Hope Town , Elbow Cay how truly lucky we are

Hope Town is reminiscent of Old Cape Cod with its simple little homes build very similar to the cottages of the Cape small and fictional buildings with simple straight lines.  Though the cottages of the cape are typically shingled or clapboard and naturally weathered by salt spray from the sometimes harsh New England weather.  The homes of Hope Town are colorfully painted shades of yellow, blue, pink and green they too are weathered from the high winds and hurricanes which they must experience each year.
 The town is also similar in that the road are narrow, barely wide enough for small car or golf cart to fit down. As you venture off the main road are smaller streets, actually more sand paths or lanes that wander along with lots of green vegetation sloping overhead, picket fences lining the way and marking the small lots.
 Though on the Cape you will see many roses growing wild and hydrangeas blooming profusely in the summer, here, its bougainvillea arching up a fence or building and cascading down over the path, big beautiful hibiscus blooms in bright bold colors accented by lots of tropical foliage and the blooms of oleanders of which you see throughout the islands here as they are very tolerant of the hot dry weather.
  It really is quite picturesque with the small shops mixed in amongst the homes and the hand written and painted signs that point the direction in which the artist wants you to take as you follow along the picket fences lining the lanes.
 All along, there are wooden benches colorfully painted where you can just sit and take in the view of the Atlantic ocean or the Sea of Abaco with the hues of more blues and greens than you would ever imagine there could be.  And the next path takes you to the harbor view with all the boats moored with their flags floating in the breeze and the lighthouse dressed in its red and white stripes that is ever present at every turn. 
Yes, Hope Town is really quite a beautiful place, much like the Old Cape Cod of my childhood.  We are so truly lucky to have the opportunity to experience this wonderful place as it is today.

As I write this it is 10pm and the harbor is quiet only the sound of water gently splashing the side of the boat with millions of bright stars shinning in the dark night and the lighthouse keeping a look out over us shining even brighter.

Sorry not to have pictures I have been trying to upload them for 4 days with no luck, this is my feeble attempt to try and share Hope Town with you as best I can. 

The Land of Heart's Desire by John Chipman

 Did you ever go down on Old Cape Cod. That place that speaks of peace and God. Where the trees, and flowers and even grass. Nod you a welcome as you pass, Where you hear the waves pounding the shore, When the wind's nor' east and the storm clouds lower; Where you breathe in the smell of the old salt grass. As on the highway of God's country you pass. No place in the world shines the sun so bright. Or the moon when it's full on a summer's night. And the people "God bless them," that true do they ring they make you as welcome as the flowers in Spring. A hand clasp that thrills way down toes. Is the greeting one gets wherever he goes. Just to think of that place is to me. With its wonderful flowers and sky and sea. Like sweetest nectar, fit for a god. That I drink to the health of Old Cape Cod.

Island Time on Guana Cay



Grabbers another beach bar this one is located on the Sea of Abaco side of the island, here you can dinghy up from your anchorage and use the pool, bar, restaurant, lounge in one of the hammocks, shop in their store or just sip your drink and listen to the music.

 Pretty quiet here right now but they are expecting 1000's here for the weekend as the Barefoot Man will be at Nippers and all the other places are planning special events.  We were planning to shoot over to Marsh Harbor for a couple days or maybe ManOWar Cay but we were informed that there may not be space here when we return.  Then we thought maybe stay somewhere and take the ferry back but they say the ferry will be crazy busy bringing people over from the other settlements.

No problem we are on island time!

Their are these games along the beach swing the ring and try and hook it on the loop. 
Another stress filled day.
  

Fuel delivery

Today we moved!  All of maybe 200yds to a mooring ball in Settlement Harbor I am much happier, I love to swing on the hook or mooring ball and for $20 bucks a night much more reasonable than sitting at a dock.  This is our view.....

A closer look, we are located right across from Nippers dinghy dock which as luck would have it has a liquor store located in the pink building.

Dog Daze on Guana Cay

Guana Cay / Nippers

The beach from Nippers at Guana Cay
A WOW moment

Follow the sand path to the Atlantic side of the island to Nippers Beach Bar

Of course what would an island bar be without it own pool

And music, drinks and dance we also took the dinghy over to Grabbers
another Island beach bar on the Sea of Abaco side but didn't take the camera
along so today we will head over there to check it out further and take some photos.

This tractor is along the path to Nippers (for you Zac)

This is the view from the deck at Orchid Bay Marina

Jim kicking back enjoying the view before we head back over to Nippers.  We discovered that the BareFoot Man will be here next weekend which also is St. Patty's Day weekend so we decided to hang out in the area to attend the event.  He is quite a draw on the islands being the Jimmy Buffet of the Bahamas and the Caribbean.
  http://www.barefootman.com/

This morning Passport, Brown Eyed Girl and Something Special left here for Marsh Harbor so we will be traveling alone for awhile. They will be spending another 3 weeks in the Bahamas but on a different schedule than us. We enjoyed traveling with them on and off since Michigan, 7 months ago and hope to see them again on the east coast in a couple of months as they head north to complete their loops.

Sadly when we left Green Turtle we also left behind our friends and crossing buddies Kathy, Garth and Zeke on Algonquin, we crossed the Gulf of Mexico with them and our first meeting was back in June in Norfolk.  They completed their loop a couple of weeks ago in Fort Lauderdale but need to return to Canada for awhile and we hope to also see them again in the future.  Maybe in Canada eh?

All is well at Green Turtle Cay

We have been here now for 3 days and the with the winds still a blowin, it could be a few more days, but we have lots of company, when we arrived there were a half a dozen boats here now, the place is just about full.  We are on a program they call docking for dollars where you can eat your dockage, you pay which ever is higher your food bill or your dockage, our dockage will be free. And as someone else here said, we hope to be rolling out of here soon. 


When I last posted I wrote about losing power on a windy crossing from the Great Sale Cay to GTC, well its all fixed,  I had visions of the USD flying freely out the porthole and or the possibility of being laid up forever waiting for parts to be shipped from one of the other islands or the states.  Well all it cost was a little bit of the captains pride?  Priceless!   When we were in Stuart alot of small maintenance issues were addressed and when the captain was fixing a pump he separated the cranking battery from the house batteries which means, while we were running the house batteries were not being charged.  Hence all the low voltage lights and loss of power, problem solved.

Finding a private beach is very easy here

Picnic area in town

We had cocktails at Lizards  

We ran into Evelyn,Sid,Ginny and Craig

We went over to the Bluff House and ran into....

Garth, Kathy and Zeke, its a small island

Green Turtle Cay

SweetPea on anchor at Great Sale Cay

It is looking like we will be here for a week since there is quite the blow going on here and it is to continue for at least the next few days. We have rented a golf cart to do some site seeing so we will have a great opportunity to really see the island and experience the local favor.

But I am getting ahead of myself,  We spent the night (Friday) on anchor with 14 other boats at Great Sale Cay and although it was quite breezy it was a very enjoyable night.  Once we all got settled in we met on the beach for cocktails had dinner and turned in as tomorrow was to be an early day.  The wind is to pick up and we need to travel 60 miles to the marina.
The next morning we were up and off just after 6am.  The seas were quite choppy for the first couple of hours but that was just the beginning of an unsettling day for us.  About an hour or so out as we were whipping side to side we lost our autopilot, then the depth finder flat lined, Jim ran down below to find out that our batteries were not charging and we had low voltage lights on and we were losing power.  NOT good, he let the others know of our situation and went down below to see that he could do, he started up the generator and tried to see what the problem was but the seas were to rough for him to do much of anything and I was at the upper helm and he was worried about me handling the boat in not the best of conditions. He shut down anything that was not essential for navigation to save power and returned to the helm we made it to the marina 4 hours later the wind continued to pick up as the day progressed and we were very happy to be tied to the dock.  Being a weekend we will have to wait until Monday to see if we can get the parts needed or if they will have to be ordered.  More about that tomorrow.  The wind is suppose to clock around today and with 50 percent chance of showers  and winds reaching 50 mph.

Ahhh life is good!  (tied to a dock)

Here are some photos of the last couple of days.

 

Algonquin and Passport heading to Great Sale Cay

Something Special, Brown Eyed Girl and Algonquin on anchor at Great Sale Cay

Cocktails on the beach

Relaxing after another long travel day

Sunrise leaving the anchorage

Our wheels while we are here

nice set up

We ran into Ginny and Craig (brown eyed girl) in town so......

We stopped to sample the bakery with them

We took a left and followed a sand path to this beautiful view

Downtown New Plymouth

The crossing to Bahamas

We made it!  We are now at the West End on Grand Bahama Island all checked in and we have a 90 cruising pass, more than enough.  We had a nice crossing a bit bumpy but not bad AT ALL.  Yeah!!!

We were delayed a bit leaving Stuart as we needed to wait for the bridge to open, a 45 min delay for a train to pass.

someone is building a good size house

holy cow! its and addition!

We crossed directly from Port St Lucie Inlet rather than travelling an extra 35 miles south and crossing .  We were a bit worried about the inlet as the charts and Active Captain had alot of local knowledge about the inlet and when we decided on Wed to cross from there we were told we were nuts!  The words that kept ringing in my ears was " at least 5 boats a day run aground here" and its never a good sign when a Tow Boat US is always sitting here just waiting.  These 2 things are actually fact, but then the big sport fishing boats go through here all the time, and they draw more then we do.  The deciding factors to me in the end was, while doing laundry I ran into Bob on Istaboas who has a much larger boat with a much deeper draft 6' we are 4' he said he travels this inlet without a problem. The crossroads just before the inlet were more shallow and confusing.  Well dam we have to go through the crossroads no mater what!  He gave us some instruction on the markers to favor etc.  Thank You Bob it was a breeze and saved us 35 miles and at least an extra days travel. 

                                       Heading out, all this water makes you feel really small

                                                            The depth finder flat lined

                        Wow all these numbers are depths our depth finder only goes to 499 feet 
                                                   

We are at the Old Bahama Bay marina along with our friends on Algonquin, Something Special, Brown Eyed Girl and Passport, we had cocktails aboard SweetPea with everyone then Jim and I went over to Teasers for an Island drink and some delicious conch.  Tomorrow we all head out to  Great Sale Cay to anchor for the night then onto Green Turtle Cay Marina.  So there will be no posting tomorrow night.

Here are a few more pictures of the day...................

                                                     The color of the water is beautiful

                                                         Entryway to the marina

                                                                       Cocktails

                                                           Out for a stroll

                                                            This is the beach at Teasers

                                                The close to our first day in the Bahamas

We are Bahama Bound!

Abaco is the sailing capital of the world. Abaco is the third most populous island Bahamas Yachtman's dream!

Tomorrow morning weather permitting, we will head east over to the Bahamas.  The boat is stocked and sitting lower in the water, we will be spending 6-8 weeks there mostly in the Abacos we may venture deeper into the Exumas, time will tell.  Once we head on out, we will have no cell service or I should say the phone will be shut off unless we need it.  Internet will be spotty at best, unless at a marina that has it.  I will post when I can.

What to bring?  Well we have 10 cases of beer, a couple cases of wine, lots of juice, soda and tonic water to go with gin, vodka, tequila, rum etc.  Jim has stocked up on scotch 4 yes 4 gallons of scotch, cigars and cigs enough munchy food to go with all the drinks.  Yes we have real food too and 6 cases of water hmmm......... more beer than water?  All the bills paid, taxes done, boat documentation for 2012, re entry sticker, water tanks filled, poop pumped, fueled up and as ready as possible to go!
We will be crossing with at least 6 other looper boats that we know off, though leaving from different places and travelling at different speeds all meeting at the West End to check in with customs and immigrations and spending the night at the Old Bahama Bay Marina.  We have been in contact with most of the other loopers via e-mail and look forward to some face time and of course cocktail hours.


WOW 52 days in Stuart we were getting stir crazy and are happy to finally be moving on. Though I highly recommend Sunset Bay its great, and if you stay long term (1 month or more) as we did, it worked out to be $23.54 per day (inc 50amp service) can't beat that. Jim has done the boat maintenance that was needed and added a couple new things to make life easier, so time was not wasted and the boat has been rearranged to accommodate all the extra stuff we are now carrying.  The laundry is done, but we are hoping to live in swimsuits and flip flops for the next couple of months. 
 Its 80 degrees here today and by Sat/Sunday they say it will get to 88-90 degrees, over on the Abacos its 73 today and Sat/Sunday it is suppose to be 77 PERFECT!!!  Sorry guys I know as I started to update this blog it was snowing at home. (Massachusetts) Here is a bit of information on Abaco Bahamas......................

 

In Abaco, you will find excellent marinas, Bahamas guides and boats for hire as well as a championship golf course, one of seven in The Bahamas -- the others being in Nassau, Freeport, Abaco and Eleuthera. Abaco is referred to as the sailing capital of the world. Abaco Bahamas has naturally protected waters and dozens of offshore cays covering over 130 square miles of Bahamian aquamarine water. Abaco Bahamas is the third most populous island in The Bahamas and bears a resemblance to New England from which it attracts so many of its visitors and winter residents -- many who often purchase a second home. Marsh Harbour Abaco is the commercial centre located on Great Abaco. Home to the famous red and white striped lighthouse, Abaco with its numerous offshore cays and reef protected waters, once served as a safe harbor for British loyalists during the American Revolution. The first settlement on Abaco was Carleton Point, located at the northern end of Treasure Cay a luxury resort development. Carleton was settled in 1783 by 600 Loyalists refugees from New York, fleeing the newly independent United States. Abaco now serves a more useful purpose as the one of the most favorite destinations among yachtsman the world over. Filled with excellent marinas and boats for hire, not to mention a championship golf course, Abaco truly is a sailor's paradise. Its two major islands, Great Abaco and Little Abaco, have a myriad of small cays flanking the mainland. The sea channel between the islands allows for good cruising. Abaco, located in the northern Bahamas, typically boats pine forests and is frequented by hunters of wild boar and ducks. Its waters abound with fish, including the marlin and sailfish. It also has bonefishing flats. Other settlements include its northern cays, such as Walker’s Cay and the Grand Cays; Crown Haven and Fox Town in Little Abaco, and Cooper’s Town on Great Abaco; Green Turtle Cay, Hope Town, Moore’s Island, the tourist resort of Castaways Cay, Great Guana Cay, Cherokee Sound, Little Harbour, Hole-in-the-Wall, Sandy Point, Crossing Rock, Spring City and Man-O-War Cay.