck in port due to strong unfavorable winds. Of course, with everyone in place the last thing we would want to do is to sit and cool our heels for a week w-a-i-t-i-n-g. When I returned from the Bahamas last May we were delayed in Nassau for several days and then again in Beaufort NC for half a week. Between weather and gear problems, a trip that should have taken a week lasted for two weeks. I have been fretting that this would be the case with Pandora.
Of course, we won’t know how the weather will look until we get with a few days of departure but, as of now, things are looking good for a fairly easy run north. The other thing to consider will be gear problems and I am hopeful that we won’t have problems there either. Fingers crossed. Interestingly, had I tried to leave this week we would have encountered everything from no wind to gale force conditions as we headed up the coast. In all likelihood we would have had to wait till next week anyway. Let’s hope that my luck holds…
My week with my friend Craig, who is visiting me here in the Abacos this week, is going well. Yesterday and today we are in Hope Town, my third visit here in the last month, and on Wednesday we will head south to Little Harbor, a lovely spot and the home to Pete’s Pub and Gallery. Brenda and I enjoyed a few days there earlier in April. It will be fun to be back there again. By Friday afternoon we will need to be back in Marsh Harbor for crew arrival.
There’s lots to look at here in Hope Town harbor and I was particularly struck by this beautiful catamaran that was moored nearby. 
Cheetah is apparently a new boat recently constructed in Trinidad. Interestingly, it is powered by twin electric hybrid propulsion and is epoxy, plywood construction. This link provides some very interesting background. I have to admit that I am drawn to some of these big cats as they have loads of living space and, under the right conditions, are really fast. This one is the best looking that I have seen.
Well, I guess that it’s time to finish up my coffee and head out for a bit of exploring as it’s nearly noon. Where does the time go? I guess I am in cruising mode… I’m in the Bahamas mon… Don’t worry, be happy!
So far, so good, except for worry about passages north. Oh well…