On Sunday, April 19, we sailed south from Man-O-War Cay, to
Elbow Cay, where we found Hope Town. We had trouble getting the boat engine
started, but eventually it worked. We fueled up in Man-O-War and were on our
way.
April 19 is my birthday, and I was feeling a little bummed
that I had come all the way to the Bahamas to celebrate my big birthday in a
special place and it was not really working out. We had no connectivity (no
Face Book Birthday Greetings???) and things were breaking left and right.
Everything electronic was giving us trouble. My phone, the radio. Our dinghy
engine stopped working. Even our yeast expired, so the coconut bread that I had
tried to make didn’t rise. We went to shore to mail postcards and couldn’t, because the PO is closed on Sunday. There are no mailboxes on the streets like
in the US.
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| The Hope Town Post Office (upstairs, on the left) |
Finally we found a little food and ice cream place, Muchees, and got cups of ice cream. Chuck managed to talk the owner, who turns out to be an accomplished chef, into singing Happy Birthday with him. The chef, Norris, was also a very good singer!
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| Chef Norris served us ice cream and sang “Happy Birthday” to me |
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| “Munchees” restaurant, from inside, where I was cheered up with ice cream and song |
We walked around the town and visited the beach.
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| Another restaurant in Hope Town. Only in the Bahamas, can you spend more for a veggie burger than a lobster roll!! |
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| This is not a Spanish speaking island, so maybe this was not intentional. Usually you see the expression, “Mi casa es su casa”, meaning “My house is your house,” or “Make yourself at home”. This homeowner felt differently? |
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| Beach on the ocean side |
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| Beach on the ocean side |
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| Beach on the ocean side |
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The lighthouse
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Which way is the Light House???
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Approaching the Light House, with lots of visitors on the
balcony viewing platform
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Approaching the Light House
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| Light House Entrance |
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It’s windy up on the light house!
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View from the Light House. Can you spot Summer Wind?
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Light house keeper’s girlfriend
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The next day we found ourselves back at Munchees for ice
cream, again! We visited the town and the beach, and got drenched in a sudden
rainstorm.
On Wednesday, it rained again in the morning. None of our dinghy
engines were working (again!), and we (Chuck, that is) had been rowing the dinghy. By now, the
dinghy was full of rain water. While I was washing dishes on the transom, he decided
to raise the dinghy and dump out the water, by himself. His usual routine was disrupted
because the engine was not on the dinghy, and he forgot to remove the dinghy
bag, which contains the anchor, bilge pump, sponge, cable and lock. As he lifted
the dinghy, the bag fell into the water. For a short while, it floated, but it
quickly disappeared. We went into the water with masks and snorkels to look for
it, but the visibility was very bad because of the rain. We decided to wait for
low tide (a 3 foot difference), and meanwhile went into town for groceries. We snorkeled
again later that day, but still didn’t find the dinghy bag.
The next morning, we snorkeled again, but the tide was high
and we saw nothing. We finally decided to go in with scuba gear. We tried to be organized and do a search
pattern, but we were more like a Roomba – all over the place. At one point,
Chuck found a conch and showed it to me. This completely distracted me and I
swam in a direction that I didn’t plan to go, where it “couldn’t” be, and
suddenly, there it was! Very exciting! I brought up the bag, and then I went back
down to clean the barnacles off the bottom of the keel. There were plenty, even though the boat bottom had been cleaned 3 times in FL.
Diving makes us hungry, and we needed to celebrate finding the bag and contents after 2 days of effort. So we headed off to “Pappa Nasty’s” barbecue restaurant
for a celebratory lunch!
We’d heard it advertised on the Cruiser’s Net, and really
want to try it. We had no idea how far it was, or even really where it was. We
headed off on foot, and walked and walked in the hot sun. Finally, who drove by
in a golf cart and offered us a ride? None other than Mr. Norris! He dropped us
at a nearby intersection, and we walked to the restaurant.
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This is it???
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Yup, Pappa Nasty’s. Delicious barbeque! (To
the left are two picnic tables)
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When a young couple showed up in a golf cart looking like
they weren’t sure, we told them it was really good and they should stay. And
could they give us a ride back to town? Yes, sure. The woman of the couple was
celebrating her 40th birthday that day, and their trip from FL was
their second in 10 years, each time to celebrate her birthday. When we asked
them what they liked about the Bahamas, they said the weather. We said we thought
it was pretty hot. They said that was because we were from CT, they were from
FL. They were very sweet and gave us a ride back to town, even though they were
actually going elsewhere.
Also at Pappa Nasty’s we re-met our friend Don, on ‘Straight
from the Heart” and met his wife, MaryAnn, (who also has an April Birthday!). We had met Don in Vero, and their
boat was now near ours in the mooring field in Hope Town.
After Pappa Nasty’s, we went to a bar, Harbor Edge, for ice
tea and internet (for Chuck, the only one of us with a working phone, sadly),
and then stopped for a few more groceries and some fundraiser cookies from kids
outside at the harbor.
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Harbor Edge, where we stopped for Wifi
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On Friday morning, we went to the coffee house for internet
and breakfast. This time I dragged my PC along so I could play too.
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Coffee House
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In the afternoon, Don very patiently showed Chuck how to
rebuild the carburetor on the dinghy engine.
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| Dinghy engine maintenance |
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| Don and Chuck |
One evening we were treated to a grand wedding celebration,
complete with Junkanoo parade and band. The wedding party, Junkanoo band and
other wedding guests boarded a special ferry to cross Hope Town harbor for the
wedding dinner and dancing. Junkanoo involves elaborate (and heavy!!) costumes, sort of like Mardi Gras, or Las Vegas (but far more modest).
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| Junkanoo parader (from a different event) |
Later that evening there were fireworks to rival any municipal fireworks in the US. We heard this was the finale to 4 days of festivities. It seems this is a popular wedding destination. Fortunately, they had great weather.
Other days we rode our bikes around the island, and
explored. We stopped several times at this outdoor restaurant/beachclub for
drinks and live music.
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Lemonade made in front of us, from scratch.
Delicious, and so
refreshing on a hot Hope Town day!
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We discovered another favorite lunch restaurant, Mackey’s
Take Out, where there were no tables, but we could sit on the porch and split
one of the huge entrees, with abundant side dishes.
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The cook at Mackey’s.
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| Mackey's Takeout |
Eventually
we found Tahiti Beach, at the far southern end of the island, past new construction
and a sign that suggested that the area was private, but it was really just a
road.
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| Tahiti Beach |
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| Tahiti Beach attracts tourists from everywhere, these people were from Italy. For (these) Italians, every coconut was a soccer ball. |
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| Tahiti Beach |
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| Tahiti Beach |
Tahiti Beach on Elbow Cay was, in the end, the most southern
spot that we reached in the Bahamas. We had hoped to go farther south, but the
weather held us back.
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| People come to Hope Town from all over. |
Sandy and Chuck on S/V Summer Wind
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Hope Town Harbor, at sunset
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Just after sunset
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