Arrival in Hope Town

February 27, 2018

We left our peaceful dock at the Green Turtle Club at 9:15 a.m. confident of calm seas through the Whale Passage and on to Hope Town. Just 25 miles to go, and we planned to break it up with a lunch anchorage at Guana Cay. Unfortunately it didn't quite work out that way!

Our weather man, Chris P., had been rather vague and indecisive about a cold front that was approaching from the north later that evening. When we left our dock, a few stray clouds were gathering to the north, but the sky was mostly an intense and beautiful blue. Our crossing through the Whale passage was the smoothest we'd ever experienced. But by the time we'd travelled through the passage the sky behind us, which we'd been trying to ignore, was a dark mass of clouds. The front was obviously moving faster than forecast. When we reached our lunch time anchorage, the black blanket of cloud had caught us up!  Boats at anchor were leaving to head for shelter! We carried on past.

Now we had three hours to kill before we could enter Hope Town harbour. High tide at 6 p.m. meant that 3:30 p.m. was the earliest time we could safely enter the shallow harbour without running aground. The clear and turquoise sea was now a murky brown, full of white-capped waves. The wind blew up to 18 knots with gusts over 20 knots. The weather forecast had predicted light and variable breezes!  For two hours we circled off Marsh Harbour. We needed sweaters now instead of shorts and flimsy T-shirts! The temperature dropped like a bomb from 26C to what felt like 16C within an hour.
Time passed. We reminisced about sailing in England which, in our memory, was always a cold, windy and wet experience!

3:30 p.m. arrived at last. We made our way slowly, navigating through the many shallows, to the harbour entrance and made it safely through. Turning into the marina's entrance, we spotted Ben, who had kindly arranged our dock for us.  Bill made a perfect landing at the dock, and we breathed a huge sigh of relief. 

The first day at our dock has been hot and sunny, and filled with visiting friends. Did we dream yesterday?