February 20-28, 2017 Joe volunteer work

Joe started his volunteering work restoring  one of Winer Mahone's 

 personal Abaco Dinghy

… taking the rotten parts off

sanding and anti fouling the inside of the Live Well

Cecil has worked restoring the Abaco Dinghies for 18 years 

here he is installing the new railing

the Live Well … where the fish that are caught are kept alive until

they reach shore

Joe also anti fouled the bottom

this dinghy is 10 feet long

on Joe's last day in this week, I tagged along to see the work in progress

so we dinghy down into one of the two basins in Hope Town, and we had made arrangements

to tie our dinghy to a private dock … then we followed the road allowance to the

other side of the island to Tomato Paste Resort

a boat load of floats

Cecil and Joe have made a lot of progress this week

already restored Abaco Dinghies

this is the same Madeira wood for the bow … (Bahamian Mahogany)

one of the next boats to restore

on the weekends Cecil makes these 1/2 models to scale

Cypress and Madeira

this coming weekend is Hope Town Heritage Day and he will sell them, we will take 

the ferry, it is getting into the busy season and there will not be any available mooring balls

and the winds are to clock .. so we won't be able to anchor out side

February 20 - 28, 2017 Chung Tu and Old Rosie

a very friendly Curly Tail

this Hermit Crab actually squeaked at me to leave him alone

he is using an abandoned Snakeskin Top Shell as his home

back at Hope Town we reinforced out Owen Sound Milage sign

my mini boat orchids sure are enjoying the warm weather

we finally saw the controller of the mini sailboat that was making its way thru the

mooring field

Winer Malone's work shop beside his home on Hope Town, he has

built over 200 Abaco Dinghies with all hand tools and no blue prints

Winer is now over 95 years of age and we understand that this is

his last dinghy that he is working on .. and it is his coffin

the Maderia wood used for the bow of the Abaco Dinghies

it is actually the crotch of a tree branch .. they use this so the grain of the

wood goes around the bend of the bow for a much stronger piece of wood

we toured the Hope Town Museum with Ben and Jane from

Old Rosie .. this is the original Bahama Flag before Independence ...

Colonial flag flown in Hope Town up until midnight on July 9, 1973

some creative sea shell art work decorated the museum

after a week in Hope Town we went to Archers Cay and met up

with Old Rosie and Chung Tu …. the guys caught 3 lobsters, while the girls

walked the beaches for shells

Debbie and Jane

Joe, Ben and Pierre

a great supper …. once again

February ….. some extra pictures

February 16-19, 2017 part three Hope Town Songwriters Festival

The Abaco RAGE Dinghy

the flag is flying on the back of the very long boom

the 5th Annual Patrick Davis Hope Town Songwriters Festival

on the left Channing Wilson, from Nashville ..singer, song writer

famous ones are TrainWreck and Black Jesus

right Patrick Davis, he writes songs for Darius Rucker and Jimmy Buffett

famous songs Where I'm From, Numbers and Call Me

he is also the co-founder of this festival, which runs for 6 days in Hope Town, Abaco

right - Lauren Jenkins, singer, song writer and artist, has released her own LP

and is now touring the country as a support act for Lady Antebellum, LeAnn Rimes and others

…. famous songs Maker's Mark and No Saint

left ….  Janell Wheeler singer and song writer, she was a finalist on Season 9 of American Idol

famous songs Reckless and On My Way to You

as with most venues in the Bahamas it is all out doors

.. it is a free event, but you are expected to buy drinks and food

Joe, teal hat and our friends to the right Joe and Paula on Seaquel To

this is the last day of the festival and a rain squall came 

most people squeezed into the bar area, we stayed in the covered area by the rest rooms

the first squall hit and then another

the music guys had nothing to cover the equipment with and all the guitars got moved into the

womens washroom

Django Walker, singer, song writer and artist from Texas, has written songs for Pat Green and Jimmy Buffett … Django's father is the legendary songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker and has performed around the world with his father .. famous songs Something Bout a Boat and Texas On My Mind

(Django is his real name)

Django sang a few songs for us in the washroom building as the rain continued to pour

one of them was The Hard Way

next year we are planning to be in Hope Town for the complete festival

Since 2013 the Songwriters Festival has raised $40,000 to Hope Town causes, which include

Hope Town School, Friends of the Environment and The Hope Town Fire and Rescue

February 16-19, 2017 MOW flea market

a restoration job on the William H. Albury … a Canadian from New Brunswick has

donated a mast and all the rigging, but it will cost 12 thousand to ship the parts to the Abcoes

today at the flea market I think they raised $1,000

the outside looks in good shape but the inside deeds lots of work

the dinghy dock at Man Of War … there was 32 boats anchored out

our friend Dave Wright … playing his Mandolin, AKA Barefoot Dave

it was a very hot day and the place was packed with tourists and locals

a crab race

and they are off

the winner crossing the line

to be continued .. another day .. wifi is very slow