THE MARCH NORTH CONTINUES!

We bid a mostly fond farewell to Spanish Wells after 11 days on “the island time forgot.” While I highly recommend a visit to the place, not sure you need to spend that long, but weather has ruled our lives since leaving home in early November and it hasn’t changed! After one last beach walk by Fleet Admiral’s Diane and Patty, we dropped our secure moorings in the harbor and motored to Royal Island, only 6 miles away but a great jumping off point for our separate trips toward Miami (Veritas) and north to the Abacos (Magic).  

Think this was the cook-house at
the Royal Island mansion

Huge living room and fireplace.
Beautiful, but sad

Believe it or not, there is a
building under there!

Although we were only there for an afternoon and evening, there was exploring to be done! The four of us jumped into our dingy and explored both this very protected anchorage by water and then went ashore to walk around this interesting place. Once on land we discovered the ruins of a huge, abandoned estate with crumbling concrete piers, buildings with ornate tile-work still intact, and old paved paths which led all over the island. The guidebooks say that the place was built, 30 bricks at a time (that was all which could be brought on small boats from Nassau) by a very wealthy man (duh!) from England in the 1930’s. Abandoned in the aftermath of World War II, it has sat, slowing being reclaimed by island growth, ever since. I could definitely see a Steven King novel/movie set in this place! Beautiful, but spooky at the same time.

            There are signs of life on the island however. A developer has fairly big plans to build a resort here, complete with a golf course, marina, restaurant and both time-share and rental villas. While I doubt it will ever compete with Harbor Island to the east, Royal has potential and hopefully will be able to succeed where many others in the area have failed.  

            Jennings on Veritas is a well-known night owl and it takes a minor emergency to get him out of a snug bed before 7 or 8 every morning. Well, their departure at 0400 (!!!) was an emergency of sorts…they were running out of Sierra Nevada beer and the closest dealer was in Miami! I happened to get up (yea, had to p--!) about that same time and watched our buddy boat crank his anchor up and motor out of this very snug but comfortable harbor. We heard from them a couple days later that they got to Miami, safe and sound but only after Jennings drank his last Sierra Nevada as they entered the harbor! Whew!! Our plans had been to remain at Royal Island for an extra day to wait for slightly calmer seas, but around 7 am when we saw the anchorage literally empty with a parade of boats all headed to the Abacos, we decided to join this flotilla, thinking that many boats can’t all be wrong! It was a hurried departure for us, but we quickly joined this group of almost 30 (!) sailboats as we all sailed (well, mostly motored) the 50 miles north to the Abaco Island group.

Pete's Pub in Little Harbor,
Abacos. Next door is
Johnson'sStudios, famous
for their sea life
bronze sculptures. 

The Abacos is a large group of islands east and north of Grand Bahama with literally hundreds of cays, many with beautiful anchorages. You could easily spend years here and not see all this area has to offer. Unfortunately, many of the most popular attractions have pretty “skinny” water and boats such as ours with over 5’ draft are restricted to close to high tide entry and exit. On the good side, the Sea of Abaco, where many of t
he best destinations are located is fairly small and if you time it right you can leave one harbor and make it to the next during the same high tide cycle. Still, most cruisers tell us that if you are going to hit bottom during your cruise to the Bahamas, it will be here in the Sea of Abaco! I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

Our first landfall here was atJ the southern end of the Sea of Abaco, Little Harbor. Aptly named, this tiny anchorage gave us our first taste navigating through a really “skinny” channel where even at high tide we saw only a couple inches below our keel as we s  l  o  w  l  y worked our way in. We stayed here for 2 nights, enjoying lunch at Pete’s Pub and long walks along the back roads and beaches where Diane continued her never-ending search for the perfect sea bean.

This is a Bahamian "A" Class racing sloop called "The Rage"
based in Hope Town. That's human ballast onboard...
28 people this day for a local race! NO LIFEJACKETS!!

Moving north along the Sea of Abaco we stopped for a couple hours at one of the best snorkeling spots in the area where we swam among some beautiful coral formations and, as we were about to complete our dive, saw a formation of 7 spotted eagle rays glide below us. Absolutely breathtaking sight! Once again, wished I’d had an underwater camera even though I know no photo would have done it justice.

The next stop on our slow journey through the Abacos was Hopetown harbor on Elbow Cay. Yet another skinny channel greeted us into the harbor where we were incredibly lucky (luck seems to be a theme for us this cruise!) to snag the very last mooring in this picturesque harbor, and then only because its’ owner shooed several boats off to hold it for us! We were incredibly lucky this time since that night we saw the worst thunderstorm we’ve seen in several years…an almost unheard of event in this tropical environment. Even the locals were amazed at the amount of rain, wind and violence of the lightning.

This is  "Queens Road" in Hope Town, the main
street through the settlement and one of the
widest! Unlike (unfortunately) much of the
Bahamas, the houses were all pretty
and well maintained.

Hopetown was easily the prettiest, most quaint settlement we have been to this trip. It reminded me of a small coastal town in New England, just with a Caribbean flavor. Guarded at the entrance by the only oil-lit, manually operated lighthouse remaining in the Western Hemisphere, this place is a magnet to people from the mainland (US, Canada, England, etc.) who want to escape the cold, get away from it all, but still want to be close to shops, restaurants, grocery stores, churches, etc. The small harbor has about 30+ moorings and a couple marinas, all of which were absolutely full the entire 7 days we were here. This is a very popular place but still retains that small town closeness I’ve always loved. We met any number of “ex-pat” Americans who have either moved here permanently or keep a house/boat here 5-6 months a year and wouldn’t have it any other way.

Capn Jack's. Our home away from
home in Hope Town 30 seconds
from Magic's mooring!

We spent hours exploring the island, checking the beaches for sea beans, walking the narrow streets of Hopetown and eating WAAY too much fried food at Capn Jack’s bar right in front Magic’s mooring.
    One of the highlights for me was exploring the lighthouse where we could see where the volunteer keepers light the “wick” every evening and then hoist the counterweights (a lot like a grandfather’s clock) that rotate the Fresnel Lenses…a task that must be repeated every 2 hours all night long!

View of the Hope Town lighthouse
with Magic at left.

Harbor view from lighthouse

     I can understand why this is the last one like this but thankful the Bahamian government and local citizens banded together to ensure this slice of maritime history remains intact.

100 stairs to the top. 

WELL WORTH THE EFFORT!

"Grandfather clock" machinery

in lighthouse. Must be wound by

hand every 2 hours at night!

This is the "doorknob" leading to 

viewing platform. Symbolizes

the keeper pulling a cable to 

keep the lens rotating. Cool!

Before I end this particular blog I have to say something…about Bareboat Charterers. When Diane and I chartered boats in the past, I always wondered why long-term cruisers in anchorages where we dropped the hook always stayed pretty far from us. Well, now I know why! There is an old saying that you should never, EVER buy a rental car. The same is true for charter boats. During our time in the Exumas, nary a charter was to be seen. Here in the Abacos, it seems like every other boat has “Moorings,” or “Sunsail” on the hull and the anchoring techniques we’ve seen are nothing short of amazing. I have a feeling that these companies use a credit card as proof of boat handling expertise! In Hopetown we saw a young couple pick up a mooring next to us. At one point they decided to adjust their lines and in so doing, allowed the boat to drift free of the mooring. With the engine shutdown and no one at the helm this large catamaran spun around and literally speared a cat on the other side, hitting that boat (not a charter) with a huge crunch of cracked fiberglass and gelcoat. OUCH. Later after they finally got back on their mooring I was below when Diane loudly called me to the cockpit. When I got there I could see that this charter cat had decided to run their engine on the mooring but forgot to take it out of gear and was about to ram Magic! We were charging our batteries with the engine so I quickly put the engine in gear and narrowly avoided yet another collision. Clueless. My advice here….STAY WELL AWAY FROM CHARTER BOATS!! Nuff said!

What a beautiful sight of the Hope Town Harbor from the lighthouse.
Magic is to the left near shore.

     Our next stop is Marsh Harbor, biggest town in the Abacos, a whopping 7 miles across the Sea of Abaco from Hopetown and I’ll write more about our time there soon. The adventure continues!!!!

    Smooth Sailing!