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Hanging out in Hope Town 3/23-3/27

keep Eagle Rock to port and line up the range before making the turn into the harbor. The post in foreground is part of the range.

“The harbor looks busier than when we were last here”, commented the Captain as we rounded the corner and entered Hope Town harbor. Well, five years ago we had a narrow focus; get on that MC41 and sail around Abaco. Although the harbor appeared full, many moorings (once you looked closely) were open and most were not marked with a “reserved” bottle. We selected a double green along the SE side fairly close to Nike, a privately owned MC 30 (for sale) and Moondoggy a MC30 in charter. Captain Ron was engaged in the full afternoon orientation with this week’s charter family. He stopped by to chat  afterward and while I’m not really sure he remembered us, he was complimentary about the boat- hey if he’d only come sailing with us!

Ortolan on mooring with Moondoggy returning from orientation

A few days later, Present Moment came out on to the mooring; she’s a MC33 –the only one (so far) with deep blue hulls- very sharp. That charter kicked off Tuesday morning. Captain Ron lives up the creek which extends off of the harbor and has a decent sized dock where he can work on the charter boats before bringing them out a mooring. A convenient set up for everyone with the ferry dock only a stone’s throw away.

Hope Town offers the deprived cruiser many services, eateries, shops as well as the very long Elbow Cay beach. Not that we feel deprived anymore after 3 weeks in the Abacos, but Hope Town is so charming and compact, one simply cannot resist. Thus the shopping song could be inserted here!

Better than all the T-shirts, trinkets and sundresses calling “take me with you”, was my exciting find on the beach. Nestled in the sand, completely visible near some dried sea kelp, was a hamburger bean. The one and only sea bean that turned up, but now I have a collection of two sea beans!

Each evening around 7:30, the light house keeper begins his job- maybe he’s just a volunteer. The distinctive Elbow Cay red and white striped light house is one of the most photographed in the world AND the only hand-cranked, kerosene lit one in use. One night Mother Nature, Zeus and Thor joined forces to produce a lightning, thunder and rain storm like I’ve never seen. First, we noticed cloud lightning toward the east. Not long after the light house began its sequence (5 seconds of flash every 15) the huge bank of storm clouds to the north chimed in with a lightning show lasting 6- yes, SIX hours. Was hard to tell distance, although we knew it wasn’t real close to us; but folks at Treasure Cay 25 miles away probably thought differently.  The display was amazing; we’d never in our lives seen this much lightning. I know someone who would have thought this a very cool show. As the storm edged closer- around 11m- you know- stuff always gets interesting when you want to hit the sack, the wind whipped up and rain poured down in sheets and buckets. Thunder and lightning continued to hold our attention while we wondered how much water the dinghy could hold before sinking!

Tuesday was museum and post office day. The Wyanie Malone museum is nestled in the heart of downtown Hope Town and is loaded with interesting displays. You can spend an extra 20 minutes to watch the video program about Abaco history and heritage.

Thank goodness we don't have to squeeze into the likes of these

We picked up a post card to send to Benj in Italy- figured we’d get our 50 cents worth… if it ever arrives.

I didn't dress to match on purpose- honest

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Man o’ War

Our memories of a brief stop at Man o’ War Cay five years ago are a bit fuzzy, but I know that the settlement is more vibrant and lively than we recall. Even Guana Cay seemed busier than before.  All good news; cruisers, vacationers and locals all benefit from prosperity.

The trouble with Man o’ War is the mooring fields, the balls are not well marked as to ownership and many are very close together. Great way to meet someone when your stern is two feet away from their bow. The wind beat the forecast by 5 kts so we enjoyed a 2 hour brisk sail but had to tack to do it. No Antsy Lori on this trip as we were moving right along close hauled at 6kts.

The marina directed us to a mooring in front of another boat and we immediately became the “show”. Or usual mooring attachment set up was going to leave our stern hitting the mono behind us. He wasn’t overly concerned and said getting the pennant up on deck would keep us away. Was a fun maneuver with the strong wind while the poor soul at the helm tried to keep from hitting the other boat until the lines could be rigged right and at the same time moving the boat forward toward the mooring ball. We got it done and headed in so we could do what we came for- see the museum which would close in an hour. After all that messing about it better be open.

Our very close neighbor

Today's docent is a 78 yr old resident with many memories

It was and a lovely museum to boot. Man o’ War was settled by Loyalists who remain conservative, keeping the island “dry.”  We wonder if that tradition has any bearing on Man o’ War’s long history of productivity, most notably as renowned boat builders and sail makers.

One of the displays showed an open ledger book from the hardware store of items that Langosta purchased in 1951. I thought that was a very clever tie-in to local history. You may recall that Langosta was the vessel Randolph Johnston acquired a few months after arriving in Man o’ War with his family. They later made their home in Little Harbor.

Supplies sold to the Johnstons of Langosta

Several 45s are displayed over a door frame with a sign suggesting you take them down to show your kids; who if under a certain age, may never have seen one, let alone heard of them! Was it really 40 years ago I received a surprise gift on the family phonograph; the Archies, “Sugar, Sugar.”

Man o’ War is several miles long and not very wide, so a walk across to the Atlantic Ocean side takes 10 mins. Land for a cemetery was set aside many years ago, only problem is that it is a stone’s throw from the beach. Storms have flooded the graves which are in process of being re-built in concrete to protect the contents.

Cemetery receiving a "body lift"

The few gift shops are excellent shopping and here’s how it went down: (sung to the Barefoot Man’s Nippers song)

When you get cut off in Abaco, man you’ve spent too much

When the Captain tears you from the shops while you yell and cuss

You get run over by a golf cart while your packages you clutch

When you get cut off in Abaco, man you’ve spent too much!

The sail shop no longer produces sails, instead they make totes and bags of ALL shapes and sizes. I bought a large bag to hold my loot- which did include groceries. No, just joking about the bag. Gleaned ideas for one we want to make. Island Treats sells Edy’s ice cream; the temptation was too much- we caved but only bought kiddie size.  My mouth cried out in wonder “ice cream!!! Thought you’d never get around to that again!!” Russ just ate his.

Albury's Sail Shop as seen from the harbor