Our 5 weeks in Hope Town have gone by much too quickly. As hoped, we were able to enjoy the area more intensely than just our usual few days.

Happy New Year! Little did we know that they have fireworks at midnight on New Years, or that they would be launched from only 200′ away! Quite the show!!

Moonrise over the harbor

We noticed this little guy a few times swimming by in the harbor. Lori looked it up & told me it was likely a Dogfish so I wasn’t too concerned while paddleboarding. One time it passed by, turned around to follow me, then went under … I only got a little nervous … until our neighbor boat mentioned if I’d noticed the 2 LEMON SHARKS which are always patrolling the harbor?! Now I stick with my kayak.

Somehow this petroleum tanker plows thru the narrow, shallow channel every month bringing fuel to Lighthouse Marina in Hope Town.

The nearby Sunshine Freight Dock keeps us entertained with freight boats, ferries, shuttles …

and the Thirsty ‘Cuda also uses the dock to load-up with ice & “beverages” on nice days when it cruises to anchor off a sandbar at nearby Tahiti Beach.

Every morning the dock also becomes the bus stop for island kids going to school. While Hope Town (Elbow Cay) is one island with roads through-out its 3 miles, there is a small portion (by the lighthouse) which is inaccessible due to low, watery mangrove areas, so every school kid, worker, resident & visitor has to “ferry” across. The elementary school is a short walk up the hill past the freight dock.  High Schoolers have to arrive & then take a larger ferry 6 miles across to Marsh Harbour.

Back in 2007 … this is us on our first trip to Hope Town while chartering a Maine Cat sailing catamaran. Ironically, we are now renting our mooring from the same Captain Ron who ran that charter boat company back in 2007. Between the high winds that week & our limited sailing experience, he was very hesitant to even let us leave the harbor, but hopefully we’ve redeemed ourselves with him after surviving the last 18 years.

Have we changed at all?

Hope Town has certainly changed, especially after Hurricane Dorian slammed here 5 years ago. Tragically, a triple disaster as the hurricane’s path (with its 185-mph sustained winds) came directly over Hope Town (& nearby Marsh Harbour), then stalled in place for several hours, then Covid hit just months later as international relief had finally scaled up. It’s been a tough 5 years, but most structures have been rebuilt & the island is actually busy with new construction, particularly vacation homes & rentals.

We will be heading 75 miles south to Spanish Wells (on the northern end of Eleuthera) a week early (with a one-night stop in Little Harbour, aka Pete’s Pub), as there are some nasty, prolonged big winds forecasted to arrive next week. Mid-winter can be challenging down here with cold fronts rolling thru every 3 – 6 days, some severe with winds gusting to 30 – 35 knots, keeping the seas too sloppy for us. So we’re going while the going is good & maybe even catch a Mahi along the way – I hope!

Hope Town is a festive place for Christmas – as long as you like mostly sunny & 78 degrees! While we missed their annual Christmas show at the little Community Center, there are enough lights & decorations around to get into the Christmas spirit. Their church bells even chimed Christmas songs after their noon & 6PM bell tolls. Of course, the most notable lights are the ones trailing from the Hope Town lighthouse. While those lights are LEDs powered by a generator, the lighthouse’s beacon is the original 1862 kerosene light rotated by 700 pounds of weights, hand- cranked every 2 hours – the last such lighthouse still in operation in the world.

Our great nightly view of the Hope Town Lighthouse.

Our first week in Hope Town had occasional showers with so many rainbows we almost got tired of looking for them.

Catamarans have certainly taken over the Bahamas.

Ooops – don’t worry – just a rental!

Our mooring is near the Sunshine Freight Dock – the Grand Central of Hope Town. Hope Town is the settlement on Elbow Cay, which is a small island & even though only 4 miles from Marsh Harbour, everything has to come over by boat, ferry or freight boat. As the freight boat arrives, dozens of little trucks, vans & even golf carts descend to load up in an orchestrated show. To supplement these daily deliveries, every one of the dozen daily ferry boats (on the left) bring an assortment of packages & boxes along with residents, visitors & workers.

Our “job” this year was Gene’s “Advance Crew”. His family & friends were arriving for a week to a rental villa. We (along with Maryella) helped with transport & pre-arrangements of boats & golf carts – paid with lots of laughs & perhaps a Pina Collada or two…

Hard to drive by without taking more pictures.

As the winds really kicked up the ocean.

Back to reality aboard brought on our “usual” projects +1. The placement of the table posts had always bugged me – way too close for my big feet – so …. just move them!

Almost disaster in paradise … our generator began producing less & less voltage (108 volts instead of 120 volts). Even though our solar system is great, the sun is lower this time of the year along with cloudy days produce only 1/3 of our usual solar energy, so we really need our genset to work properly – especially as it’s the only way to power our watermaker. After a few e-mails with the genset manufacturer, the tech finally mentioned “did you try swapping out your capacitor?” What the heck – didn’t even know there was one. Very fortunately the previous owner had a spare one hidden away & replacing it took care of the problem. Next problem was with a worn-out exhaust blower (which helps keep the genset cool) – jerry-rigged with a different type of blower until we get back to the U.S.

Christmas Babka – Lori’s family’s tradition continued on through the years in our various homes & boats.

We’ll be using Hope Town as our base for the next few weeks. On the calm days we’ll head out to visit our favorite anchorages, make water with our watermaker & stop over at to Man-O-War Cay or Marsh Harbour for groceries. Around January 20th, we’ll begin to journey the 70 miles south to Spanish Wells, on the northern tip of Eleuthera.

Merry Christmas wishes to all & Happy New Year!