Hope Town Marina

As Dan was having his coffee on deck, a dinghy came alongside asking if we were really from Spring Grove, PA. He graduated from SGAHS in 1974, Mark Kopp! They played "did you know" for a while and Dan learned from him that the Hope Town Marina that is currently under construction, has good docks and reasonable rates, and the power was just turned on so we decided to take a berth for the night. With the weather that was predicted (strong thunderstorms) we thought it would be a safe spot to be. Our chart plotter showed that we had moved 61 feet when we made the big move. I think it was more like 300 feet! The rest of the group stayed on moorings and waited for us to get settled so we could all head into the settlement of Hope Town. It is a very picturesque little town with colorful, named cottages, narrow lanes and loads of beautiful flowers!

Each cottage is cuter than the next and all are well maintained and well landscaped.

Everywhere we walked we saw lush plants and they claim that it has been too dry lately! I haven't seen many century plants (upper left) and the key limes (bottom) were a first for me. Sweetings lane (a major thoroughfare) was shaded by a dense canopy.

This looked like a lovely spot to relax and watch the tranquil waters of Abaco.

We wandered back to the harbor just in time to have a big lunch on the deck at Captain Jack's before heading back to the boats to await the coming storms. We had been hearing about the strong system that was hitting the Florida coast and it was heading our way. We scoped out the area around the marina when we got back to the boat and found the laundry and showers and I also found a guy, Andy Brown, off a boat from Bay Head, NJ who remembered sailing team races in Woodpussies on the Shrewsbury River and we did a bit of "do you know" too! The storms hit with a vengence right about 5 o'clock and were just as wild as predicted. Luckily the power outage they caused and their fury were short lived. All is quiet at the moment, but we may get another round of storms before the night is over. ~~~_/)~~~M&D, J&P

Everything always looks so crystal clear after a storm.