Hope Town

2 1/2 lovely weeks at this cute town with friends old and new.  We explored, played pickle ball, swam, and relaxed in the sun. We arrived shortly before Mike and Judy on Blue Yonder III and took a swing around the harbor checking for an opening mooring ball.  This is a very popular harbor – well protected – and it is very difficult to get a mooring ball which is much cheaper than staying in a marina. There is no anchoring allowed in the harbor – only outside – and with the high winds predicted, outside would be a little too bumpy! We couldn’t find an open mooring ball (no surprise) so we tied up at Lighthouse Marina – only $1 a foot ($42 for us) a night.  Not bad.  We still have to dinghy to town on the other side of the harbor, but it’s an easy dinghy ride. It’s an even smaller marina than Leeward on Green Turtle – only enough room for 6-7 boats our size – and right at the base of a lovely old lighthouse.

The marina has a very busy fuel dock, nearly always boats coming and going.  Paul (by the little building) is the manager and can juggle, diesel, gas, water, and docking with the best of them!

We climbed the stairs to the lighthouse that afternoon for a good view of the island.  This is the harbor with our friends Judy and Mike.  You can see why there is no anchoring allowed – it is full of mooring balls!

We could just see our boat at the dock below us.  Blue Yonder, next to us is hidden by the trees.

We passed this hurricane hole coming into the harbor – ultra protected from the winds.

From left to right is the entrance to the harbor.  You can see how shallow the water is.  We entered very carefully, following the marked channel. The lower left is the entrance to the hurricane hole.

Elbow Reef Lighthouse was built in 1864. In 1936 it was refitted with a Fresnel lens (pronounced “Frenel”).  It flashes five white flashes every fifteen seconds and can be seen 15 nautical miles. The lens and turning equipment are still in place and operating today. It is run similar to a gigantic grandfather or cuckoo clock, with weights on long cables wound up to the top of the tower by a hand winch.  The keeper on duty has to wind up the weights (over 400 rotations) every two hours. It is the last lighthouse of its kind in the world (that still uses a kerosene wick lamp)!

The lighthouse is 89’ tall (120’ above sea level) and 101 steps to the light.

The lens – note the mantle – much like a camping lantern

Don't know if this is original but it is a neat handle on the door going from the lantern room to the walkway outside.

After 3 nights in the marina, our friends, Ed and Sue on Angel Louis, found us a mooring ball so we moved into the mooring field.  This means our dinghy is our mode of transportation to and from shore.  There are 3 main dinghy docks we used depending on where we were going.  They were all very similar – you throw out a small stern anchor; climb up the ladder, which could be a short climb or a long climb depending on the level of the tide; then tie your dinghy to one of the pilings.  Trash is collected 3 times a week.  You must take your trash in the dinghy to a town dock between 8:30-9:30 where you hand it up to the attendant.

Hope Town is mostly made up of rental houses.  The locals live either in Marsh Harbor (a ferry ride away) or on the outer edges of Elbow Cay.  The houses are mostly older homes many of which have been or are being, renovated.

One of Hope Town’s oldest homes – over 100 years old but has been completely rebuilt.  Hmmmm….not really 100 years old then is it? Beautiful none the less!

Some have cute names – can you figure this one out?  Another one was Summer Magic – loved that movie!

Pretty mailboxes…

And some have cute reminders.

The police station is quaint, but we never saw it open.  We did see jolly policemen around now and then.  The post office was upstairs – one room.  There is only one postmistress and if she is ill the post office is closed.

The streets are narrow with mostly golf carts for transportation again.

Yet they still call them highways!

I don’t know if golf carts are considered motor vehicles!

The delivery vehicles are all miniature in size in order to fit.

This water truck does a booming business! The water here is reclaimed water from the ocean.

And then there are the “sidewalks”?  They are more like little alleys between houses as there is no road to for them to be “beside”.

The beach on the ocean side is a wonder of colors and motion.  I could watch it for hours.

Did you know the spray off a wave is called “spindrift”?

So many boats are in the harbor.  I have always been fascinated by boat names and there are an abundance of fun ones here.  There was also “Sail la vie”, “Touchdown” (both football fans – of two separate teams! Their dogs were Pinto and Bean ), “The Hood”,

“Now or Never”, “Empty Pockets”, “Lubb Boat”, “Cattitude” (a catamaran), “Side by Side” (another cat), “Goodness Graycious” with dinghy “Good 2 Go”, and Mari Mi (pronounced marry me – I’d love to hear the story on that one!).

There were also reminders of past storms and the sad remains of happier times.

Along with the pleasure craft are the working boats:

Landing craft – delivery boats

Local ferries – that go around the harbor (on the left) or cross to other islands (on the right).

We have not seen an abundance of wild life on the islands but Bob did spot this beautiful Great Egret.

My favorite, however, is the long elusive Manatee.  We saw glimpses of them in Florida where they thrive, but finally got to see them clearly here, (where there are only a few!)

This was my first view of the manatee – I thought it was several fish on a sandy area.  A second look and I saw the Manatee with the sucker fish on his back. 

They love drinking fresh water.  They usually only come up briefly for air now and then.  Turn on the water and boom!  They come up!

Drinking togetherness!

Like the manatees – we love to get together with friends too. 

Dinghy Drift – think bumper boats – then tie them all together and pass the food! There were over thirty dinghies tied together in this dinghy drift.

Dinner with Glenn and Lois on Ensenel with Mike and Judy from Blue Yonder III

All good things must come to an end – only be followed by more good things – on to Great Guana Cay!

Docked at Lighthouse Marina, Hope Town, Elbow Cay, Bahamas – 2/27-3/1/18 with Blue Yonder (Angel Louise on mooring ball), and Ensensel at Sea Scape Marina.

Mooring ball at Hope Town, Elbow Cay, Bahamas – 3/2-3/14/18

Manjack Cay and The Whale

We saw our first sting ray leaving the Black Sound. No picture of course , but exciting, none the less.

The trip to Manjack Cay (pronounced munjock key) is a short one – just a couple of hours.  It is a popular little island with lots of boats anchored out.  There are no marinas – just a small number of private homes on a fairly large island.

The beach we dinghied over to seems to be privately owned but open to the public.  This is the sign that greeted us.

And oh the chickens!!! We have seldom seen such chubby chickens!

Someone has lovingly kept up the trails in the area and posted signs directing us to the ocean beach.  It is a mile walk in the humid air, but full of flora and some fauna (other than chickens).

Most of the signs were painted on palm husks.

Fan palm

There are many varieties and sizes of air plants.  These grow on trees, but do not take any nutrients from the tree.  The get all their nutrients from the moisture in the air.

We even saw cactus!

I call this my camouflage tree.

Talking about camouflage – can you see the hermit crab?  He would scurry away then “put up his dukes” to fight us off.  We did not fight back.

We’ve seen these flowers other places but have not identified them yet.

The soil is so sparse here, it is a wonder anything grows! It seems to be sprinkled lightly over the limestone.  We must watch our step carefully on the trail due to roots and limestone sticking up everywhere.

We made it to the ocean! To the south it appears to be a cultivated garden with a beautiful variety of plants.

To the north is open beach. The water is an incredible blue green.

Next we took a dinghy ride through the mangroves to look for turtles.  We saw several, but getting a picture is challenging

From Manjack we went south, past Green Turtle Cay and through “The Whale”  This is an area where we must go out into the open Atlantic Ocean for a brief time as the inside passage is extremely shallow.  Whale Cay is the island we must go around thus the name “The Whale” has been adopted as the term for transiting this area.  Being the open ocean, this passage can be quite challenging so we wait for a a good “weather window” again.  It was a gorgeous day and there was only a light swell, making for a great time to go.  Blue Yonder III had also chosen that day to go and was only about 1/2 hour behind us. 

This beautiful sailboat also crossed with us.  Moonstone of Aberdour – London!  That is Whale Cay in the background.  You can just make out the waves crashing on the beach.  Notice how calm the water is around them.

Here is a closeup of the beach – glad we’re not too close!

We arrived at Lighthouse Marina in Hope Town with plenty of time to get tied up with Blue Yonder III next to us!

Anchored at Manjack Cay, Bahamas – 2/25-/2/26/18

Docked at Lighthouse Marina, Hope Town, Bahamas – 2/27-2/29/18 with Blue Yonder