Marsh Harbour to Hopetown

Feb 15 thru Feb 18

—Blogpost written by Bob

Thursday, February 15

The sun was shining brightly and the wind was light and variable—looked like a perfect day for snorkeling the ocean reefs.  After breakfast, we left the boat at our anchorage in Marsh Harbour this morning (8:30 AM) so that we could be at Dive Abaco before 9 AM for our snorkeling trip to two different ocean reefs. 

The snorkeling trip involved the two of us as snorkelers, five divers in training, the owner and two assistants.  The owner spent time with the divers in training while one of the asistants, Ash, was responsible for us two.  We snorkeled two different spots on the inner reef in Fowl Cay Land & Sea Reserve.

A yellowtail snapper from above. Note the second
one very close by.  Could they be mates?

I had a lot of trouble with my mask leaking--it seems that my mustache prevented an adequate seal.  I came back to the boat multiple times to drain the salt water out and defog it.  I even tried a second mask but it didn't help.  I'm going to shave my mustache off this evening.

A sergeant major swims parallel to the reef to join others.

Two yellowtail snappers.

A school of blue tangs swim around
the reef in formation.

Maggie on the return trip from the reefs.

When we came back from the snorkeling trip we bought hot showers and went out for lunch at Wally's Restaurant.  Then we went to Maxwell's Supermarket for some provisions.  We plan to leave for Hope Town in the morning but we are not sure that a mooring buoy will be available for us.

Friday, February 16

We left Marsh Harbour at 8:15 AM and arrived in Hope Town at about 9:45 AM. We stopped at the Lighthouse Marina to top off our main diesel tank and all three fresh water tanks. As we were filling our fresh water tanks, a large manatee came into the space between our boat and the fuel dock.

This is the first time we ever saw a manatee in the
Bahamas!  He/she just hung around for the
longest time relaxing in the shadow
our boat was creating.

The manatee comes up for air.  They are
huge (this one about 10 feet long) and
are not very pretty animals.

We picked up one of Lucky Strike’s mooring buoys, this time on the southern side of the harbor. Most of the times we’ve been here previously, we’ve had mooring buoys on the northern side of the harbor—it’s a nice change. The water depth at our mooring was 9.2 feet when we arrived and it was about an hour after high tide. So, when the tide goes out, the water will be about 2 feet skinnier—we should still be OK.  We plan to stay here until Monday morning.  

Hope Town has a certain type of magic
that keeps bringing us back.

We just met Will of s/v Antares (this year he is staying in a cottage)—he is one of the net anchors for the Cruiser’s Net.  He lives in Hillsmere, a couple miles away from the townhouse we sold a couple years ago. I am always surprised by the number of people we meet from Annapolis--they surely have salt water in their veins.

Saturday, February 17

The drop in temperature during the night caused humidity in the air to condense and created a very heavy dew on the boat this morning. It actually got quite cool during the night. I needed a light blanket to stay warm.

This photograph shows the heavy dew on our teak
toe rail.  There were little rivulets on the sloping
decks where the dew sought to escape.

A few boats have left already this morning, leaving a few mooring buoys open. Since the channel into the harbor is somewhat shallow, most sailboats like to enter/leave at high tide. High tide is at 9:08 this morning, about an hour from now. A beautiful yawl from Maine just came into the harbor and picked up the vacant mooring next to us.

Aquila is a 1954-vintage S&S-designed
yawl that was built in Sweden.

We went into the coffee shop this morning and met the owner of the beautiful yawl that took the mooring buoy next to us this morning.  He told us the story of his boat--he has owned it twice, the first time when he was in his 20's and now again when he is nearing retirement.  The spars are made from sprice and it is a double-planked hull.

We went from the coffee shop to Vernon's Store on Back Street.  We always casually shop grocery stores whether we really need anything or not.

Vernon has a small bakery that adjoins his
store.  Here, bread is in the making.

A colorful mural combined with a zebra mask adorns
an area above a door in a shop just across
the street from Vernon's Store.

Of course, no trip into Hope Town can be accomplished without
a visit to the beach.  This is north beach in Hope Town.

Sunday, February 18

I was awoken in the middle of the night by a loud crash—I thought another boat crashed into our anchor stowed on the forepeak. After walking around the boat with a flashlight (and turning on the spreader light), I determined the crash to be caused by our dinghy’s stainless steel swim ladder falling from the helm seat to the deck of the cockpit. (I put the swim ladder on the cockpit seat so I wouldn’t forget it next time, like I did yesterday afternoon.)

A nice 10-knot breeze is coming from the east and the sun is shining brightly his morning. All the boats are facing the same direction like soldiers obeying marching commands. There are only a few clouds scattered around the periphery of the the sky. It is already 75 degrees F and the humidity is 75%. The water temperature is a pleasant 75 degrees. It looks like it will be "just another beautiful day in paradise."

Bahamas Power & Light has been having rolling blackouts (2 hours on and 4 hours off) here in the Abacos. The blackouts have been occurring over the last several days and is expected to continue for at least another week. There is some type of problem with the cooling system at the small oil-fired power plant on Great Abaco Island.  (All the cays in this area get their electrical power from one centrally located power plant via underwater cables.)

Looking upward at a single coconut palm on the
grounds of Hope Town Harbour Lodge

We had lunch at Hope Town Harbour Lodge this afternoon--delicious fish tacos!  We lounged around by the pool afterward.  It was a nice, relaxing afternoon.

This will be our last day in Hope Town for this season. From here we will be traveling a short distance to Man-O-War Cay tomorrow morning.  We will be staying in Man-O-War for a couple days and then back to Marsh Harbour for provisions before heading back through the Whale Cay Passage to Green Turtle Cay.  March's excursions will be based out of Green Turtle Cay.  We expect to head back to the U.S. sometime in early April.  Our next blogpost will probably be from Man-O-War Cay in a couple days...

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