Trip Report Part 8 (The End)
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Posted by Abaco Paul on June 06, 2000 at 09:14:22:
Wanted to mention something before continuing on with the trip report. We used Steve Dodge’s “Guide to Abaco” and it was an excellent resource, although you’ll see on the charts that it says “Not for navigation, for guidance only” (wink, wink). The only problem is that the pages start falling out after several times of use. My suggestion is, and which I’ll do next time, is to remove the pages you’ll use for navigation, um, I mean “guidance”, laminate them with a heavy stock, punch one hole in the top corner, and then secure them together with some type of key chain ring. That way you can flip back and forth easily and they’ll stay waterproof. Just a suggestion about this excellent resource. I woke early this morning (in Marsh Harbour) as the space shuttle was scheduled to launch at 6:50 a.m. or so and wanted to see if I could spot it. Stephen was also up already and was at the end of the pier looking for the same thing. After scanning the sky for several minutes, it was apparent that it did not launch or that we just could not see it. Found out later that it was launched the next day. Does anybody know if you can see a launch while in the Abacos? Took and early morning walk around Marsh Harbour and ended up walking all the way into Boat Harbour Marina. While there I got a cup of tea from the restaurant. Also checked out the boats at the marinas and at anchor. Just took in the sights, sounds and smells of this interesting area. Afterwards, back to the boat. It was now time to pack all of our bags and do last minute clean-ups. As I mentioned in my last trip report, two of the crew had already done most of this. Just so there is credit were credit is due, it was my good friend and first mate Steve Geyer and our young dinghy captain Jonathan Mansfield who did all of this work. Of course Steve has already mentioned this in a response to my last trip report (see below on Message Board). We did our check out procedure with Captain Willy, ( DJ Slim) and since our flight did not leave until 4:30 p.m. we decided to spend the last part of the day at Boat Harbour Marina. This is also where the Florida Yacht Charters office is located at. I had a great lunch at the restaurant that was called Mango Tango (the meal) or something like that. Anyway, it was grilled chicken with mango chutney, rice, and a salad. As with previous meals, it was excellent. While at Boat harbour, we noticed one of the largest yachts I have ever seen anchored off the breakwaters. It had to be over 200 feet long and I was amazed how it could be inside of the islands like this, as far as the draft goes. Does anybody have any knowledge about this ship? This was on May 18th of this year. After beach bumming around for several hours, we took a cab to the airport to wait for our flight. The American Eagle flight was scheduled to leave at 4:30 p.m. but it never arrived at its 4:10 p.m. scheduled time. We eventually found out that it had mechanical problems and they were having to send another plane out of Miami and would be about an hour late, or so. We also noticed that everything seemed to be moving around all of the time. It did take us a couple of days to get our land legs back. For a little while there, we were thinking we might be spending another night in Marsh Harbour (no complaints here) or that we might miss our connecting flight in Miami and have to stay there (complaints). Well the plane did finally arrive with the passengers from Miami. It something to see passengers arriving to the islands when you are leaving. There was a bit of envy there seeing these people arriving and knowing what a great place they were about to enjoy, at least with me there was. We arrived back in Miami all right and were able to catch our connecting flight, as it was delayed because of instrument problems. See, it all worked out in the end. In summery, it was a wonderful trip. I enjoyed taking these three friends of mine to this beautiful part of the world which they had never been to before. Lord willing, we might do another trip like this again as I did not have the chance to take them to Treasure Cay, Nippers, Tahiti Beach, Yahoes, etc. etc. Good enough reasons to return with them. I am looking forward to my next trip in August (already have purchased my tickets) when I will be with my two brothers (John B. and Chief Tom) and sister-in-law, Linda. This time we will be renting a house in Hope Town along with a motor boat, as we have done in the years past. Ah, I can’t wait, only 8 more weeks before Vernon’s wonderful bread and key lime pie. Hope you all have enjoyed these trip reports. I definitely have enjoyed reading others and also the excellent tips and insights on this board. This is my story and I am going to stick by it. This is Abaco Paul signing off and will be standing by on 16.
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