Abacos!
04 June 2010 | Hope Town, Abaco, Bahamas
Terry
We left Spanish Wells on a high tide and motored around the corner a few miles to Royal Island. The charts show that Royal Island is supposed to have a new marina opening in early 2010 along with a huge resort, condo development and giant Jack Nicholas golf course. The notes on the charts state that visitors are not allowed ashore and that the marina was going to take up the entire anchorage and when complete anchoring would not be permitted. I had a pretty good idea what to expect and I was not disappointed.
There were some backhoes and dump trucks sitting idle among some debris and a bunch of private property signs but that was it. Like just about every big resort development we have come across, this one got started and then fell apart. There is a theme along those lines in the Bahamas - Hey, lets raise a bit of money and start building a giant resort and people will buy in before its finished thus giving us the money to make it all happen! GREAT IDEA!
Uhhhhh NOT.
So we anchored up in the harbor at Royal Island and early the next morning we headed out to cross to the Abacos. No wind. I hate passages with no wind. We motored along at 6.5 knots and showed exactly the same on the apparent wind indicator. Yuck.
After a long, boring day staring at a flat sea and dodging only one freighter we arrived off North Bar Channel and motored through the cut. We headed in to Spencers Bight and dropped the hook in 9 feet of water. The first thing that struck us about the Sea of Abaco was the color. The water here is a definite green color and not the very light aquamarine color we are so accustomed to from the Exumas. It's a far darker color, the water is nowhere near as clear here. That's not to say the water is not clear, you can still see the blades of grass and ripples in the sand in 10 feet of water, but instead of looking through water that is vodka clear, your looking deep into a green tint.
The next morning we launched the dinghy and ran up to Sandy Cay. This is a park area and there are small boat moorings set up for use over a large area of reef indicated on the charts as a "coral garden". With our snorkeling gear set, we dove in to check this out. Amazing..... this was not a series of strung out coral heads but rather a giant interconnected reef spreading out all across the front of this small island. We saw coral of every shape and color including giant elkhorn coral, brain coral, fans and tons of stuff I have no idea what you call it. The fish were swarming, it was obvious they were used to divers feeding them.
We also checked out the ruins of Wilson City, extending out on the point of Spencers Bight. There were ancient brick supports for large docks, rock walls without roofs on a building and not much else. Later in Hope Town when touring the museum we learned that this had been one of the biggest settlements in the Abacos between 1908 and 1920. IT was a company town founded by a logging company that set up huge operations to exploit the forests on Great Abaco island. They had a huge mill, stores, housing, one of only 2 railroads in the Bahamas, a power plant (they had electricity before Marsh Harbor), and an ice factory. Now.... Almost nothing is left.
In the afternoon we yanked the hook and motored up around Tilloo Bank, anchoring just north of it. This was a fairly open anchorage and the bottom is thick grass. I hate anchoring in such grass, its generally poor holding but the forecast was for very light winds so I did not sweat it.. Jackson and I dove on the anchor and I set it by hand as best we could. We had a ton of fun swimming over the bank, the water was only 1-3 feet deep extending out over a mile from shore. We found lots of shells, sand dollars and sea biscuits. We had stingrays swim around among us and saw plenty of fish, including a barracuda about 4ft long.
That night it blew. I wanted to kill the weather man, the wind was gusting to over 20knots and I had a hard time thinking of anything else but the anchor nose being the only part buried in that hard grass bottom. Not a good nights sleep. The next morning I again dove the anchor and found it EXACTLY as we had left it. Clearly, my worries were unfounded.
We spent another day and night taking it easy at Tilloo bank and the next morning tried to figure out where we wanted to go next. Too many choices. We did know that we needed to laundry, in a bad way actually, and we needed some supplies so we settled on Marsh Harbor. I had no real desire to visit Marsh Harbor given that it's a fairly large tourist town but that's were the big laundramat was so off we went.
Tis shallow in Marsh Harbor. We came in at low tide and left a wake swirling with sand. The depth indicator said we had just a few inches over the 6ft we draw. Fun! If we did scrape it was only enough to clean off the bottom of the keel so I call that a bonus.
Next day, Michele cleaned up on board and got school done while I went ashore and did massive amounts of laundry, bought groceries, went to the pharmacy, got ice and checked some other shops. After a hard days work for both of us, we splurged and went to the rice restaurant at one of the marinas for dinner. Our first nice dinner out in over 4 months, we thoroughly enjoyed it!
Our friends on Amazing Grace II headed out early the next morning to head up to Treasure Cay. We wanted to see Hope Town so we made plans to meet up at the end of the week up around Treasure. Another few hours of motoring and high tide entrance into Hope Town (no chance to get in or out on a low tide) and we picked up a mooring ball.
Hope Town may be our new favorite place. It is jaw dropping pretty here. Sweet little houses (and some not so small) with porches, blooming trees and gardens, quaint little streets and walkways, ancient graveyards, interesting shops and a neat museum, an attractive beach, a working candy striped lighthouse.... It's the quintessential Bahamian resort town. The people are friendly and the atmosphere is laid back.
We walked all over the town and ate our bagged lunch down by the beach. We then walked over a neat little beach bar that had large gardens and a pool beside the bar area. The kids played in the pool for the rest of the afternoon while Michele and I caught up on our reading and ate some conch fritters. Life is hard.
I have made an interesting discovery here in Hope Town. Air Conditioning is an aphrodisiac. Its true.
The weather here I have been informed has become hot and muggy. I do not find it to be too hot, its only around 85 degrees during the day and 75 at night but it is sticky with humidity and Michele has declared it to be HOT. Hot equals misery for Michele. When Michele is too hot, we all suffer if you know what I mean.
So, I implemented Operation Michele Happy.
Like any large scale military plan, to be successful requires careful planning and quick thinking once action has begun. Step One: Get a marina slip. Yes, I broke down and got tied us to the side of the outer dock over at Hope Town Hideaways marina. This place has walking paths and beautiful gardens, a pool for the kids and best of all: POWER! Shore power equals AIR CONDITIONING!
Step Two: Turn both A/C units aboard the boat down to 68 degrees. Step Three: dinghy over to town and visit Vernons Grocery where fresh made Key Lime Pies are the specialty. Step Three: take the kids to the pool giving Michele alone time in the meat cooler the boat has now become.
Success! By evening, Michele was all smiles. We ate key lime pie and watched a movie in complete comfort. She slept under an actual blanket. The boat is crisply cold. The kids are starting school this morning wearing jackets.
Going cruising requires lots of flexibility and it takes some time to figure out the keys to making it work. Its different for everyone. For Michele, being happy chasing this lifestyle means NOT spending lots of time in places where it is very hot and humid. So, we are going to be watching the weather very close and beginning our planning for a passage back to Jekyll Island sooner rather than later. I would prefer to spend more time in the Abacos but we can do that when we work our way back up island earlier in the season next year.
Plans now are to get a slip at Jekyll Island Marina and keep the boat there through the end of July. That way we can enjoy all there is to do at Jekyll while having A/C aboard the boat. In early August, we are heading north until it is no longer hot, I am betting on that being Maine.
I posted a new gallery with photos from Hope town.