The fact for this week is that, in my opinion/experience, Mount Hartman Bay is every bit as rolly as Prickly Bay! The only difference was that in Prickly we were on a mooring ball, while in Mt. Hartman we are anchored. The result was not only were we kept awake by the rolling but about every hour the wind shifted and that would cause us to swing differently and that would set off the anchor alarm. Because you can never be too sure, you have to get up and go check that every thing is OK and re-set the alarm.

I think the long term residents in Prickly Bay started the myth that Mount Hartman Bay was a calm anchorage to get the riff-raff out of Prickly! I'm really just kidding about that, but you can never really be quite sure. As soon as the swells start rolling in there is usually a mass exodus from Prickly, most move to Mount Hartman.

I believe the long term residents of Mount Hartman Bay support this myth as well. When someone mentions that the anchorage has been a bit rolly, the Mount Hartman loyalist are quick to blame it on the work boat that comes in and out of the bay several times a day. That would be fine but the anchorage is still rocking and rolling at three o'clock in the morning! Other say it only rolls at high tide when the waves are breaking over the reef - yeah well, low tide this morning was around 1:00 AM and it was still rolling.

All that aside, Mt. Hartman is a very pretty bay. There is not nearly as much development around the bay as there is at Prickly. There is a small marina here, Secret Harbor, and a restaurant and bar, as well as a volley ball court. It is kind of a sleepy, quiet little bay - none of the hubbub of Prickly Bay.

We miss the hubbub and the wifi! The rocking and rolling in Prickly doesn't seem nearly so bad now.

Update: I wrote this about a week ago, since then we have gotten to know more of the cruisers in Mount Hartman Bay and have been really enjoying ourselves. We have been taking dance classes with a few other cruisers - while we will never light up the dance floor we are having a lot of fun. We joined everyone for Mexican Train Dominos on Sunday at the bar. I set a personal best for the high score 584 (for everyone that doesn't know it is the lowest score that wins!). We finally broke down and signed up for a wifi service for the rest of the month so that has gone a long way towards making the continued rolling tolerable!