Marsh Harbour to Hope Town

--Blogpost written by Bob

Monday, January 22

We are getting ready to move to Hope Town on Elbow Cay this morning.  I am using the WiFi at the marina (before we leave) to publish my blogpost and start writing this one.  I'm still having troubles using the hot spot on my BTC cell phone--it says I have no remaining minutes and I just loaded more on Saturday.  I can't believe I could have used 15 gigabytes since Saturday--that sounds almost impossible.  I need to get my cell phone fixed here in Marsh Harbour before we leave.

I visited the BTC office in Marsh Harbor before leaving and they think that someone hacked into my hot spot and used it to download movies--that's the only explanation they could provide.  Anyway, it works now.

We left Marsh Harbour Marina at about 11 AM and arrived in Hope Town shortly after noon. 

A beautiful waterfront (pink) cottage with
blue fishing boats out front.

Today was an absolutely beautiful day with lots of sunshine and a light breeze out of the east. Shortly after we arrived in Hope Town we took the dinghy to the Lower Public dock (nearest the harbor entrance) which was very close to our mooring. We stopped by the coffee shop but it closed at 12:30–so, we walked to Captain Jack’s and had a light lunch, including some delicious iced tea.

Colorful cottages near the entrance
to Hope Town Harbour.

The mooring field in Hope Town Harbour.

The Elbow Cay Lighthouse has been restored
and it is still operational.

On our way back we noticed a lot of small fish around the dinghy dock. So, we went back to the boat and got my GoPro camera. We dropped bread crumbs on the surface of the water to attract the fish—this made it easier to photograph them. With the GoPro, it was a little like shooting blind. I got 2 good photos out of 44 tries, using the GoPro in the still camera mode

A school of Sargeant Majors gathered to eat some bread
crumbs we threw on the surface of the water
near the lower public dock.

Tuesday, January 23

After the beautiful sunrise this morning, the cloud cover, looking like many little cotton-like puffs, then thickened to obscure the sun. A cool, but light, breeze was blowing from the east, off the ocean. The ocean is just on the other side of Hope Town from the mooring field, possibly only a 1/4 mile away. By 9 AM, the sun broke through the clouds.

The sun rising over the mooring field
in Hope Town.

Right now I can smell the quiche heating up in the oven as we sit in the cockpit waiting for the Cruiser’s Net to start. The Cruiser’s Net is centered here in Hope Town.

  

Maggie makes low-carb quiche using almond four to make
the crust--this allows us to stay on our low-carb diets.

Hope Town is certainly the most civilized town in the Abacos, even though it is much smaller than Marsh Harbour. Here, there is no litter along the (narrow) streets. Tourism is thriving here in Hope Town while Marsh Harbour is more commercial. There are only a few small cars here in Hope Town—golf carts are the norm whereas in Marsh Harbour cars and trucks are the norm. Consequently, the pace of life is slower here, noticeably slower.

The locals in Hope Town, the area having been founded by loyalists, still have a British accent. Here in Hope Town when docking a dinghy it is customary to employ a stern anchor so that each dinghy takes up less dock space.

We spent the afternoon at the Reef Bar & Grill of the
Hope Town Lodge. We had lunch here, used
their WiFi, and lounged by the pool.

I’ve noticed that being in such a beautiful and colorful place like Hope Town, one’s sense of beauty and color is acutely sensitized. This little town is a mecca for photographers and painters, even though I haven’t seen many.

 A little pink house on the beach in Hope Town.

Even a slice of a red onion on my lunch plate had a
unique beauty that I probably wouldn’t
have noticed anywhere else.

I captured this shot of Maggie looking out over the ocean.
She was on the other side of a plastic window that
was used to break the wind off the ocean.

Dusk over the mooring field in
Hope Town on January 23

Wednesday, January 24

You could almost see the humidity in the air this morning. It almost looked foggy as the sun was trying to break through the early morning clouds. The air is completely still; moored boat’s are facing all different directions.

We had a cloudy, hazy start to
the day in Hope Town.

I replaced the LED bulb in our stern running light this morning-you know, the LED bulbs that are rated for 10,000 hours. The only occasion we’ve had to use our running lights was crossing the Gulf Stream (about 10 hours x 3 times). I had to improvise a little since I didn’t have an identical spare for some reason-I made a note to correct this during the summer. (My summer project list is now up to number 22, plus a list of 9 more that will probably be postponed to the following summer because of budget concerns.)

----------

Our big goal for the day was to go out to the north beach and look at the grounded sailboat that floated up to the beach about two weeks ago.

A lost dream.

The boat is a Westsail 32, a very rugged and seaworthy sailboat.  The boat was on its way from Culebra in Puerto Rico to the U.S. mainland and was reported missing when it didn't arrive on time.  Two people and two dogs survived.  The boat made it past two reefs (the outer reef and inner reef) before it washed up on the beach.  With a crack through the fiberglass hull on the boat's centerline, the boat is completely worthless at this point.  A local crew was working on it with a backhoe when we arrived.  It will be broken up into pieces and taken to the outer reef where it will be a haven for fish.

The grounded sailboat will be broken up and the pieces
taken to the outer reef where it will
be a haven for fish.

We got caught in a downpour on the way walking back to the dinghy.  We had left our hatches open and had quite a wet mess to clean up when we returned.

----------

We intend to stay in Hope Town for about a week (through the coming weekend) since another cold front is forecast to arrive later in the week.  Afterward, we expect to proceed to an anchorage near Lanyard Cay and then onto Little Harbour, another one of our favorite spots in the Abacos.  More from Hope Town in our next blogpost...

Thanks for following our blog!