Our Daily Life in The Bahamas
It has been awhile since I have added a post to this blog. I have no good excuses except laziness and the fact there are so many activities here in Hope Town on Elbow Cay that I have not had made time to add a post. This post will summarize our activities the last 3 months.
We arrived in Hope Town on 10 November 2017 and spent the first couple weeks troubleshooting some minor boat issues left over from getting our boat rigged up in Green Turtle Cay for the new winter season. When you live on a sailboat in the Bahamas, a lot of time is spent working on your boat. Many friends here have asked me why we have a boat since I am not very knowledgeable about fixing boat issues. Luckily in Hope Town there are a lot of people skilled in boat maintenance that are willing to help with most any problem. Despite the occasional frustrations, my wife and I like the freedom that living on a boat allows, even if we do not utilize it that much. Frankly, in the winter months, between the windy weather in the Bahamas and all the activities in Hope Town, it is hard to get out of the harbour. We utilize the freedom boating allows more often in the springtime when the weather is much more settled. There are many beautiful and remote areas in the Bahamas that can only be reached by boat.
Hope Town Harbour
o what do we do here in Hope Town during the windy winter months? There are a lot of activities. I will list some of the goings-on.
- There are the regular football game gatherings every weekend at the local establishments.
- The Hope Town Sailing Club has a cocktail party every Saturday evening.
- The women’s book club meets every other week.
- People get together for Thanksgiving dinner either at someone’s house or a local restaurant.
- Every year the locals and the boating community “build” a 2-acre Christmas village for the enjoyment of the children of Hope Town with booths for games, food, and arts and crafts.
- One of my favorite events is the annual Hope Town School Christmas play put on by the children.
- A night of Christmas caroling around the village.
- The post-Christmas Boxcar Derby fundraiser event.
- Of course, there are many Christmas and New Year’s Eve parties to attend.
- The sailing club sponsors sailboat races every other week.
- The sailing club, when weather permits, organizes 3-day cruises to nearby cays several times a winter.
- Annual harbor “Dinghy Drift” where cruisers hook up their dinghies in one big scrum and have a cocktail party while floating together across the harbor.
The Dinghy Drift
- There are 2 country music festivals each year that last 4 days each with several free concerts put on by 2 different Nashville song-writing groups.
- There is a weekend long standup comedy series with several free performances at the local establishments.
- The Princeton University a Capella singing Group performs here every year.
- The “Every Child Counts” fundraiser concert event that raises money for the school for disabled children in the area.
Typical Hope Town Street
These above listed activities all take place between late November and early march. These events are in addition to the many impromptu potluck gatherings that the cruising boaters put together every week.
As you can see there is never a lack of things to do or events to help put together. It probably goes without saying that if you are not interested in meeting new people and making lots of new friends, then Hope Town is not the place for you.
Before ending this post I want to point out again as I did at the end of my last post the importance of maintaining a proper portfolio equity (i.e., stock) allocation for your personal risk tolerance. The Dow 30 stock market index dropped 1,000 points the last couple weeks or about 4%. Personally, I do not think this is the beginning of a new bear market, but no one knows when that day will come. Therefore, as I discussed previously, I think it is prudent to “re-balance” your portfolio on a regular basis. If you have chosen a proper equity allocation and periodically re-balance your portfolio, this past weeks market drop should not bother you.
Most importantly, this investment discipline will keep you on track to your retirement dreams, whatever they are.
Boat happy hours are very common
A beautiful Bahamian beach that can only be reached by boat
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