Hope Town, Elbow Cay to Man-o-War Cay

            When last I left y'all, we were ensconced on a mooring ball n Hope Town Harbour.  We did do laundry at the Lighthouse Marina and managed to leave a whole load behind in one of the dryers.  When I finally remembered, it was 4 days later and I was in Florida.  Poor Bob had to go and retrieve our errant undies and put them away.  Luckily for us, everything was still there!

             We also rode our bikes to the northern most point on the island and explored the beach.  We were out there for an hour or so and never saw a soul.  When we got back to the boat, I had received a message from my sister-in-law to call home, Dad's dog, Rosie, was not well.   Needless to say, Rosie had to be put down and Dad was a bit upset.  A vote was taken between the sisters and I was the lucky winner.  I booked a flight to Sarasota that night.  I flew to Sarasota from Marsh Harbour on Monday and spent 5 days with Dad helping him to purge his house of doggies things, pick up ashes and thank all the neighbors who went with him on vet visits.

 Bob at North end cemetery

Clare at same

Cholera Cemetery

 

        During one of our bike excursions we rode to the cholera cemetery.  During the 1850's the population of Hope Town was decimated by cholera.  The settlers of Hope Town and the Abacos were mostly British Loyalists from the American colonies.  They came here to escape the war in the colonies.  Hence the Abacos is much more British influence and the population tends to be 50/50 white and black.

 

        The lighthouse in Hope Town is the only hand wound working light left in the world.  The light can be seen by sailors for 17 miles.  The Fresnel lens "floats" in a circular tub containing 1200 lbs. of mercury.  When wound the lens will rotate every 15 seconds.  The mechanism must be wound every 2 hours to insure continuous operation.  The light itself is powered by hand-pumped kerosene sprayed onto a preheated mantle.  This light operates completely without electricity!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quite a light!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stairs to light

Winding Mechanism

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 View of the harbor, Sofira in center

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Bob at the top

Quaint English-style cottages

 

 



 

 

 

 

 Entrance to harbor

 

 

Hope Town Lodge

 

 

      While in Hope Town, we had to revisit the lodge where my niece was wed.  Its been 6 years since our last visit and not much has changed.  The bartender, Gary, is still making great pina coladas and the bank is still only open on Tuesdays from 10-2PM.  There are NO ATMs and a number of the local businesses can't take credit cards because the phone service is so spotty.  People in the outlying cottages still use the CB or VHF to call local businesses and there is one band that makes the rounds on the island each week.  If you're ever in the neighborhood, you must stop to visit.

      While I was away, Bob did play!  He went snorkeling and polished stainless, chatted up all the boats around us and ate out a lot (probably as much as I did with Dad!).  I flew back early on Friday and was back on Sofira by 2:30PM.  It was good to be back home.  We spent a couple more days in Hope Town then lit out Monday morning on the tide for Marsh Harbour to provision at Maxwell's Supermarket.  If you have never experienced a "settlement" grocery store, this next paragraph will mean nothing to you.
     Maxwell's is a REAL supermarket.  The produce is actually kept in refrigerated cases not wooden crates.  The meat you buy is not flash frozen.  You can actually talk to a butcher and have something special cut (exception here is Prime Meats and Deli, in George Town).  They have more than 3 aisles and the lights are turned on AND its air conditioned!  They have public restrooms and an ATM.  I could go on and on about the outstanding features of Maxwell's but I never made it through the whole store ...too overwhelming for me.  If you need to provision before heading south to the Exumas or beyond, this is where to stop.  Better even than Fresh Produce in Nassau.

   We bought what we hope will be enough to get us home but not too much or customs will take it away.  Our "guards" at the dinghy dock were taking a cooling swim when we got back.  They claimed to have scrubbed the bottom of the dinghy for us.  These were the cutest young men of 8 or 9 years.  We tipped them appropriately, much to their joy, and were off back to the boat.

    We weighed anchor and set sail for Man-O-War Cay and our next anchorage.  It was a beautiful day but the wind was not cooperating so the iron sail came on and we arrived in our anchorage by mid-afternoon.  We scurried into town to pick-up some ice and managed to visit the Albury boatworks and sailshop while there.  This cay is 70% Albury.  The distant relatives of early loyalists.  Again, they have their own dialect and accent developed over years of insulated lifestyle.  This is an alcohol-free cay.  The Albury's are strong in their faith!

     We spent sometime swimming and eventually scrubbed most of Sofira's bottom.  Its obviously time for a bottom painting!  We will leave today for Green Turtle Cay and the Green Turtle Club for a few days plugged in before we start home.

Till next time fair winds and calm seas!