Monday, April 19, 2010

April 18, 2010.

Have stayed in Marsh Harbor for 2 nights and it was time to get going. We sailed out of the anchorage at 1000 in less than 8 knots of breeze. It was a little dicey weaving our way through the other anchored boats with so little breeze but all went well.

Our destination for the day was Hopetown. We’ve never been to Hopetown so we wanted to see it before we start looking for a weather window to cross back to the states. It was only an 8 mile trip but unfortunately the first 4 miles were dead to windward. Rather than start the engine we made several long tacks and traveled about 14 miles for the 8 mile trip.

Savage Son opted to enter the enclosed anchorage at Hopetown to pick up a mooring ball while we dropped the hook just outside the entrance channel. We enjoyed watching a Sunsail charter boat drop the hook while we were eating lunch. They came in, dropped the hook, never bothered to back down on it but then the "captain" loitered at the bow for a full 20 minutes just looking down at the water. I dunno, at least he was trying.

. We were in the lee of the island and with light wind and all was good so we hopped in the dink and headed in to do some exploring.

We did a little mooring field cruise to see who was here
before heading in to shore to meet Bob & Bev at the local watering hole.
After a single round of drinks it was off
to explore town a
bit. The town is very reminiscent of either Green turtle Cay or Spanish Wells in that it was extremely colorful and well kept. A really charming little community.

The biggest attraction was the light house. It’s still illuminated by kerosene that’s hauled by hand to the top of the light house. Even though the sign said “closed” somebody forgot to lock
the door so we had ourselves a private tour. We headed up the winding stairwell to the top of the tower. We slipped past the guts of the light house and out onto the catwalk through a small opening in the wall.

The view of town, the mooring field and
the surrounding area was fantastic. You can see us anchored in the lee of the island outside the entrance to town.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I was reading another blog and they need a refrigiration repairman when they get in Oriental NC next week.

As I recall you were having problems with your frig a while back.

Do you know of anyone?

S/V Veranda said...

I had Ron from Marine Tech make a temporary repair on our old Adler Barber refrigeration unit. He told me not to bother with any more repairs as my unit was pretty much toast.

His repair lasted for a few weeks like he said it would and I ripped the whole thing out and replaced it while we were in Washington, DC.

His number was 252 675 1244. He was in the Oriental area and showed up on his way home from work on the day I called so we didn't lose everything in the fridge.

Unknown said...

That's for the info. I passed it onto Dick and Libby's Tarwathie Cruising Log.

Keep up the blog. It's a great read and hear your stories.

Bob s/v Breaking Away

S/V Veranda said...

We met Dick & Libby in Marathon 4 years ago. We hope things work out for them.

Unknown said...

New Question:

I was in my back yard tonight and it was a gray sky, windy but not much, but beautiful none the less.

When you anchor out, at what wind speed do you start to worry and have to wake up or stay up to check the anchor or do you just set an anchor alarm and go to sleep?

Bob s/v breakin away

S/V Veranda said...

We're really confident in both our anchor tackle and our technique so we sleep like babies.

I have a drag alarm set right on my side of the bed. I'll set it for 80 feet every night. That way, even if we swing on the hook as the wind shifts it will wake me and I can check to see how the neighbors look.

When the wind is supposed to really crank we try our best to anchor upwind of anyone else in the anchorage. Its the other guy I worry about.

With limited fetch, 30 knots is nothing to lose sleep over.