Surprise! Little Harbour!

                                            Sunset over Little Harbour

Well, after the antics of last evening and the continuing rain and high winds as we went to sleep, I was fairly certain that we were going to be staying put in Hope Town for still another day and night to wait out this bad weather.  Even the local weather was predicting a rainy day with 20-25-knot winds.

So imagine our surprise waking up to bright sunshine and 10-15 knot winds from the west.  We immediately decided that we were heading south to Little Harbour - as per my original itinerary.  You see, Little Harbour is home to the Johnston Family and their art gallery, bronze foundry, and the famous Pete's Pub.  It is just about as idyllic a place as exists anywhere.  It would have been a crime to miss it this trip.  So, come noon, we all filed out of Hope Town harbour and pointed our bows south.  Well, that is, MOST of us filed out.  Joe and Drew were finishing up replacing the impeller on Chutay's generator - since we would be on moorings in Little Harbour and would need to run generators for air conditioning!

                                    Mother Ocean leaving Hope Town docks

So our little convey throttled back to about 5.5 knots and cruised slowly south.  Once Chutay was ready to go, Joe and Drew only had a few miles to make up to catch the fleet.  The weather on the two-and-a-half-hour cruise was spectacular and everyone was in excellent spirits.  I dinghied ahead into the harbour and helped each boat pick up their mooring as they entered the harbour in order.  Due to issues with Chutay's dinghy motor (do you sense a trend here?), we decided to go ahead and stick Chutay at the Little Harbour dock instead of a mooring.  That way, they could simply walk to the Pub.  No 50-amp power on the dock, so they still had to run their genset, but still better for them than a mooring.

                                Chutay steams into Little Harbour

Eventually, we all dinghied in to the beach and went to the Pub to listen to James Malone on the guitar and have some of Pete's signature Blasters (crazy rum drinks.)  As dinner time rolled around we moved from our picnic tables in the sand up to a larger table on the deck and enjoyed a delicious meal of ginger tuna, or cracked pepper wahoo, or lemon-pepper mahi, or even burgers.  A great time was had by all and then everyone made their way back to their boats.  It has been a long couple days getting through this storm and we are all very tired.

The plan for tomorrow is to hang around Little Harbour in the morning, go in to see the gallery and gift shop, wade in the water, and then head north in early afternoon.  We have a short two-hour cruise up to Abaco Beach Resort on the south side of Marsh Harbour's peninsula.  But more on that tomorrow.  Tonight, Mrs. Kraft's little boy is tired and ready for bed.  So I'll sign off with a few more pics from today.

                                Drew is happy to be in Little Harbour!