The weather is starting to improve.

We are still here in Hope Town riding out the fronts that those of you in the US keep sending us.  We started our third week and said "the heck with it, we'll stay a month".  The mooring balls are full and if you leave and expect to get one when you return you are out of luck.  We bit the bullet and extended our stay for a month.  There is a discount the longer you rent and if we are going to stay three weeks we may as well take advantage of the discount and stay for two more.  We are paid up until the 5th of March.  Everyone says this weather cycle should be done by then.  It is officially the coldest February on record.

But things are improving and we are having a great time.  This is a small harbor and even with the winds in the mid to upper 20's we are able to go ashore and not stuck on the boat like we were in Marsh Harbour.  Monday, Wednesday and Friday's Cori is going ashore in the morning for a yoga class, last week was a music songwriters festival.  About 16 country songwriters were here and performed their songs at a variety of venues.  We got to two of the events and they were enjoyable.  Those are some talented writers, if you are into country music you have heard a lot of their songs performed by some great artists.  We are meeting a number of other cruisers and have been getting together with some of them for cocktail hours and such.

Yesterday the weather was perfect and we actually left our mooring ball, leaving the kayak to mark that it is reserved, and went out of the harbor and anchored off the island for the day.  I wanted to dive down and check and clean the bottom and Cori wanted to clean the boot stripe (the white stripe just at the waterline).  The bottom is not real clean but we have seen worse and most of it comes off when scrubbed with a stiff brush.  The problem is that I do not have a tank and can only stay underwater for a very short time.  We got a lot of it but I had to give up when I swallowed too much salt water and upset my stomach.  One of our new friends has a homemade dive hookah and he has offered me the use of it.  I will check it out, otherwise I may have to invest in dive gear and lessons.  It will save money in the long run since a diver costs 2-3 dollars a foot or more.

There are some great anchorages in the are that we want to go see but they are not well protected so we need to wait until we have better weather and more favorable winds to go there.

I also need to announce that Cori is getting real good at blowing her conch at sundown and one of these days I will upload a video of her.

That's it for now, we will post again when something interesting happens.