Hope Town

Sunday, April 23rd, 2:30 a.m. dark and early, we left Egg Cay and plotted our course for Hope Town in the Abaco’s with S/V Hope within close proximity. There were large swells on our starboard beam every 7 seconds probably the entire journey. Light winds if any at all, on our nose. Ran both engines. We arrived in Hope Town located on Elbow Cay around noon. We anchored right along side Hope just outside of the harbor. After lunch, Kory, Kerry, Lauren and Ellie picked me up in their dinghy to ride in and take a look at the Lighthouse which is the last of the kerosine-lit lighthouses in the world. So.. something to see! Rick stayed behind to take a rest. He’d been up the entire trip kindly letting me sleep a few hours. When we got to the dock in front of the Lighthouse, we noticed the hours and it being Sunday, it was closed. Back we went to our boats. We made plans to try again the following day.

Monday, the next day, we went into town, climbed to the top of the candy striped Lighthouse and enjoyed the panoramic views of Elbow Key and Hope Town. We later walked in town, the girls did a little shopping and we all finished our outing with a delicious lunch at Cap’n Jack’s on the water. While waiting for our food, we noticed a couple that had two dogs with them. One very large one and the other one, small and scruffy but very cute. The larger dog was wandering around greeting people at the other tables which didn’t seem to bother anyone. I didn’t mind either because I was able to get in a few pats. After the dog was back lying underneath his table, the other scruffy male dog was being paraded around from table to table by it’s owner in sort of an awkward position that wasn’t really pleasing to the eye or our appetites. Later the woman and this same dog were sharing a desert of some sort using the same fork. Don’t get me wrong, I love dogs, but this was just over the top. I had to face my back to their table so that I could get my lunch down.

Love this town! It’s absolutely adorable, scattered with quaint pastel colored cottages, all keeping in theme with the Bahamian architecture. The narrow roads and surrounding areas are clean and well kept. Well maintained landscaping..green lawns and colorful flowers. Golf carts are the main mode of transportation which are only allowed on the outskirts of town.

Tuesday, the 25th, we rented a golf cart for the 6 of us to tour more of the town than we were not able to on foot the previous day. But first, before getting our cart, when arriving at the dock near Cap’n Jack’s, tying off to a cleat and all of us in the dinghy getting out waiting for Kory to disembark, he was attempting some sort of balancing high-wire act which didn’t pan out. He dropped and fell over backwards out of the dinghy splashing into the water..phone and all! His phone miraculously survived, but he and his clothes were soaking wet! We all had a pretty good laugh over this one. Again…when it comes to entertainment, Kory does not disappoint! After helping Kory up onto the dock and out of the water, making sure he was ok and showing him photos of his failed feat, we continued on to the Golf cart rental location.

We picked up our cart and Kory drove us first to Tahiti beach where we took a walk looking for shells. We didn’t find much but Rick scored a pair of ‘readers’ which he was psyched about, even though they looked to previously belong to a woman. Back in the cart we go, and continue sightseeing. We stopped for lunch at the Abaco Inn which was a beautiful laid back setting and the food was amazing! Beautiful views and the restaurant and shops inside were beautifully decorated. Driving back to town we spotted a coffee shop named, Mackey’s! Of course I had to stop and have my picture taken next to the sign! We have noticed a lot of other things on our travels in the Bahamas with the name Mackey attached to it. I guess I need to do a little investigating because the Bahamas was never mentioned on our family tree that I'm aware of.

We ended the day at Skoop’s, Lauren and Ellie's favorite spot on the island, for ice cream, then back to the boat. On one of our trips to town, we took two separate dinghies. And on our way back with Kory, Rick and I in our dinghy, the dinghy quit! And Rick could not get it started after many attempts. Kory tried as well..nothing. Fortunately a small fishing boat offered to tow us back to Kory’s boat, then Kory gave us a tow in his dinghy back to our boat. Hopefully we can get it running again soon!

Hope Town is by far my favorite town we’ve been to! We will be leaving here day after tomorrow and will be heading to Marsh Harbor for an overnight stay for provisioning and fuel.

Video compliments of Kerry on S/V Hope.

Egg Cay

8 a.m. Friday, April 21st… Off we go! Hope and SeaBreeze sailed to Egg Cay in the Eleuthera’s. Not much wind, so we motored all the way. We arrived close to 3 p.m. and anchored right behind Hope in the prettiest aquamarine colored water yet! Shortly after securing our anchors, Kory and crew picked us up in their dinghy and we scooted off to a sand bar that was just around the corner..maybe a mile at the most. We were awestruck at the beauty when we arrived at the sandbar…sand so white and untouched, and the crystal clear water surrounding…just incredible! We all got off the dinghy after sliding up onto the sand and wandered around like we had just stepped foot on the moon taking it all in.

We walked while combing the beach, finding a lot of treasures along the way. The girls, Lauren and Ellie, both found brightly colored Conch (pronounced “konk”) shells and were prepared to take them back to the boat when the mollusk living inside slowly showed it’s slimy body followed by it’s foot! The shells were quickly tossed back into the waters edge along with a squeal!

Walking back towards our dinghy we came upon a small motor boat anchored in knee deep water with several people standing next to it cracking open Conch shells and then putting the body inside, into buckets. The parts they did not put in the bucket they were feeding to a very large Stingray who’s wingspan looked to be about 3 1/2’ wide. We all said hello from a distance and asked what they were doing and if it were ok to come and take a closer look. They graciously agreed and we walked up to the boat and stood there in the water observing this graceful large Stingray fluttering along close to the sandy bottom and hovering close to it’s food source. The Stingray also floated in our direction checking us all out which was cool but a bit scary at the same time. The young man who was feeding the Stingray said that they had been feeding this particular Ray since he was very young and small which made him pretty friendly. He added, as long as the Ray did not feel threatened or wasn’t stepped on, he wouldn’t hurt us. He also asked if we wanted to feed the Stingray which Rick took him up on his offer and fed the fish a few times. He said when he put the Conch ‘leftovers’ up to the Stingray’s mouth, it was sucked right out of his hand like a vacuum cleaner that had grabbed a hold.

Just as we turned to walk back to the dinghy, the girls spotted a large pile of Conch shells. Seeing their delight, the man feeding the Stingray said they could pick out whatever they wanted. So Lauren and Ellie each took one shell with them back to the boat.

Next stop Hope Town in the Abacos!