We have been sick...

...with a virus that knocks you out for four days and then revisits over the next four.  But we are fully recovered now.  So let me try to catch up.  We had visitors from hell.  A family who didn't give a damn about anyone else.  They arrived in an old chalky blue hulled Cabo sport fish and proceeded to dump all their gear on the dock and adjacent finger.  Now that may not seem like much but folks have to move a pump out wagon in between the pilings and we use a cart to move our heavier goods to our boat.  So when some narcissistic low-life from Fort Lauderdale dumps his dinghy on the dock that all becomes impossible. 

We weren't right next to them but Paul and Eileen were.  This next picture shows how this narcissistic *&^%, well, you get the idea, puts his gear on the finger so the neighbouring boat has difficulty getting on and off. But he doesn't give a shit, he's the honey badger.

Add to that that they were loud and obnoxious, pumped out their holding tanks in the harbour next to us and then allowed their kids to jump off their tower into the polluted water and you can understand why no one was unhappy when they left.  

Good riddance.  Rant over but this is what the dock should look like so Spooky can wander unencumbered.

I noticed this young lady's label sticking out of her bikini bottom and was going to rush down and do the gentlemanly thing and tuck it in for her but she left too quickly.

Even before the current formation of Tropical Storm Arthur we have had frequent bouts of heavy rain, thunder and lightning. It helps ease the hot and humid air that is developing.  We think August is going to be a bit steamy!  The storms pop up much without warning and mostly follow the land mass of Great Abaco and Marsh Harbour but we get our share at Hope Town as well.

After the rain passes the Captains and crew and, in this case, the owner, get out and chamois their paint work dry.  This is Rick looking after his Hatteras.

We have had a pretty constant stream of boats passing through.  This British Sunseeker came for a couple of days.

Our friends on Exit Strategy left for Marsh Harbour but left their tender so they may be back.

Shortly before they left, Julie, their Chef, left for a visit home.  We have become quite friendly with her.

Jo keeps up her social networking.  Here with Donna, Rick's wife.

And this is Rick.  He often stops by with something pithy to say.

A couple mornings ago, as Arthur was still forming I awoke to this pre-sunrise sky.  Honestly, the colours are accurate.  An hour later we had very heavy rain and it kept up pretty much all day.  

Although Arthur's centre formed well north of us it was being fed from the Gulf of Mexico right over us.  This animation I grabbed this morning shows us right in the path of the warm moist air being sucked up from the Gulf. We are at the extreme right a tad more than half way up the picture

This is the week-end dock-master Sam.  He is a bubbly, friendly sort who always has a laugh with us.

June 24th saw the 150th anniversary of the Elbow Cay light at Hope Town.  This is one of the very few manned lights left in the world and the only one that is manually turned.  The keeper lights a kerosene lamp each night and winds the mechanism every two hours during operation.  The lens rotates on a bed of mercury.  

Many of the boats passing through here are solely for fishing like this one.  The owners come over from Florida and stay in the Inn here.  They fish each day and party at night.  All of them are good sorts and many have given us some of the fish they caught.

Arthur being well established now it looks like this is the kind of day we can expect for a while since it is only moving North at 6mph!

That's it for now.  Sorry for the delay. Later, friends!