Marsh Harbor and Hopetown

Hopetown Lighthouse
June 27, 2009 (Sat.)

June 24-25, 2009

    We spent these days trying to provision, go to the bank, get groceries and liquor as well as find a replacement for our dinghy pump.We went to every hardware store and marine store in MarshHharbor that we could walk to. Chas bought two different pumps but the fitting would not fit the dinghy, so we will limp by with our old one which he can get to work after a fashion. I did go to the grocery.  The very fine store Maxwells evidently burned down last year so there is only Price Right now.   I also did 3 loads of laundry between showers.  The conch Inn usesd to have facilities but now send it out at $12/load.  I took a cab back to the Conch Inn so the clean clothes would not get wet in the dinghy. laundry cost about $15.  We ate at several restaurants: Mangoes, Curly Tails, and Snappers.  While eating lunch at Snappers, we saw a boat with Mt. Pleasant on its stern so Charlie went to check it out.  Turns out that the boat is from Charleston Harbor Marina where we keep our boat and is on our same "C' dock.  He and his family are here on vacation as well as planning to sail in the Regatta.It is such a small world sometimes. We were docked nest to several multiple-masted sailboats which were taking out groups of boy scouts and one of girl scouts for a week

We invited several skippers and mates over for cocktail hour the last night which was their layover day.  Two of the boats had been built by their skippers.  The scouts come from all over the US.  Another of these boats, a big cat,  was in Little Harbor while we were there.       

  

June 26, 2009 (Fri.)

     We left Marsh Harbor and sailed over to Hopetown on Elbow Cay.  The winds were light but it still took us less than two hours. We entered this lovely harbor and picked up a mooring ball as they do not allow anchoring in the harbor.  We met the Drums who have the cat "Reverie" that we had seen in Spanish Wells and Harbor IS. They were anchored outside of the harbor in water too shallow for us.  They came into the harbor and picked us up to go to Harbor View restaurant overlooking the harbor.  After lunch they went back to their boat and proceeded to Marsh Harbor.  Back on our boat, we kept waiting out threatening rain showers all afternoon.  We enjoyed watching them fire up the famous red and white striped lighthouse.  We ate grilled grouper, a gift from the Scout boat next to us at Conch Inn Marina.  

June 27, 2009

     We went ashore and explored Hopetown.  We had been here two years ago.  We walked along the beach stopping in Hopetown Lodge for refreshments before walking back to the center of town.  The houses on Hopetown are all colorfully painted and are usually named something clever. There are a couple of small grocery stores and a seafood mark

et.  We enjoyed walking along the streets before arriving at Iggy-Biggy, a store next to Capt. Jack's restaurant where we had lunch. I had stone crab claws and Charlie had conch. We also saw some boaters we met at Sampson Cay in the Exumas shopping today. We also ran into them at harbor IS and marsh Harbor at the grocery store.   Back to the boat to run the generator for the refrig/freezer.  We are enjoying the breeze on the boat as it  is very hot today.  No rain yet.  

    We plan to sail to Guana Cay tomorrow for Knippers Sunday Pig Roast.  We will probably anchor out in Fisher's Bay.  We will meet the Drums again there.  I don't know if we will stay another day there or not.  We have to be back in Marsh Harbor on Wed. to pick up our crew members for the Abaco Regatta   I'd like to visit Man-of-War Cay if there is time.  

Harbor Island, Eleuthera

June 20,2009

June 17, 2009:

   We met Little Woody, our pilot on the seast end of Spanish Wells at 0945.  He led us through the Devil's Backbone, a collection of reefs off the north side of Eleuthera IS.  It was a beautiful and peaceful journey since we let him worry about not hitting the reefs. He pointed numerous landmarks such as the caves the first Loyalists lived in after their boat crashed up on the reefs. The Loyalists were the first settlers of Eleuthera.  Woody left us in the northern part of water off Harbor Is as he had to pilot the delivery barge back to Spanish Wells.  He had met this boat at 6a.m. to pilot it into Harbor IS.    We anchored between Ramora Bay Marina and Valentine's marina.  A cat, "Reverie" which had been in the Spanish Wells Marina was also there. Rick and Cindy Drum are from Singer IS, FL.  We all went ashore where we rented a golf cart and went exploring the island.  We tried to eat lunch at Sip Sip but it was closed.  They recommended we go down a bit to Pink Sands Hotel's Blue Bar.  We got lost trying to find it but saw many nice houses and bungalows which Pink Sands rents.   The bar had a lovely view of the Pink Sands Beach.  We even saw a young man riding a horse in the surf!  After lunch we continued to explore the island.  Everyone seems to have a golf cart so they 

buzzing around everywhere. Some are somewhat personalized as some of my pictures show.   It was terribly hot so we went back to the boat to rest.  Little Woody had brought the stone crabs with him that morning so we invited the Drums for cocktails and stone crab.  Little Woody dropped by the boat about that time so we invited him aboard.  He had just guided another boat over to harbor IS and saw us anchored. He felt badly that he had not been able to visit with us during his piloting.  He had also given us a little homemade carrot cake and english muffins for which we thanked him.  He was born and grew up in Spanish Wells.  He has been a pilot for about 14 years, but has been a captain for much longer although he looks about late 40's.  He was a delight to have on board. We even talked politics a bit.

June 18, 2009

      We took the cart this morning so I could do laundry.  The laundramat had only 2 washers and dryers functional.  It rained quite had this morning.  We picked up the Drums at noon and went to Arthur's Bakery ( it closes at 2) and then to Sip Sip restaurant which was worth the wait.  I had lobster quesedia (sp) and Charlie had snapper.  This place also overlooks the beach.We walked down to the pink sand beach after lunch.  The beach is wide long and beautiful. We did some more errands and explored the ruins behind the Harbor IS Marina.  The ruins are of a huge house which must have been qute grand.  It was never rebuilt.  They call it

"the haunted house".  There is a nice restaurant in from of it on the waterfront named "Aquapazzo" with a beautiful view of the sunset.  Harbor IS has many old well kept homes along the waterfront.  Many of them have names attached.  the one pictured is called "Blue Dolphin"and is decorated with blue dolphins.

Along the Ocean side are many newer homes up in the trees above the beach. The economy in Harbor IS seems to be thriving.  It is a very busy place with many tourists as well as locals.   The Drums invited us over for salad and pizza on their boat that night.   

June 19, 2009 (Fri)

     Charlie and I visited with the Drums trying coordinate traveling to The Abacos on Sunday. They were going back to Spanish Wells and we were staying at Harbor IS and exiting on the south end instead of getting another pilot to guide us back through the Backbone.   We went ashore to do some grocery shopping and to try to get online.  It was pouring rain again most of the morning.  We had lunch at Valentines which has a dinghy dock: good cracked conch and good conch chowder.  The Drums left for Spanish Wells in the afternoon.  We finally got online at Arthur's Bakery but they closed a 2 so we went back to the boat.  We ate dinner at the Aquapazzo and used the dinghy to get there.   The food was great, the view of the sunset was spectacular.

         

June 20, 2009

    Via e-mail we discovered that the Drums had had engine problems on Friday and were waiting for a mechanic in Spanish Wells on Monday so they would not be sailing with us to The Little Harbor.  We hope to meet up with them later in The Abacos.  We did some more errands, bought beer, ice, etc before returning the cart and returning to the boat.  We ate lunch at Angela's Starfish restaurant.  We hope to go fill the water tanks at Valentine's Marina.  They are the only marina with RO (reverse osmosis) water in Harbor IS.  Then we will move the boat to the south end of the island so we will be closer to the South Cut that we will exit from tomorrow morning at high tide.   We may use the dinghy to explore a bit later this afternoon.  

Governor's Harbor and Spanish Wells

June 16, 2009

June 12, 2009;

     We left Cape Eleuthera with wind under 10 knots.  We sailed wing on wing for awhile proceeding to Governor's Harbor.  It looked like we were going to have a storm, but it missed us. There were scattered squalls all around us.  Governor's Harbor is a big open harbor with no dinghy or other usable docks.  One has to dinghy into the beach and wade ashore as it is quite shallow.  We arrived on a Friday which is when they have their famous Bar-B-Q and Fis

h Fry on the causeway beach between Gov. Harbor and Cupid Cay.  The music was playing and the crowd was gathering.  We just followed the sound and the cars.  Loc

als and tourists all come.  We left about 9;30-10p.m. but it went on until about midnight. We met two families from Houston area and one from Pittsburgh. 

 June 13, 2009:

     When we went ashore to search for grocery stores, we met a couple originally from Canada who had started a junior sailing program at Governor's Harbor.  They teach the children to swim and to sail opti, sunfish or lasers. The age range is from 8-17.  We went exploring to two grocery stores and eventually found the bakery.  We also found an excellent liquor and wine store which enabled us to restock our wine "cellar".  We made several trips 

back and forth to the boat at anchor. Governor's Harbor has some nice big homes, a restored library and restored Methodist church.  We  went back ashore to eat lunch at The Buccaneer, a favorite local spot.  We were told of the beautiful beach on the ocean side where Club Med used to be, but it was uphill amd then down again and about a 3-4 mile walk.  As the temperature was in the 90's, we decided not to do that.  Later in the afternoon, we did take the dinghy about 2 miles north of the harbor to explore a beach.  We discovered two , substantial concrete docks, now abandoned. Since the water off the beach was very shallow for a long way out into the water, they were not good swimming beaches. The beaches in this area are also very rocky.  That night there was another function with music and Bar-B-Q and probably a sports match as we could hear the whistles blowing.  We could see the cars and lights from our anchorage. Since our dinghy is still leaking air,  we put it on top of the boat before our journey to Spanish Wells.

June 14, 2009

     We left early so we would arrive at the Current IS Cut at high or slack tide.  Trying to figure out just when that would be was a challenge.  Everything is based on the tides in Nassau, but there is not chart telling you what the difference is from one site to another.  Charlie guessed by what the tide was supposed to be a Royal IS.  We did a pretty good job as there was very little current going through Current Cut when we went through.  Evidently the current can be as much as 5-6 knots through there.  Safely through we proceeded on to Spanish Wells.  The entrance channel to Spanish Wells is very narrow and very short.  It is less than 1/2 the size of Shem Creek.  It is also about as long as Shem Creek but is very shallow and has many shoaling areas.  We arrived at the Spanish Wells Yacht Haven marina.  We met the couple next to our 

dock. They are on a 37' Pacific Seacraft which they bought in Puerto Rico.  They are taking it to the Chesapeake  though they are from San Francisco.  It poured about an hour after we arrived making it even more muggy.  

June 15, 2009

     We rented a golf cart to use to explore Spanish Wells and Russell IS.  Most of the houses here are one story block covered with stucco or concrete, and all are painted bright colors. They each seem to have a garden.  There are several marine stores here but they still have very little inventory. We also discovered that Spanish Wells is liquor-free. We found one big grocery

and another smaller one near the docks.  There are no laundramats so I wont' get any done here.   We had lunch at the Anchor Snack Bar.  There don't appear to be many real restaurants here. Spanish Wells is smaller than Mt. Pleasant Old Village ( or Zionsville old village).  I amazed at how small it really is. It reminds me of an inland lake village.  We saw bigger houses on Russell IS.  There is a nice small public park with a sandy beach at the end of Spanish Wells.

June 16, 2009

     I rained most of the night and very hard early this morning for two hours.  Rain kept threatening for several more hours  so we got a late start on further exploring .  We went to buy some meat, lettuce and water at the larger grocery.  Spanish Wells has well water and it is not very good.  They do not have reverse osmosis water so we will not fill our water tanks here. We got in touch with a pilot to take us through "The Devil's Backbone" which is a chain of reefs on the way to Harbor Island.  One hears the pilots being hailed constantly on channel 16. They are in high demand especially right now as there is a tuna fishing event being held here. One of the pilots also catches and sells stone crabs.  We ordered some and I waited until late evening and he never returned with the crabs.   Charlie left me waiting for the crabs while he went to the small public beach to take pictures.  We were both hoping to visit the park before dinner.   We tried to go to dinner at a restaurant we saw that was opened for lunch but found that it was closed.  We went instead to Norma's Take Out which is the local hamburger joint where everyone hangs out.  Most call their order in and go to pick it up.

     We will meet the pilot, Woody, tomorrow at about 10 a.m. and will follow him through the reefs to Harbor Island.      

Cambridge Cay and across to Eleuthera

Cambridge Cay sunset
June 11, 2009

June 8, 2009:

We headed for Cambridge Cay which is a part of the Exuma Land and Sea Park. We were approaching it by going around Bell IS. Unfortunately, we arrive at Bell Is and the location of a dangerous rock about low tide and could not get around it safely. there were shallow sand bars in front and it looked too shallow to go around at that time. By the time we could go around, the light was not good for safe navigation, so we anchored off the Bell IS house with it's own

beach and float. That night we had terrible rain storms all night long. Due to the

storms, it was pitch black outside. There were three large houses of steel or concrete and glass on this island, but evidently no one was present as there were no lights at all visible. We could see a freight boat anchored some distance from us.

June 9, 2009.

Near high tide this morning we went past that rock and safely around Bell Is to Cambridge Cay where we picked up a mooring ball. There were many beautiful beaches and rocks nearby to explore. We took the dinghy to one beach and discovered a path to the beach on the Atlantic side. It was also beautiful and had some reefs right at the beach which I snorkled. Although there were 8 boats on moorings, we had this beach all to ourselves. We explored several others before retuning to our boat. That evening we had a gorgeous sunset and no rain overnight!

June 10, 2009

We were off by 0900 on our way across the Exuma Sound to Powell Point on Eleuthera. We had absolutely no wind...under 3 knots the whole way so we had to motor across. We did not even run into

one of the rain squalls we could see out there. Someone

we had met told us that the Cape Eluthera Marina at Powell Point was very nice so we got dockage there. It is fairly new and clean, much like Bimini Sands or Sampson Cay. They have condos with docks in front of them. They have a nice restaurant/coffee house/bakery. There is also a small store on site. The manager used to be at The Bitter End in the BVI. The Amway family evidently bought this

island and is slowly developing it well. They even have recycling! We treated ourselves by eating out. It was very hot when we arrived so it was nice to plug in and have some air conditioning, but it cooled off some by night.

June 11, 2009

We are staying another day here at Cape Eleuthera. Charlie changed the oil in the generator and hopefully fixed its small fuel leak. We will probably try to go exploring in this area. They have two nice beaches and some snorkeling areas nearby. We met a nice couple with their children who were recently evacuated from Madagascar. He was a medical officer for the Peace Corp. They are cruising before relocating back to Pennsylvania. We had then over for cocktails tonight after another rainstorm.

We will go north to Governor's Harbor tomorrow. We hope to have some wind. Currently it is still under 5 knots. We will probably go to Spanish Wells after that.

Staniel Cay and Sampson Cay again

Staniels Cay Pirate Trap beach
June 7, 2009

June 3-5, 2009

     We fueled up at the Farmer's Cay Yacht Club and exited Farmer's Cay cut which had high standing waves and a very brisk current.  Once clear of that we proceeded to Dotham Cut back to the Bank inside and to Staniel Cay.  We stayed at Staniel Cay for several day exploring its beaches.  We did find a better grocery store on the South Staniel Cay.  It had much better

produce that the two smaller stores near the Yacht Club.  When the fishermen were cleaning up their catch that evening, we saw many sharks and a ray waiting to eat the leftovers.  We rented

a golf cart for a day and further explored both N and S Staniel Cay. the beaches on the Sound side had reefs offshore. I had a delicious Conch burger at the Yacht Club.   We ate dinner there one night, too.   I had rack of lamb and Charlie had cornish hens; both were delicious. We met several couples vacationing there.  One was from Indianapolis, Decatur township.  the other was from Texas.  We also went to the Cafe Thunderball Friday Bar-B-Q and met several Germans, a Canadian and a transplanted German now living in Norway.  They were on a Moorings charter with a captain out of Marsh Harbor in the Abacos but exploring the Exumas.  We traded book

recommendations.  Charlie took their picture but he cannot download his pictures onto my computer and his is nonfunctioning at present.  We found two unusual beaches on Staniel Cay.  One is called Pirate's trap beach near Cafe Thunderball and another at the southern entrance to an inlet on the sound side of the cay called Jessie's Kitchen area.  During our stay at Staniel Cay thunderstorms were scattered but prevalent daily causing us to close up the boat and then open it up repeatedly. June 5 is the Bahamas Labor Day.  Unfortunately rain at Staniel Cay dampened the festivities somewhat.  There was a Regatta in Long Cay to which many in Exuma go to see.    

June 6-7, 2009

      We left Staniel Cay and went north to Sampson Cay again.  the marina was full!  So we had to anchor out not far from the marina.  We went to shore to do laundry, get on the internet and to attend their Saturday Beach Bar-B-Q.  The interior beach at Sampson is beautiful.  It almost drys to sand at low tide.  We met several interesting couples while there.  Two were on their way to Georgetown.  They were from Ft. Lauderdale and Stuart, FL

 cruising in large motor cruisers.  Another couple is from Dallas and on a 66 ft. motor cruiser in the marina.   One of the nicest things about cruising is the people you meet along the way.  They always seem to enrich the experience.     We are again ashore amid storms.  We came to buy some groceries of which they have a small but very good selection here.  If it clears up we will probably go exploring nearby beaches via dinghy. 

     We will leave here tomorrow and go further north.  We haven't made up our mind just where we will land tomorrow.     

June     

Saying goodbye to G'town and traveling North

June 2, 2009

May 29-31, 2009

    We continued to further explore Georgetown and Stocking IS.  We took the dinghy to the Peace and Plenty Beach club on Stocking IS.   It was very attractive place which could accommodate large crowds during high season.  It also had some trails one of which led to

the ocean side of Stocking IS where we found som

e reefs just offshore during low tide.  It also had wide sandy beaches and some lagoons.  We spent several afternoons exploring these pristine beaches on the ocean side of Stocking IS.  

The Exuma Docking Services  still had no diesel but we went over to fill our water tanks.  Saturday we invited the couple on the boat anchored near us for cocktails.  They are Brits who bought a Benateau 50 in Tortolla and are taking it back to the states.  On 

On Sunday we went to the weekly Chat and Chill Pig Roast where 

boaters and the locals all gather for a feast. Chat and Chill has three volleyball courts.  I can imagine that during the busy season, all three are full.  They also have a totem pole of city/cay signs showing distances to various destinatons. Someone had put up Charleston, SC.  

June 1, 2009:

     We left Georgetown and Stocking IS early monday morning heading north to Little Farmer's Cay.  there was very little wind and we were only making about 3 knots. they the rain began so we took down the sails and motored the rest of the way. Just as we arrived at Lttle Farmer's Cay, the rain stopped.  We picked up a mooring ball between Little farmer's C

ay and Great Guana Cay.  We went into the little harbor to pay at Ocean Cabin where we were entertained by the owner Terry Bain and friend Samuel. Terry is a descendent from one of the original families here. We discussed world problems and philosophy for an hour or more.  He made me his Ocean Cabin speciality drink which was a blue as the water here in the Exumas. Amazingly I guessed the 5 ingredients he used correctly.  It was delicious: made of coconut rum, rum, pineapple, grapefruit juice and blue curacao.  Terry is a character as his sign on the Ocean Cabin Restaurant reflects.  When the wind picked up we hurried back to the boat.

June 2, 2009

    We further explored Little Farmer's Cay.  We visited the Farmer's Cay Yacht Club, which is quite nice.  It is run by the Nixon's who have been married for 50 years an d he is one of the original families who settle here.  We plan to get fuel from there tomorrow before we leave.  We walked around several of the beaches, both sandy and rocky, and saw their airstrip.  We ordered conch chowder and cracked conch at Ocean Cabin.  Terry had to crack and tenderize the conch but it was delicious and quite tender.  The chowder was good too with lots of conch in it as well.   We may explore the Great Guana Cay beach later this afternoon

and may have dinner at the Yacht Club.  We feel we are helping their economy which is dire need of help.