Wine Down and Sip Sip

Our second favorite cay (or maybe first in a different category), is Elbow Cay, specifically Hope Town, the commercial district of Elbow Cay.  It's cozy, yet bustling, old yet always new.  It's one of those singular places, places where you find townfolk who like to play with their town.  It's got in spades what I call "ititude."  Ititude is that hallmark ethos of places that are cool and know it.  Hope Town is cool and knows it.  It's not pompous, it doesn't have to be--that's part of ititude.

Bay St., Hope Town

We're in a lounge from which the title of this post gets its name.  We've come here, in addition to getting internet access, to experience what I was told by Andrew, our electrician in Marsh Harbour, is the perfect martini, available in all of the Abacos, only here.  Andrew strikes me as a man who knows the perfect martini when he drinks it.  So, here we are.  Only problem is Bonnie, the owner (I think), is not on site when I make my request.  So, Simone, our bartender, calls around town to track her down because she knows she can't do "the perfect martini" justice.

Several minutes later, Bonnie does indeed arrive.  "Where did you hear that we have the best martini in all of the Abacos," she wants to know.

"From Andrew the electrician" I reply.

"I've made Andrew several martinis," she says.

"I'll have what he's been having."

Our time, prior to Bonnie's arrival has not been wasted, entertainmentwise.  We apparently walked in on the lounge's Wednesday afternoon aerobics class: several middle-aged white ladies, not sure of their nationality, sweatin' to the oldies. We were invited by Simone to join them.  "As soon as I've had enough drinks to see a disco ball, I'm there," I said.

Oh, and about that martini...  I hate, hate hate, winter, I tell Simone.  "But if I liked it, it would taste like this."

Our water heater is still cobbled together and we have to remember to turn off the fresh water pump whenever we're not using it so that it doesn't pump out all of our water into the Sea of Abaco.  We've determined that we need to start over completely with both our refrigeration and electrical system.  Both of which (along with a permanent fix for the water heater) and a new bimini will be taken care of in March when we return to the States for a refit.  Meanwhile, we've decided to just hobble along as best we can, tragic as that is, ameliorating our stress with liberal doses of goddess Bonnie's perfect martinis, sunshine, and ititude.

Gas delivery day

Yet more miles of pristine beach, ho hum