Sunday, April 19, 2009
Marsh Harbor Great Abaco Island (N26*34.432 W77*01.555) to Hope Town, Elbow Cay (N26*32.311 W76*57.555)
8.4 miles, traveled;

Okay today we decided it was time to depart Marsh Harbor and head to Hope Town. The path is shallow so we need to leave on a rising tide to get there about high tide so we don't go bump, bump, bump. High tide is 4:40pm so we figured that any time after noon o clock would be good. This gave me time to make breakfast, clean up, and ponder the fate of a boat near us that seemed to hook something under his anchor so that it took him a couple of hours to get loose. Two other boats were helping him, so we stayed out of the way. It looked like he hooked into an old chain/cable along the bottom of the seabed or something. He finally got loose right before we released our anchor. I spotted a sea turtle last night and this morning hanging out near our boat, and then my first dolphin in a long time.

Leaving the harbor, we passed Sapphire coming into the harbor and gave him a shout out. They're going to be hanging out there a few days and hanging around the Abacos for a few weeks before heading North.

Coming into the Hope Town Harbor was easier than I thought it would be - Wayne had the helm LOL. Between Spirit telling us to make sure we go at high tide and the chart plotter showing 4-foot depths - I was spooked. The chart plotter was showing shallower depths than the charts did, but we followed the chart along with the tides and had no problem.

We picked up a mooring ball. These moorings are closely packed! The first one we were going to pick up was too close for comfort next to a trimaran so we pulled up to the next one. We were looking for the green ones owned by Lucky Strike, but the white one owned by Capn Jacks was a much better fit for us - more swing room without having to worry about hitting the trimaran.

Walked a bit through town and is it ever a cute little place. Well worth the stress of coming in. Since it's Sunday, everything is closed up, but the walk about town was wonderful. I can't wait until tomorrow to see the place when it's open and to head over to the lighthouse. The little cottages here are multicolored and well cared for. We're in front of the Harbour view Grocery Store (a sky blue building) and Capn Jacks (a white with pink trim building/restaurant). There are little pastel cottages lining the waterfront in colors of lavendar, mint green, turquoise, pink, yellow and orange sherbert with bushes of bougainvilleas, plumeria type flowers, frangipanis, oleander, flamboyant, and others such as impatiens, etc... including the foliage and all the coconut palms (even pine trees that remind me of home) - it's a very colorful place - A feast for my eyes.

Back at the boat - it was g&t time, some reading, and then I made some salad and we had that with the remaining turkey, homemade bread, cheese and wine for dinner. The sun is going down now - time to turn on the anchor light. By the way, there's a green 36 ft Bayfield about 4 moorings down from us called Zancada. Don't see anyone aboard though. It looks like a good Internet connection here (now that my subscription is about up) - much better than Marsh Harbor.

The light in the lighthouse was lit at 8pm and was flashing it's beacon out to sea at about 5 second intervals. Another first for us - to be moored under a working lighthouse! It's mesmerizing...