Hope

"I'll admit that my garden now grows hope in lavish profusion, leaving little room for anything else.  I suppose it has squeezed out more practical plants like caution and common sense.  Still, though, hope does not flourish in every garden, and I feel thankful it has taken root in mine."

Shannon Kay Penman, The Reckoning

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Hopetown harbor… good protection on 4 sides… but that's a rather thin slice of land between the harbor and the sea…
here's hoping…

NOTE:  I returned to the states on April 25 for family medical issues.  I left Glory Days resting on a mooring ball in Hopetown, Abacos.  Here are some postings that I've been a bit behind on reporting… Still others to follow.

Hope.

It is no coincidence that the place I am leaving my boat while I am away for a month is called Hopetown.

At first it seemed ironic ....  because I’ve been living on a lot of Hope lately… But I’ve decided that I like the name of any community called Hopetown no matter where it is. It is optimistic….. So here’s to hoping.

Hope.  Hopeful.  Hoping for these...

Hope for the best outcome for my daughter who is facing some health challenges.

Hope that Glory Days will rest safely on this anchorage while I am gone for this time to tend to others.

Hope that I can get back to Glory Day in a month and before a tropical storm sets in.

Hope that I can successfully sail her back across the Gulf Stream again and safely to the Florida east coast.

Hope that I can successfully adjust to land life in this urban jungle after all of this.

Hope that I can figure out a way to do this more.

Hope and prayer are very similar concepts it seems to me... yet very different too.

Webster defines Hope as this:  to want something to happen, or be true, and think that it could happen or be true. 

Basically, Hope is wanting a desired outcome for a situation.

On the other hand, prayer in my definition, is seeing it happen, and claiming the desired result or blessing.

Hope is wishful thinking.  Prayer is gratitude for results that were once hopeful… ok, so it's all semantics, tho similar in mission.

If Hope is the potential for something you want to happen then maybe the acronym for Hope is this: 
HAVING OPTIMUM POSSIBILITIES EVERYDAY… H-O-P-E.

Either way, Hopetown is where Glory Days is taking a well deserved rest now before the final leg home to the Florida coast...... since my departure plans were made suddenly, it was an interesting and rather long day from my anchorage in Hopetown to her bedside at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville Fla... It required 10 modes of transportation over a 16 hour period to get there…  

it went something like this...

10 STEPS TO JACKSONVILLE…

Take a dinghy ride to the ferry dock.
Take the Ferry boat to Marsh Harbour.
Hitchhike into town from the ferry boat.
Eat lunch and walk a mile on foot to catch a cab.
Take a cab to the airport.
Take a prop plane to Nassau.
Take a jet to Atlanta.
Take the moving train in Atlanta to Concourse C.
Take a second jet to Jacksonville.
Take a car ride to the hospital.
Take an elevator to room 809.
Surprise my daughter at 1:30 a.m. April 26

Thankfully, she is doing well, but we still have a follow up appointment on May 12 to determine the next tack in this health journey … I have faith, and I have hope… and prayer will claim it to be true.

These pics below only tell part of the story… 

Glory Days is at the front of the pack in this photo…
rest easy, girl.

 Ray and Wanda anchored Wind Dancer just outside the harbour.  Thanks Ray for checking on Glory Day's while I'm away.



The Hopetown Lighthouse…

The Elbow Reef lighthouse was build in 1864 and still functions today. The lighting source is a 325,000 candle power "Hood" petroleum vapor  burner.   A hand pump is still used to this day to pressurize kerosene which is still seen in the heavy green containers below the lantern room.  The fuel travels up a tube to a vaporizer within the burner which sprays into a mantle… Basically, it's the same principle that you find in a camper's Coleman lantern….

The entire lens and brass work weighs about 4 tons and floats in a circular tub containing about 1200 pounds of mercury or "quicksilver"… I was amazed… here's a few shots of the lighthouse innards…

Inside the lighthouse glass fixture… 

101 steps to the top

On the way up top...

It's always nice to see a couple in love in a lighthouse…

The view from the top..

Stay tuned… this saga will continue…  
There's still the long leg back home sailing across the Abacos, crossing the Gulf Stream again, and then up the Florida coast… 

Oh my, what things we learn just by "doing."