Hope Town to Lynyard Cay and Little Harbor

Much as we loved Hope Town and the comforts of the marina (plus all the fun time spent varnishing) we are looking forward to being on our way once again. Flying Cloud is looking much better with a newly varnished cap rail on her starboard side (4 coats) and will be getting another 4 coats along the way, weather willing. Plans to get to the port side are in the making. See Walter's entry about "V-Day--Zen & The Art of Varnishing in Exotic Places."

As always, we continue to deal with a) the lack of storage space or b) the plethora of junk we've brought onto the boat. As we prepared for departure we decided to keep the kayaks (inflated) on our bow for easier access in the Bahamas. We normally store them deflated under the dingy on the bow. With our new davits for the dingy, we now have additional options with the kayaks and are hoping they will get more use. The collapsible bicycles are normally stored on the guest berth along with a sundry of other items that don't have a designated location.

We left Hope Town with the morning tide to maintain a 1- to 2-foot depth under the keel as we exited the narrow entrance to the harbor. The weather forecast called for a mild easterly of 10 knots and with only 19 miles to cover, we had all the time in the world. So with full sails we headed south and cruised at around 4 knots. We were as content as can be ... no heeling and little to no sail adjustments and no tight time constraints. Could not have had a more beautiful and relaxing day.

We anchored off Lynyard Cay with some other sailboats and soon a dingy stopped by with some friends we had met in Hope Town on the sailing vessel (s/v) October. They had plans to head to Little Harbor later that day, but we had decided to help break in our new outboard by motoring the longish distance to the harbor, getting thoroughly soaked by the waves in the process.

Little Harbor has an interesting history. It was founded by the Johnston family as an art colony back in the 1950's. They actually lived like Robinson Crusoe in a cave until they built some structures including a foundry where they cast bronze sculptures from wax.

The original studio of Pete's father.

Today, the gallery is run by son Pete, who creates life size marine bronzes and runs the famous "Pete's Pub" restaurant. We loved the gallery and were tempted to purchase some bronze turtle sculptures but would probably have to store them under the dingy with the kayaks or put them on the guest berth with the bikes.

Down at "Pete's Pub" Walter and I had a local brew and enjoyed the eclectic scenery, which included hundreds of sailing t-shirts hanging from everywhere imaginable.

Tradition has it that each yacht leaves a t-shirt at the pub.

Pete's Pub is the perfect place to just lie back and relax.

Later, as we headed back to Lynyard Cay, we were very thankful that we had brought along our waterproof jackets to attempt keeping dry from the waves. Should have done it naked as we were soaked by the time we reached the boat.