Hope Town, Man O War, Green Turtle Cay

Hope Town in the Abacos is an interesting place. First, it is completely different from the sort of spots we’ve enjoyed for the past four months. The Exumas, while providing the clearest water, the best snorkeling, the sandiest anchorages, the most varied sea life we’ve seen, also have pretty meager offerings ashore.

This is not an alley or one-way street. It is a two way road in Hope Town.

On our charts, island after island will typically have a note saying something like “Resort planned. Development stalled.” The settlements are tiny, sleepy, and somewhat second-world in character. Lots of cinderblock construction, lots of hurricane damaged buildings, surprising amounts of trash lying about, not a great deal of industry or commerce in evidence. In contrast to the Exumas, Hope Town and other islands in the Abacos, were settled by Loyalists escaping the aftermath of the American Revolution, so there is more of a colonial Caribbean, brightly colored, Victorian air to the place.

When is the last time any of you saw a Mini Moke? Perfect for those narrow streets.

Hope Town Harbour is a small basin with outstanding weather protection. It is also jammed with moored boats. We have not been in a harbor with closely placed moorings since Scituate, Massachusetts but even there the boats were half as densely packed together.

Because we needed to do some laundry and wanted to stay in a quiet spot to ride out some squally weather, we rented a mooring for two nights. At just $20/night, the moorings are among the best bargains of the trip to this point.

We enjoyed little Hope Town, particularly the coffee shop, the tiny narrow streets, the flowers, the birds, the locals, the friendly friendly cruisers, and the lighthouse.

That Hope Town lighthouse, built in 1936, is the oldest mechanical, kerosene-lit one in the world. The mechanism was built around 1900 and first used in a different spot, then moved to Hope Town. In fact, it is the last functioning one of its kind. Basically it is a gigantic rotating Coleman lantern floating on a 1,200 pound pool of mercury. The 3.5 ton light mechanism floats on the mercury so its rotation (once every 15 seconds) is smooth and low-friction. The works that run the rotation need to be wound every two hours through the night. The weights running the clockworks descend about fifty feet from the top of the tower down the inside of a very well-greased tube that also acts as the center of the spiral staircase. The whole operation is pretty neat.

Hope Town Harbour from the top of the lighthouse.

After Hope Town we moved a little farther north to Man O War Cay for a night at anchor off a cove on the northwest side of the cay. Man O War is another charming little spot. Narrow lanes, golf cart traffic, and a pretty bustling (by Bahamian standards) boatbuilding industry. We scored some ice cream, checked out a center console gnat boat being finished in its mold, and picked up another coconut.

We decided there was not nearly enough coconut in our lives so far this trip. Most of the palms in the Exumas are the non-coconut variety. (Who knew such a thing existed?) But there were plenty on Lee Stocking Island. And the Abacos are covered with the things.

I have gotten to the point where I can open a coconut in about 15 minutes. It’s a messy proposition on board, but that’s where my coconut-opening tools are kept. I use a hacksaw to make a cut through the husk, then I pry the husk off with a flathead screwdriver. Yesterday, however, I opened a coconut on the beach using just a piece of shell and my bare hands. I’ve completely switched from hunter to gatherer at this point in the trip.

As we landed on the beach at Man O War, we ran across friends (Ken and Sharon from Charis) we met way back when we were in St. Augustine, Florida. They’ve spent their winter up here in the Abacos on their boat and may head to Beaufort with us in the coming weeks.

Moss sat down for just a second and this kitty jumped right into her lap.

Because the anchorage was a little rocky in the southwest winds, we didn’t want to spend a second night at Man O War. Instead we decided to take the favorable weather to cross the Whale Passage (a notoriously difficult cut we needed to negotiate in order to make it to the smaller, more remote islands of the northern Abacos).

So now we are moored in Black Sound at Green Turtle Cay. The mooring is the cheapest we have ever found – just $11/night. That includes the use of a saltwater pool and access to the nastiest showers we’ve seen all trip. (When I say they are nasty showers, I don’t really mean it in a judgmental way. Somewhere has to have the nicest showers (St. John’s Marina near Charleston) so somewhere else has to have the worst. This happens to be the place.)

Green Turtle Cay is a sweet little island. The town is convenient and a mix of cruiser-useful (little grocery store, hardware store, restaurants) and local-residential (churches, playgrounds, houses, schools).

WWJD? He would pay attention in English class.

Last night we met up with Karen and Paul from Satagraco who we met way way back in New Bern during Hurricane Florence. They were staying at the same marina with us and were a huge help (and comfort) as we prepared for the storm and then got things back together afterwards.

In any event, they keep their boat here at Green Turtle and we all went out for dinner yesterday. It is such a treat to spend time with them here in paradise, rather than in storm-ravaged New Bern.

OMG! I’m just like those people on Facebook who post pictures of their food! Thumbs up if you like the mahi dinner Ellen made! Yum! LOL!

It’s been a while. Here’s another selfie of Ellen.