07 December 2007 | Hope Town Harbor, Elbow Cay, Abacos, Bahamas
CURRENT LOCATION: On a mooring in Hope Town Harbor, Elbow Cay, Abacos, Bahamas
26 32.246' N, 076 57.609' W (CLICK HERE for Google Maps)
Today is a good example of why we sold our house, quit our jobs, bought an expensive boat, equipped it with more expensive items, and struggled through some of the more arduous aspects of our journey south. Today we spent a day at the beach.
Actually, it started with an exploration of Hope Town, an adorable village with pastel-colored buildings and white picket fences. From there, we followed a road out of town, until we could hear the clap and rumble of waves over the hill to our left. Sheryl spied a set of stone steps and said, "Let's go explore!" At the crest of the hill was a view of an idyllic beach. Hues of blues transitioned to strip of powdery white sand. We kicked off our shoes and headed down the wooden steps to the bottom. The last step was a doosey, but someone had kindly provided a rope to ease the transition to the beach. We spent the remaining hours of the morning beach combing and watching the waves wash over the white sands...
As our stomachs were suggesting a return to the big boat for lunch, we climbed a rock ledge and gazed out over the water where some coral heads were sprinkled off one section of the beach. From our perch, we even saw something really big swimming around between the coral heads. I immediately suggested a quick lunch, after which we would return to this spot with snorkel gear in hand.
The afternoon was spent breathing through a tube in our own giant aquarium...
Snorkeling is always an amazing sensation for me. It is like flying. We glided over mountains of coral and soared with schools of colorful fish. We spotted a wide variety of fish, few of which we could identify. There were the ubiquitous parrot fish and some yellow tail snapper, but we need to spend some quality time with our fish books and learn to identify a few more species (especially if, in the future, I intend to try using my spear to convince some lucky specimen to join me for dinner).
After we were thoroughly salt-water saturated, we dried off with another walk along the beach before heading back to the big boat. While we had played in the sand and waters on the Atlantic side, the regulars in the harbor had spent the day 'decorating' the lighthouse for the holidays. Long strands of white Christmas lights are wound around the railing at the top and stretched down to the ground. The effect gives a soft glow of light to the candy-striped tower in the darkness of night, topped with the rotating glow of the kerosene-fueled beacon light. It is quite a sight, as I sit here in the cockpit writing this blog. Wait a minute...it is dark outside. I guess that means it is nearly time for bed, closing the book on another day in paradise.
We are Doug & Sheryl, owners and crew of the sailing vessel Prudence.
This blog starts in 2005, when we initially had the idea to quit our jobs and live on a sailboat while we cruised to the Caribbean. At that time we had never owned a boat and had no experience sailing. [...]
The blog entries on this website are a real-time chronicle of how we embraced this idea, bought a boat, learned to sail, bought a bigger boat, sold everything we owned, and sailed away to the Caribbean.