Travels of Geo Nova: Hope Town to Home

We are now back in the USA. Its hard to believe that our winter odyssey is about over. The last several weeks Internet connection was problematic and we were on the move most of the time. Hope Town was a nice town with a New England feel. Loyalist originally settled the town during and after the Revolutionary War. The streets are narrow and lined with homes painted in pastel colors with a historic iconic lighthouse overlooking the harbor. To enter the harbor it must be high tide because the approach is shallow. Once inside the harbor it filled with moorings and affords 360-degree protection. One day we rented a golf cart with Don and Gretchen and toured the island. Again the beautiful beaches astounded us. The island, Elbow Cay has a much different feel than the islands further south. The majority of the homes are second homes owned by well to do people from the States.

After 5 days in Hope Town it's time to move to Marsh Harbor on Great Abaco Island where Gretchen will leave us and fly back home to Colorado. The weather gods provided us with 3 1/2 days of weather suitable to make our way back to Florida. The only down side there was very little wind, mostly from the SE. This provided us with flat seas to motor in, not all bad. We staged ourselves at Great Sail Island, a deserted island in the middle of the Little Bahamas Banks. Don finally got some Bone Fishing in but didn't catch anything. Diana and I got to walk the beach. At 7:40 AM the next morning we started our passage back to Florida. It was 53 miles to clear the banks, then across the open ocean and Gulf Stream. A Gulf Stream crossing always must be taken seriously. The current is often up to 4 knots and the area often is covered with squalls. With navigational planning we were able to use the current to speed up our crossing. There was a great deal lighting activity all around us but not in our immediate area. The trip was made much more pleasant having Don's help. A week or so prior to the crossing the Auto Pilot died making it necessary to hand steer, not an easy task in the open ocean with no reference point to steer to.

We entered Canaveral inlet at first light about 22 hours later. The trip to Titusville, our chosen place for Geo Nova to spend the summer months is about 23 miles through the ICW. We had to pass through a lock to enter the ICW. When I went forward to attach lines for the locking I found a flying fish that landed on the deck sometime during the prior night.

This past week has been work, work and more work to get the boat ready for the summer. She will spend the summer at Westland Marina on the hard. Today we get hauled and this weekend we will finish up by making a sun screen cover. Tuesday Diana flies to California to help her sister who still dealing with a painful orthopedic condition and I will drive home in a rental car. The last several days we are here will be much more comfortable for us because we be able to stay off the boat at our friends Dick and Andrea, once the boat is on the hard.