Marsh Harbor, Hope Town, Little Harbor and Man O War Cay

We moved to Mangoes Marina in Marsh Harbor on Monday, March 12th.  The trip was fine with moderate wind and waves.  The harbormaster, Ray was fantastic in getting everyone secured in their slips.  The town was not at all what we were expecting.  It is good for reprovisioning but as far as we are concerned that is all.  The roads are narrow making walking very difficult and there is trash everywhere.  We were able to get a sim card so we now have a phone, though it's $.80 a minute to call the States.  We tried twice to stock up with fresh produce but both times the shelves were quite bare.  Oh well we were able to pick up a couple of items.  Thanks to   Craig and Ginny, from Brown Eyed Girl , they are members of the Royal Marsh Harbor Yacht Club and we attended their beach cook out at the Abaco Beach Resort on Tuesday.  Sid from Something Special met up with a local fisherman and got 5 lbs of lobster tails for $55.00 and we had a lobster feast aboard their boat Wednesday night.  We all brought a side dish and dinner and company was very enjoyable.

Hurricane damage

These were not our docks for the evening, thank goodness

This was our dock at Mangoes.

On Thursday we moved to Hope Town and except for quite a bit of confusion from the dock attendants at the marina the trip was short and sweet.  We are all squeezed into narrow slips which will prove to be interesting when we leave.  The marina, Hope Town Hideaways is undergoing major renovation and will be very nice once it is completed.  Right now however only certain slips have power and the place is very torn up.  The harbor basin itself is small with lots of boats moored.  Our marina is across the harbor from the town so to see or do anything you need to use your dinghy.  This town is very quaint, just what we were expecting. Pastel colored cottages, narrow winding streets, great views of the Atlantic, numerous shops and even a couple grocery stores.  

On Friday we took a ferry back to Great Guana Cay and went to the Barefoot Man concert at Nippers. We had heard about the concert when we were there, in fact one of the boats we were traveling with, Sweet Pea had decided to stay there so the could attend the concert.  The Barefoot Man is known as the "Jimmy Buffet" of the Bahamas.  It was lots of fun.  

Not sure if it really was but did not experiment

Barefoot Man and his grand daughter before the show

Barefoot Man 

She was having fun

On Saturday we went over to town, toured the local museum  and then took a shuttle to a resort about 3 miles from town, called the Abaco Inn.  They were having an Arts and Crafts show.  It was a beautiful setting and we had a great lunch overlooking the Atlantic. We also took a look at Sea Spray marina, it looks like a very quiet marina. When we got back to our marina we walked over to the lighthouse and climbed to the top, all 101 stairs.  It was built in 1864 and is still fired with kerosene and hand cranked every two hours.  It was quite impressive, both the view and the machinery.  

Overlooking the Atlantic at the Abaco Inn

Views at the base of the lighthouse

On the way to the top

Some of the machinery

The views from the top made going up the 101 steps worth it

Her palms were sweating

There were four of these used to collect rain water

Looking Down

Sunday we decided to go to church with Sid and Evelyn from Something Special.  It was a Methodist church that had two large windows on each side of the alter with fantastic views of the Atlantic Ocean.  After church we settled up our bills and left for Little Harbor which was 16 miles away.  We wanted to leave and  arrive on higher tides  which is why we left later in the day.  Some of the harbor entrances are so shallow that you have to time your passage through them at higher tides.  Something new that we have had to adjust to.  Craig and Ginny were very helpful in assisting both us and Something Special as we left our tight slips.  We have truly enjoyed our stay in Hope Town.   Craig and Ginny from Brown Eyed Girl have decided to pass on going to Little Harbor, we have enjoyed traveling with them and hope to meet up again soon.  

The Methodist Church

Little Harbor only had mooring balls and we got the last two, though we were quite close to the sailboat moored behind us.  At Little Harbor there is a restaurant called Pete’s Pub which is another one of the must see places here in the Abaco’s.  You sit on picnic tables and the bar is right on the beach.  It was an experience to order drinks and a meal while your toes were in the sand.  The dinner was very good. 

Pete’s father, Randolph Johnston,  was a college professor who wanted to get away from the rat race, live on a beach and produce art.  He built a foundry and made bronze sculptures using what is called the lost wax method.  It is quite a process first a piece is carved in wax, then it is dipped in a ceramic slurry to coat the wax. This process is repeated until they have a sturdy ceramic mold.  The mold is then put in the kiln to remove all the wax.  The mold is then fired a second time set in sand and filled with molten bronze.  Once everything has cooled the ceramic is broken away, the sculpture is cleaned and treated with chemicals to give it the desired patina.  Can you tell John and Sid had a brief tour of the foundry.  Pete is an artist himself and continues to produce sculptures.  There was a gallery at the complex that some of both his and his father’s art.  It was all very impressive as well as expensive.

Pete's Pub

One of Randolph Johnston's sculptures

Monday morning three sailboats left first thing at high tide and we moved to another mooring, we didn’t have a problem overnight but just wanted a bit more room between boats.  We took our dinghy’s and explored two caves that is suppose to be where Pete’s family stayed in when they first settled here in the early 50’s.  after the caves we went around the point to explore a beach we had seen on the charts.  We had lot’s of fun beach combing.  The only problem was that there was a falling tide and we had to pull the dinghy’s out into deeper water.   The ride back was a bit rough and we took a bit of salt spray.  Once we all got cleaned up we went back to Pete’s for lunch.  After lunch we walked out to the lighthouse ruins, visited the gallery and John & Sid toured the foundry.  After a very nice morning and afternoon it was back to the boat, get the dinghy secured and dinner aboard.

Sign says it al

Light house ruins

Read the sign

Now how did it know where to cross??

Tuesday morning we left at 7:30 in order to arrive at Man O War Cay before the tide got too low.  The ride was not as bouncy as the one to Little Harbor but were still covered with salt when we arrived. 

Craig from Brown Eyed Girl was there to offer assistance in docking.  It's nice having your own personal dockhand who helps you out of your last slip and then is there to help you into your next one, thanks Craig.   We gave the boat a thorough washing to the tune of 130 gallons.  Here in the Bahamas water is scarce so in addition to paying for your dockage you have to pay separately for both water and electric.  No sooner than we had the boat all dried off it started to rain and continued on and off for the rest of the day.  This island is famous for it’s boat building, other than that there is not much here.  It is still quaint with the pastel colored homes and narrow streets.  We had a walking  tour between rain drops. 

Wednesday we took a dinghy tour of the island and harbor. After that we walked up to the grocery store and Lola's bakery.  The bakery is in Lola's house, she and her husband bake bread and goodies every day and sell them at their house or from their golf cart as they make their rounds around the town.  Lola is 78 years young and going strong.  After touring the town in the sunshine and stopping a the shops we had a nice dip in the pool to cool off.  We asked Sid and Evelyn over for happy hour as well as another couple Bob and Cathie we had met the night before.  Bob and Cathie are an interesting couple.  They have been married 53 years and he is a retired orthopedic surgeon and Cathie is, well, in the Guinness Book of Records.   She has the smallest waist of any living person at 15".  Sid was the Oprah of Man O War in questioning her about it all.  You can see more at her web site www.cathiejung.com. 

Mary's maiden name was Potter

Some of the wooden boats built in the town

Our first cabin cruiser was "Last Toy?" so we had to take a picture

The New Cementary, the old one was damaged by a hurricane and all the graves had to be moved away from the ocean and are now in cement vaults. 

Hope all is well with your early summer.  We will try and blog asap.  We miss you all.

Hugs and Kisses,

Mary and John