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Our first view of the boat: Mariposa, a 33' Newport.
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Amie enjoying a skiff ride into Hopetown on Elbow Key while we waited for the charter company to sort out issues with the boat.
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Bill in the forground taking something out of the drybag. Myself in the background learning to use my new GPS, entering a waypoint for the 'Lower Public Dock'.
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Amie and I posing in front of the 89 foot Elbow Reef Lighthouse in Hopetown. Originally built in 1864, the lighthouse is still manually powered burning kerosene. Evidently the locals tried to prevent it from being built as they made a living off the boats that ran into the reefs around the island.
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Captain Bill came down from Sitka, Alaska to spend ten days with us in the Bahamas teaching us to sail.
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Evidently the lighthouse is one of the most photographed in the world, and us with our camera were sure to help it retain its title.
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A plaque within the lighthouse at the base.
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Bill climbing the many stairs toward the top.
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Amie standing at a window at the top of the lighthouse, still inside.
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A view of Hope Town from the top of the lighthouse. Extra credit if you can find the Mariposa.
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Another view of Hope Town harbor, looking east from the top of the lighthouse.
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Looking west over the Sea of Abaco toward Marsh Harbor. The little islands are the Parrot Keys.
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That would be a long fall.
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A re-enactment of what it felt like as I watched my sunglasses fall nearly 100 feet and get carried into the trees by the wind.
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Amie and I climbing back in the tiny door at the top of the lighthouse.
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The mechanism that turns the light at night.
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The kerosene wick.
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Looking down the stairs from the top. If you look closely, you'll see Amie looking up from the shadows.
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Recovered sunglasses! Unscathed from their ungraceful decent.
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Finally leaving Hope Town after two nights in the harbor to start our sailing adventure.
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Our first view of the Sea of Abaco, the water between Great Abaco and the barrier keys where we spent the rest of our time sailing. Very blue water, and in the distance note the even lighter water were the bottom is sandy. Most of the sea is only between 7 to 10 feet deep, rarely getting deeper than 20 feet.
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Amie sitting in front of the main mast enjoying the ride.
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Captain Bill happy to get us out of Hope Town.
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Amie had gone below to make lunch, staying too long until she was no longer feeling well. At this point she's miserable, and our plans to get to Paradise Cay have changed, now we're headed for the closer Great Guana Cay. This was the one and only time any of us got seasick on the trip, even though there were rougher days.
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Great Guana Cay in the distance.
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The joy of dry heaves. At this point Amie just wanted to die and get it over with, though still had enough humor to ham it up a little.
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Getting closer to Great Guana Cay, we're not the only ones out on the water.
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Having reached the calm protected waters of Settlement Harbour, Amie was happy to already be feeling better. As it turned out, there were no moorings left for us here.
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We got the last mooring in Fisher's Bay, just north of Settlement Harbour and directly out from the dive shop. Bill immediately jumped in the tender to set up a dive trip for the following day.
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Our first chance to get in the water, Bill was eager to jump in. It seemed cold for about a minute, then it was as comfortable as could be.
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Having lived in Florida for over 6 years now, my Alaskan blood is thinned down enough to hesitate before jumping into the 'warm' Bahemian waters.
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A look at what our mooring ball was tied to. A big block of concrete.
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Bill swimming next to the Mariposa. Not a very clean hull.
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Bill kept himself amused by finding various 'artifacts' left by earlier visitors to the harbour.
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Some of the plentiful life found all over the Sea of Abaco.
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A star fish near our boat.
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Intrepid explorers preparing to make landfall on Great Guana Key.
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The dock where we tied our tender. This is how most of the docks looked around the abacos, weathered with ladders up every few feet.
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Time to explore, which involved stopping at each pub and sampling their signature rum drink. The first stop offered the Guana Grabber, voted by our crew of three as the best drink in the islands.
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Amie is enjoying the view from the dock.
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A local fruitstand. Evidently he told me the pineapple was $6, but three minutes later when I asked 'The pineapple is $7?' he was quick to agree and accept my money. Only later did my so-called friends inform me of my blunder. For the rest of our walk around the island we carried the pineapple with us, occasionally forgetting it and having to circle back to retrieve it.
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Everything on the island was colorful, including rusted out vehicles left on the side of the road.
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The famous 'Nippers', a pub on the Atlantic side of Great Guana Key. Their signature drink, 'The Nipper', was a tastey four rum drink.
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A view of the open Atlantic from Nippers.
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Amie was quick to run down to the beach below Nippers to enjoy the sand and water.
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Bill and I followed her down. You'll notice the pineapple was forgotten up at the bar, the first of many times we had to circle back for it.
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I got wet...
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...but I didn't spill my drink.
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This chair was sitting in the middle of the beach well north of Nippers. Amie promptly claimed it for herself.
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Bill's turn to join the goddess society.
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My pineapple goddess.
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Amie moved the chair to get a better background...
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As the wave receded, the chair legs sunk into the now soft sand.
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And down she went.
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Amie's starting to feel the rum.
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Posing in front of the open Atlantic.
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Taking the pineapple for a swim.
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Watching the surf, thinking of joining it.
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Catching our breath before the wave broke over our head.
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Bill playing in the surf.
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Amie lost in the surf, nearly washed up onto the beach.
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Amie and I waving from the surf.
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Heading back to the beach.
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Red eyes from playing in the salty water.
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Heading back to Nippers to wash off the salt.
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The swimming pool at Nippers has two levels, with a water fall joining them. Bill enjoyed a nice shower there, though the water turned out to be quite brackish.
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Amie and the pineapple at Nippers as the sun sets.
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Our first meal aboard the Mariposa... fresh lobster and pasta. Yum!
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Bill looking at the charts to see what we could expect the next day as we continued up north to Treasure Cay.
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Amie snorkeling off Guana key the following morning.
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Some of the fish and coral we found exploring a little ways away from our mooring.
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Some of the sea life.
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Captain Bill is actually figuring out our course with some cracker boxes, functional straight edges in a pinch.
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Sailing off our mooring as we leave Great Guana key behind.
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Amie taking us to Treasure Cay.
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Bill tieing the main as we sail directly downwind, wing and wing.
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Bill drove away in the skiff to take a few pictures of Amie and I sailing the Mariposa ourselves. We're flying directly downwind, so we've got the forsail on the starboard sign and the main sail on the port side, also known as 'wing and wing'.
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Sailing into the sun.
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Bow on the Mariposa sailing wing and wing. A spinnaker would have been nice, though with winds blowing 15-20 we were making between 5 and 6 knots.
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Bill returning from his photo session.
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Preparing the anchor for when we arrived in Treasure Key, Bill found that neither anchor was tied off.
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Arriving at treasure key.
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Sailing the Mariposa into the channel leading into Treasure Bay Marina.
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The colorful Treasure Island Marina hotel.
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Sunset in Treasure Cay from the Mariposa.
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Amie preparing some Mango for lunch.
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Heating up some left over grouper for lunch.
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Diving the anchor.
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Bill is now content that our anchors are well set.
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National Geographic rated Treasure Cay's beach as one of the ten best in the world. The sand was as fine as sugar, and being January we had the beach to ourselves.
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A footprint doesn't stand a chance against the Atlantic.
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Amie's feet being washed by the Atlantic.
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Yes, I was freezing. It was only about 79 degrees out.
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Amie claimed she wasn't cold, but I don't believe her.
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Lazy bums reading and napping on Treasure Cay's beach.
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Bill had perfect reading material for the trip.
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Amie playing in the sand.
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Loving it.
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Packing up after a hard afternoon reading and napping in the sand.
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Saying goodbye to the sugar sands.
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Notice the sundog to the left of the sun, something we saw nearly every night while sailing through the Abacos.
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Carrying our Ting V rum drinks back to the boat, sharing what must have been a very funny joke.
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A pretty sunset on Paradise Cay.
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There were lots of kittens running around outside the Treasure Cay marina.
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Calling home at 81 cents a minute.
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Weighing anchor, time to say goodbye to Treasure Cay.
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Amie taking us south in 2-3 foot swells. Notice the flask of rum tucked conveniently from the binnacle, almost as if sailing was a little scary the first couple of days.
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Evidently Bill always wanted to experience life as a bowsprit as we traveled along at 6 knots.
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Amie is enjoying the ride.
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Bill demonstrating another great place to stand on a sailboat under sail.
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Bill demonstrating what can happen when you stand on the main boom on an old sailboat that hasn't been well maintained. Three dogs broke, bleeding away some of our wind as we headed into Man of War Cay. Bill bought three new dogs from the Man of War Cay sail maker and repaired the damage himself.
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Heading in to explore Man Of War Cay, which turned out being our lest favorite stop. And not only because it was a dry town.
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A local sailing dory.
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That's a big glass ball...
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This friendly cat had seen better days.
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This house sat a few feet from the open Atlantic ocean, looking toward Africa.
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Looking south on the outside of Man Of War Cay. A limestone beach.
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Night sets on Man of War.
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Amie taking us out of the narrow Man Of War Cay Channel.
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Bill getting some sun as we leave Man Of War.
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A sandbar in the distance is very visible in the shallow clear Bahemian waters of the Bay of Abaco.
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Happily piloting the Mariposa south.
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Approaching Little Harbour.
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Houses along the shallow channel leading into Little Harbour.
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The man met us at the mooring to collect the nightly 5 fee.
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The ducks greet every vessel that enters Little Harbour, learning that often they'll be treated to food.