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.

Bachelor Cruise I: Man-O-War Cay

I put The Admiral on a plane to Dallas and left that day for Man-O-War Cay, just a few miles across Abaco Sound. As the sign says, there is no place like Man-O-War.

Yes, it has the same glorious sunsets that happen here all over the place.

I found a nice spot to anchor right at the south end of Settlement Harbour where I could watch the comings and goings around the village (aka: settlement).

Man-O-War is unique among the Cays because it has a very active business community, centered on boat building and repair and is not totally dependent on tourism and 2nd home owners like everywhere else in Abaco.  Our friends on Bravo were hauled to replace their broken shaft.  The labor rate is $40/hour as opposed to the $90 or so found in most of the East Coast of the US.

They actively repair and restore older wooden boats like this traditional Bahama sailing dinghy.  They also build modern fiberglass boats, mostly center console outboards.  Since all the yards are owned by Alburies, they are named for the owner's first names.

The cay is virtually (totally?) all white and mostly members of the Albury family for many generations.  Every morning about 4 boatloads of black workers come across from Marsh Harbour at around 7:00 AM and leave by nightfall.  Some of them are highly skilled boat builders and workers.

The Cay is served by two small grocery stores.  The one by the harbor is owned by, of course, an Albury.

Transportation is by gasoline golf carts, some of which are available for rental by the tourists.  Yes, as a former British colony, they drive on the left.

 "Location. Location. Location."  Most of the houses are very well kept and very simple with no decoration.  (This isn't one of them.) It is a very religious community with a number of churches.  BYOB!  No liquor is sold on the cay or served at the two restaurants.

The cay is supplied by an almost daily freight boat and large loads are brought in by barge.  This barge was delivering loads of sand and some heavy equipment.

A little Bahama dinghy sailed through towing a modern fiberglass outboard.  Malolo, a beautiful traditional motor-sailor, was built in MOW in the 50s and was found by her present owners in Maine and restored by them in Nova Scotia.  They returned to MOW for the first time two years ago with great fanfare when we were here and came back this year after more restoration.

Kaye and TJ invited the poor starving bachelor skipper aboard their lovely Alberg 37, Shearwater anchored in the south harbor, for a delicious pork chop dinner.  Sesame brought some fresh-baked brownies.

On the way to the beach at the narrows north of the harbor in the dinghy, I passed through many rays flying around in the beautifully clear water.

 I walked across the narrow isthmus to the ocean side.  At low tide, there is a nice beach on the sound side and I found a few nice shells including a couple of sand dollars.

The coral along the beach had some interesting shapes encased in it.  I am not sure what they are or were, but I'm imagining prehistoric trilobytes or something like that?

During a passage of one of the frequent weather fronts that come through during the winter, one brave soul went out the passage.

Sesame sat happily in Man-O-War for a few days, figuring that every night at anchor saved enough money to buy a rum drink or two ashore.  But then the Captain remembered that he was anchored off a dry town and decided it was time to head out to Hopetown with all the money he had saved.  Stay tuned!

Across "The Whale"

We wanted to stay in Green Turtle for their modest Junkanoo (sort of a combination of Carnivale and Mardis Gras with an African beat?) on New Year's Day.  We anchored in Black Sound for a few days so that we could walk to New Plymouth for the festivities.

The parade starts with a much bigger than life figure which is articulated and moves to the music of the drums and horns behind it.  Many home-made costumes and dancers follow. The green feathered costume was quite spectacular.  The video below has sound and shows the movement of the costume and some of the other dancers. [Hit the arrow to see and hear it.  Make sure your speakers are on.]

That night, we watched the fireworks from our boat back in the harbour.  [A puzzlement for an old English teacher: Since we are in a country which uses British spellings, the accurate spelling is "harbour".  But when it isn't part of a proper noun, how should an American spell it in his narrative?]

We had to wait another couple of days before the waves died down in Whale Passage, a passage from the ocean to the Sea of Abaco past Whale Cay.  It was still a bit "lumpy" when we went by, but we were able to take "Don't Rock Passage" on the inside of the cay where it was fairly quiet.

After Don't Rock we headed toward Marsh Harbour, the largest town in the Abaco islands.  It even has a traffic light!

We anchored near the Marsh Harbour Marina and were treated to a beautiful sunset our first night there.

The weather forecast warned us of yet another cold front approaching with strong winds and rain so we ducked into the marina for a few days.  Dockage was 65-cents a foot per night as opposed to the $2.50 or $3.00 and up they get in much of New England and Florida.  We tried to reserve a slip for just the two nights of the worst weather, but ended up having to sign up for five nights to be guaranteed a spot.  A day later, the marina was full.

We went to the Wednesday "Rib Night" (nothing to write home about, but good) and the Saturday "Steak Night" (still as good as we remembered it from two years ago).

The weather never really turned out to be as bad as forecast, but it was nice being on the dock anyway.  There was a great sunshower with a spectacular rainbow.  Unfortunately, the photographer forgot to bring his polarized filter so it doesn't show up as well as it might.

Josh, the young single-hander who we had been with off and on since West End gave a "seminar" on fish cleaning on the dock.  He had speared the fish under a boat on the dock this time, but had gotten all kinds of fin and shell fish with both hook and line and spear from his dinghy too.

We stayed on the dock one extra day to make it easier for The Admiral to catch her plane to Dallas to help daughter Lyz's family move from their temporary apartment to their brand new house. 

The Skipper is now on a two or three-week "bachelor cruise" and plans to re-explore some of Southern Abaco.  With a little luck, he'll be able to anchor out every night and keep a bit of money in the cruising kitty.

More to follow. . . .