Bachelor Cruise II: Hopetown

Hopetown is a fairly upscale town on Elbow Cay, a rather long cay just south of Man-O-War.  Its Elbow Reef Lighthouse is visible for miles around.

Sesame was fortunate to grab one of the less expensive moorings (there is no room to anchor in the inner harbor) just inside the entrance and under the lighthouse.

I took a hike up the hill and up the stairs to the top of the lighthouse to look down on the harbor and Sesame at the left-most mooring.

She DOES look rather "cute" from such a distance.

The town (as seen from the mooring) is another Loyalist town, but has lots of color and ginger-breading on its wooden cottages.

There was some interesting activity in the harbor for such a staid community.

The houses are dripping with charm.  Many of them are rentals or "second homes", a staple of the economy here.

There are at least a couple of cemeteries in town.  They have magnificent views of the ocean.  The little stone on the right says,

Effie I. Malone
Died March 5th 1888

Aged 1 year and 6 months

The Angel Called Her

This is a another cemetery immediately above the beautiful beach where I spent an afternoon in the water and reading in my own "cabana" (the nearest neighbors were the residents of the cemetery).  Strangely, in a country with so much beautiful flora, the cemetery plots are usually decorated with old faded plastic flowers.

The beach stretches for miles along the ocean side of the cay.

Everywhere you look is more empty beach.

Vernon's Grocery is one of the two small groceries in town.  Vernon is also a baker, a Justice of the Peace, a "Marriage Officer", the Town Historian, and many other things, I am sure.  His last name is Malone, like so many of the natives.  He is referred to as "Mr. Vernon", since Mr. Malone would would just be confusing. Like the little girl above, he traces his ancestry to the Malones, American Loyalists who landed here in 1785.  The store consists of three short aisles with mostly packaged and hard frozen goods along with some relatively fresh fruit and vegetables depending on when the supply boat last came in.  His bakery (kitchen only) is attached at the side of the store with a separate entrance. The little tags on the shelves are witty sayings, many of which I used to have in my own offices.

Although the town has a number of good restaurants, I found a good hot dog with all the trimmings and an excellent inexpensive ($6.50) conchburger at a little roadside stand across the road from Vernon's.

The Wyannie Malone (remember the last name?) Museum has some interesting displays and is housed on one of the old houses.

One night, (yes, that's a full moon over the cross) Shere Khan, a cappella singers from Princeton University, sang at the Methodist Church.  It was a lovely concert by some fun and very talented kids.  To set the mood, the sun put on a rather nice display as it set over the harbor below us just before we went in to the concert.

 Next stop: Little Harbour and Pete's Pub, Art Gallery, and workshop and forge.