Hope Town to Marsh Harbour

Jan 31 & Feb 1

—Blogpost written by Bob

Ever since we went to the north beach yesterday morning, I’ve been extracting tiny thistles from my hands and my right thigh. They are about 1/8-inch long and about the thickness of human hair but they are very sharp and stiff. They stick in your skin about half of their length and the other half protrudes to catch on anything else nearby to provide the maximum possible irritation. They came from a purple fruit that I picked off the top of a cactus that was growing on top of the dune. I had handled the fruit when I picked it and then put it in my pocket which explains why my right thigh is involved. 

The large cactus plants grow on top of the sand dunes just
behind the Hawaiian sea grape plants which
shield them from the wind.

There is a good reason why leather gloves are
worn by the person (not me) cutting
open this fruit from a cactus!
(Photo courtesy of 
Simply Recipes)

I found a recipe online for preparing prickly pears, as they are called.  They recommend wearing leather gloves for the preparation--I can assure you that this is absolutely necessary!  We did not bring the prickly pear back to the boat--we discarded it along one of the narrow streets.

Wednesday, January 31

As with the previous couple days, this morning started out with overcast skies with a very cool wind blowing out of the north. The forecast for tomorrow (when we are planning to leave Hope Town) is partly sunny and 5 to 10 knot wind out of the east.  We may even be able to sail to Marsh Harbour!

The Tropical Breeze out of Belize City came into the
Hope Town's harbor and docked at Lighthouse
Marina.  It came in yesterday during high tide.
(We found out later that is was 
making a fuel delivery.)

One more view of north beach
before we leave Hope Town.

A lot of boats come in to a marina like Hope Town Inn
& Marina and spend the entire winter
here, never venturing out.

Just before lunchtime, we carted our dirty laundry in our dinghy over to Hope Town Inn & Marina where we used their laundry facilities. We also had lunch at their on-site restaurant, Bridget’s Rum Bar.

Kalik, the beer of the Bahamas.

After our return to Marsh Harbour, we expect to venture out in a southerly direction, visiting Lanyard Cay (a barrier island south of Elbow Cay) and then Little Harbour (one of our favorite spots from last season). Following a couple days in Little Harbour and weather permitting, we may cross the deep Northwest Providence Channel to Eleuthera—it is a full day’s trip. If we do make the trip to Eleuthera, we will most likely spend a month exploring the area before returning to the Abacos sometime in March. We plan to leave the Bahamas for the U.S. in mid-April so that we make it back to the Chesapeake Bay by Memorial Day.

Thursday, February 1

Ahhh, the sun is shining brightly this morning at 7:30 AM! The wind is blowing a mere 7-1/2 knots out of the east which is a welcomed change from high winds of earlier this week.

A boat near us in Hope Town has a very unique solar panel
arrangement.  The owner is able to angle them up and
down as well as rotate them to get maximum sun
exposure.  This helps a lot but takes a lot of
patience constantly aiming them at the sun.

We are preparing to leave Hope Town this morning. The dinghy is tied alongside on the port side to make it easier for refueling. Our deck fill connections are on our starboard side. We’re waiting for a large catamaran to leave the fuel dock. The dock master at the Lighthouse Marina, a man we have nick-named Grouper Lips, just arrived at the fuel dock via a runabout. We’re also waiting for the ferries to clear out of the harbor since they frequently stop at the fuel dock. We finally left our mooring at 8:40.

As soon as we got out of the channel leaving Hope Town we raised our sails and sailed to Marsh Harbour.  To my surprise both of our cabin top winches (used for the main sheet and main halyard) were very stiff, to the point that it was difficult raising our mainsail.

We have both sails up and we glide along on the beautiful
Sea of Abaco.  (The unusual perspective of this photo
is due to the wide angle lens on the GoPro camera.)

Looking up at our sails while we are underway.

We arrived in Marsh Harbour around 11:30 AM.  I pulled both cabin top winches apart, cleaned, and lubricated them before lunch.  Afterward, one showed significant improvement while the other not so much.  (I will have to do a more thorough job of servicing them this summer.)

In Marsh Harbour we took the dinghy to Skagg’s Market and picked up two lobster tails for dinner tomorrow night. We also got all the information for the Sunday Super Bowl Party at Marsh Harbour Marina. We also went over to the Union Jack dock so Maggie could get some cash at the ATM. 

We’ve been kicking around whether we going to Eleuthera (after our visit to Little Harbour) or staying in the Abacos to see some of the areas we missed last year. We’re now leaning toward staying in the Abacos the entire season.

This has been one of the nicest days (weather wise) that we’ve had in the Bahamas this season! Tomorrow is forecast to be even nicer...

Thanks for following out blog!