Our departure from Mangoes in Marsh Harbor on March 12th was about an hour before high tide. That way we would cross the bar in front of the entrance to Hopetown a half hour after high tide. Although the sea going to Hopetown was pretty bouncy with strong South Easterly winds, our arrival was uneventful and on time. The approach was interesting. You steer for the yellow house on Eagle Rock and line up on the road on the mainland extending back from the water. Keep the two range markers lined up and then turn to a heading of 149 degrees into the harbor. Or you can just look at the chartplotter and follow the dotted line. Once inside the harbor, our chore was to find a mooring ball. Since the weather was not so good, people stayed so finding a ball became a snipe hunt. After circling the harbor a couple of times, a kind soul yelled over that a boat had just left and pointed to the double blue floats waiting for us. Thank God. So Peg/Marg snagged the pendant and we were attached. Then I called Hopetown Marina on the VHF, and for all to hear I asked, “Are you the guys with the Blue Balls?” I became an instant celebrity.
Hopetown is a beautiful place. All who have been here were not exaggerating its beauty. We will be here for at least a week so I will share pictures of the town in later posts. For now, check out the gallery for some shots of the harbor and a party we went to at the Harbor View Inn. We heard about the Harbor View from Jeff and Sandy Bacon. It’s under new ownership now and the new owners immediately pissed off the entire community when they fired most of the old staff. The party last night was their attempt to reach out to the community and rebuild relationships. Of course the boating community, not ever hesitant to partake of free beer, wine and appetizers, showed up en masse. I’m not sure the new owners realized what they did when they hung up all those posters around town, but they didn’t turn anyone away. After the party, a group of us went to Captain Jack’s for Taco Nite. They were the worst tacos I ever ate, but the company was great and when left around 10 pm driving our dinghy around the harbor in search of our boat. It’s very dark out there and when you don’t leave a light on to guide you back, you run the real risk of sleeping on someone else’s boat you don’t even know. Especially after too many beers and wines.
This cruising life style is very interesting. Yesterday, after we got settled in, our friends Bill and Mary came by. We hadn’t seen them since Fort Pierce in mid-January. Later in the day, Ed and Chris from Michigan came by in their dinghy. We saw them last in Treasure Cay. We all go to pretty much the same places so it is not unusual to see people you’ve met earlier in your travels.
The weather is expected to be a little funky the next couple of days as another cold front goes through, but Friday and beyond is expected to be warm and sunny. We will get caught up on stuff in the meantime and as soon as we get a decent wifi signal, we’ll upload to our blog. Keep in touch and stay well.