Our trip to Abaco?s Island May 10 thru May 17, 2014
With our 7th year anniversary approaching on May 12, I wanted to give my bride a new adventure in our recently completed RV7.
So the question was? How would you like to go to the Bahamas?? OF course the answer was YES?
I have been to a lot of the islands flying charters or with the corporation I fly for but never to Abaco?s
After flying corporate down to so many Islands and having Base Ops take care of all the paperwork it was just a little different to do it all for my little plane. So the items were started.
1 decal for the plane from Customs
2 get on the Custom and Boarder protection web site and get the EAPIS stuff filled out. After you do it 3 or 4 times it gets easier. Like remembering to put the ADIZ border crossing in the correct time.
3. Make sure I have all the designations for the ICAO flight plan and the category and equipment correct
May 10 arrives and we set off for the islands Thunderstorms are raking Jasper, Georgia KJZP but it looks like if we leave early we can get ahead of most of the weather.
As we approach Macon, Ga the weather starts to break up and we are in nice VFR weather for the rest of the trip south to Ft. Pierce KFPR.
We land at KFPR and notice all the great ramp folks that are not present at the FBO APP . They know you have to stop and they don?t go out of their way for you at all. We decide to have a sandwich in the restaurant while I file the ICAO flight plan to Marsh Harbor MYAM at 9500 feet. We have our life vest from my flight department so we save a couple of dollars for the vest.
I decided to head down from Ft. Pierce to Blufi Intersection on V295 and then continue that heading to BR63V where it intersects the ADIZ This will keep us basically within gliding distance until we past West Palm Beach and make the flight over the water very minimal.
From BR63V we decide to go to Ulama the directly to Marsh Harbor. This work fantastic and it only took an Hour and 15 minutes to go the 213 sm to Marsh Harbor.
We land in 30 mph winds only off the runway by about 30 degrees so not a big deal. We are a day early on our actual reservations to Hope Town Lodge so we decide to say at Marsh Harbor for the night
The FBO here is pretty good and the line guys are fast getting the baggage off loaded. They know of a hotel called the Conch Inn and Marina. They had a little bar and a nice place to chow down. The rates were good for the night.
May 11, it is off to Hope Town. We get a taxi to the Ferry which is only located about 2 miles from the hotel but with all the bags we do the taxi. 25 minutes after we finally get boarded we are arriving in Hope Town on the Elbow Key
I am a light house fan and I know that this Light house is only one of 1 that still burn kerosene fuel. So to climb the light house is a must for us.
I had not realized when laying out the trip that it was so far and cost so much to go between the Key?s and Marsh Harbor, and hoped to fly to several of the smaller airports nearby, But seeing it was a chore to do we decided just to stay put for the week at Harbor Town.
May 11, we walked the streets in Hope Town and ate at a couple good restaurants. The food is just a little pricey but for the most part was excellent.
May 12 we rented a golf cart for $50.00 to explore the island. We took along the snorkeling equipment as the reefs are in some places 25 feet off the beach. We found a nice beach called Tahiti Beach which has a long sand bar and reefs a foot below the surface. Off to one side the Atlantic Ocean roars in and on the other side is the calm waters between the key and Abaco?s Island. We explored many of the other resorts and enjoyed our visit to the Abaco Inn resort where we hooked up again with a young lady who worked there and was on the ferry with us. A lot of the workers on Elbow Key live in Marsh Harbor and commute by Ferry every day to work? They buy a weekly pass for the ferry. Anita was the chauffeur on the golf cart with me just causing a little havoc pressing the accelerator when she was going around curves. Well full throttle? Us RV folks like Speed. Later this evening we caught a little pontoon boat to the Hope Town Inn. If you buy dinner or drinks they will send the pontoon boat over and pick you up and take you back later for free. We did this pretty often to get from one side of the Harbor to the other. Lots of nice big boats to gauze at.
We met some nice folks who we got to know pretty well who sailed a Gemini Catamaran from Melbourne
Over to the Islands. We saw them at most of the different places we went to eat at and found it funny that where ever we went they were either there or came after. One other note. When you rent a golf cart or bicycle you get 24 hours? from the time you rent it to the same time the next day..
May 13, we ditched the golf cart and decided to tackle the Elbow Reef Light House. This we thought was one of 3 kerosene light houses still in existence but it is the only one left. We caught the little pontoon boat to the Hope Town Inn and then walked back through the trail to the light house. You end up walking past a marina and then come to the walkway up to the light house. It would have been shorter to have the pontoon boat drop us at the fuel pumps for the Inn.
The Light house is 101 steps to the top. Just below the top is the kerosene pump which keeps the kerosene burner lit. 2 brothers come up every evening and take down the canvas cover for the glass and then wind up the lamps assembly. It is situated on a mechanical clock mechanism which has to be wound every 2 ? hours. The assembly floats on 2 tons of mercury to keep the fiction minimal. I was trying to take pictures of the burner and I was leaning against the housing and the whole thing started to rotate? I was struck with fear as I thought what have I done.. this thing was just coasting around with the slightest touch. No wonder the slightly larger than clock gears can turn this thing. We Photograph everything. I enjoy the mechanical operation of stuff and this will soon be history.
After this we walked the beach outside of our resort and did some swimming in the ocean with the large waves.
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