We visited the lighthouse here in Hopetown which is at the entrance to the boat basin. It is the only lighthouse that is lit each night and uses kerosene which puts out a yellow light .....5 flashes with a five second pause and it can be seen for five miles. The views of the harbor were spectacular!
We picked high tide to attempt the entrance to Hopetown on Friday and we had no trouble navigating the narrow and shallow channel that winds its way into a beautiful basin surrounded by the quaint loyalist village of Hopetown. We immediately decided to stay a week on our mooring ball which is right across from two swimming pools. The town has a dinghy dock, many small streets with pastel colored houses lining the way. There are no cars downtown and the atmosphere is festive. The lighthouse marks the entrance to the basin which we intend to visit later. We have coktails Friday evening aboard Tortola after spending a few hours in the pool. We see lots of boats that have crossed from Marsh Harbor.....I could spend the winter here!
On the ocean side of Marsh Harbor is the exclusive Abaco Resort and Marina with lots of mega-yachts tied to beautiful docks surrounded by condos, a swimming pool, tiki bar and beach. It's separated from the rest of Marsh Harbor and a world unto itself. At $4.00' we didn't see too many sailboats!
Marsh Harbor is the third largest city in the Bahamas with Maxwell's and Save-A-Lot grocery stores not too far from the dinghy dock. The streets are very narrow with few sidewalks so walking is a challenge...forget the bikes. Marsh Harbor Marina offers slips for $.85' and the photo shows the back of the marina overlooking the harbor. In between the 25-30 knot winds all week we did sneak in to the tourist section of town and visited Harbour View Marina, Iggy Biggy, Curly Tails and even the beach at Boat Harbor Marina. As far as provisioning and being a safe harbor in a storm I'm not too impressed......unless forced I would not return here!
We crossed from Lake Worth to the Abacos on Thursday with Tortola, a trawler and Spartina, a 39' sailboat. We had tried to cross on Wed but the wind was from the east, on the bow at 18 knots and we could make no headway so we turned back. We rested and left at 3:00 AM on Thursday with winds 10-14 out of the ESE and had a great crossing to Memory Rocks and then to Great Sale where we anchored at 6:30. Up early on Friday to get to Green Turtle, then around the Whale and Tortola and Waves of Grace pulled into Marsh Harbor to wait out the predicted blow. Spartina anchored at Treasure Cay and came to Marsh Harbor on Friday. We only left the boat twice in 6 days...it was gusting to 40 mph on Sunday and there was chop everywhere but every anchored boat held fast! This is a photo of the front as it approached the harbor and also one of the celebration onboard our boat with members of our buddy boats.
We are anchored here in Lake Worth for the second night and are departing for the Abacos tomorrow morning at 5:30 with two other couples aboard their 39' cutter. We'll anchor in Great Sale Cay tomorrow night and then continue to Green Turtle where we'll clear customs. We have a weather window to get around the whale and into Marsh Harbor for the week-end. Hopefully I can pick up wi-fi from there. Today we spent a great morning touring Peanut Island which was created from material dredged to make the Lake Worth ocean inlet. In 2005 the $15 million Peanut Island Enhancement project was completed and is open to the public. There are campsites, picnic tiki huts, beaches, nature trails, great snorkeling, reef boardwalk, and boat docks. What a great place to visit!
We spent the night in Biscayne Bay in a nice 8-9' anchorage in front of Hurricane Harbor with a view of the city....quite awesome. Early this morning we followed the ICW north into Miami and then out Government Cut into the ocean via Fisherman's Channel. The winds were 2 knots and the ocean was like glass. We motored past Ft. Lauderdale and around 12:30 a front from the north hit us at 21 knots....we still had 34 more miles to do before Lake Worth...yuck! We turned around and headed back to Ft. Lauderdale for the night...we're in no hurry as we can't cross to the Bahamas til next Wed or Thursday.
Laundry is always an issue when you are cruising on a boat. We have a small hand crank portable Wonder Wash on board and it works great when we can't get to a laundromat....crank the clothes, wring by hand and hang out to dry on the life lines. But in Marathon there is a laundromat at the marina...$2.00 for a cold wash and #2.00 to dry. There is always a line and doing the wash takes about two hours. So I stopped at the laundromat near I-Hop...the only one around and look at these prices! $4.00 a load and $8.50 for a front loader...wow! The owner was in when I took this pic and she said just to hook up to the water and sewer cost her $180,000. Then she has to pay a monthly water and sewer bill on top of the hook-up fee. No wonder laundromats are scarce on the Keys. But then again, there is no fresh water here....it's all pumped in from the mainland.
We are getting ready to leave the harbor and the list of tasks is endless......fill water, gas, and diesel tanks. We have to mail all of our letters, do the shopping for 2 months, and make sure we have the weather info that we need. We are still waiting for our AIS and e-perb to be delivered that we ordered at the show last Friday. Sid arrived today to hoist Walt up in our bosun's chair so that he could attach lines for our quarantine and Bahamian courtesy flags which we'll use when arriving in the Abacos.
We visited Flamingo Key the other day and passed this very unique mailbox. The owner must love fishing! The mailboxes in the Keys are very different from up north and the manatee and dolphin mailboxes are everywhere, but a lure?
