Great Loop & Cruising Adventure Blog

Hope Town, the city hub on Elbow Cay, is a very picturesque, small, harbor town, the only way in or out of this island is by boat. The streets are narrow, not much larger than a sidewalk, the houses a very colorful with pastels and bright summer colors.

The  focal point of Hope Town’s harbor is the red and white striped Elbow Reef Lighthouse. England decided in 1863 to build a lighthouse at Hope Town to warn ships away from the extensive Elbow Reef. It was built to send sailors away from Hope Town, not to guide them in. 

More on Bahamian lighthouses - Click Here

The main source of transportation is bike or electric/gas gulf carts and the bank is only open from 10-2 on Tuesdays, even less day open than on Green Turtle Cay.

It’s an extremely laid-back lifestyle here in the Abaco Islands, one we enjoy immensely. Cell phones don’t work here and internet is a little sketchy. If you want to call the states you need to buy a local phone card and use a pay phone….when was the last time you did that? Another thing we like about the Abacos is that places are closed on Sundays, making for more family time.

Below is a photo of the local clinic. We have never seen it open. It is located right in the center of town next to the Post Office and the Police Station.

If you look closely you can see the lizard, Mr Curly Tail, (up on the roof) who lives in this cute little lizard house.

We are looking forward to catching some fresh fish with all the gear we recently invested in. Lisa’s hoping I’ll be successful on my first fishing adventure. Stay tuned for more on Jim’s fishing adventures.

Elbow Cay is our home in the Abacos for the next thirty days. We were greeted by Junior and Rodney as we pulled into Sea Spray Marina, along with our friends on Charlie and Linda on Freedom’s Turn. Sea Spray is located in a small bay with the Atlantic Ocean no more than 200 feet up and over a hill from the bow of our boat.

We wake up and go to sleep each day to the crashing sound of the ocean waves, I guess that’s why the place is called Sea Spray. The marina offers transportation into Hope Town, only a 3-mile ride, so this makes it convenient to get into town when the waters are too rough to dinghy in. Interesting enough, if Lisa and I venture off to walk into or back from town invariably we get offered a ride. We’re thoroughly enjoying our island lifestyle.

The day we arrived at Sea Spray there was a surfing tournament just across the street and over the bluff. They had good sized waves to compete in.

As a boater, when you read or hear the words “DANGER,” you’d better pay attention.

Whale Cay Passage, just south of Green Turtle Cay in the Abacos, is one such place. In order to get to destinations further south in the Abacos all boaters have to travel through the Whale Cay Passage. The reason this can be so treacherous is that you have to leave the relative safety of the Sea of Abaco and the lee of the Cays out into the unprotected ocean waters.

As we sit in Green Turtle Cay Club Marina we anxiously watch the weather and saw an opening for Sunday when the winds were forecasted to be 10 to 15 knots. The waves seemed manageable as we entered the Whale Cay passage, maybe 2 to 3 footers that we were going straight into. As we made a gentle turn to starboard to head south into the unprotected waters we found the waves to be 3 to 4 footers coming onto our port side. The good news is that the waves were gentle rollers, far apart and they were not breaking. The entire Whale Passage exposure is less then 4 miles, but it feels good to have it behind us. We lead a group of four boats, including a 44-foot Cheribini and a 55-foot Marlow, neither, it seemed, wanted to take the reins.

Look closely at the bank hours (below-top/left). It seems they have to come from another island to open up this office only half days, two days a week. This was an interesting bottle of rum that we had never seen before. (below-top/middle) We found out that the burial society meets regularily on mondays at the coffee shop. (below-top/right)

We heard that there was a fundraiser in the little town of New Plymouth today so we headed over in the dinghy. They really know how to feed people here. A Cheeseburger, fries and a rum drink all for $2.00 and for a good cause, the island’s fire department. We met some people from Grand Rapids, Michigan, they are in the Bahamas on their sailboat,Vince and Maria, Amante.

“Bobb” Henderson on the houseboat Stranded Naked hosted this fundraiser at the town park on Green Turtle Cay. The party is being held to celebrate Stranded Naked’s slow arrival into Green Turtle Cay over 20 years ago from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They departed Fort Lauderdale on October 21, 1988 and arrived in Green Turtle Cay one week later on October 28, 1988.

This is the Stranded Naked houseboat (below-left), docked at the Other Shore Club in Black Sound on Green Turtle Cay. .

One of great things about the Bahamas are the friendly people. Lisa and I decided to walk the 3.5 miles into town because the waters were too rough to use the dinghy for transportation. We had not even walked a third of the way when we were offered a ride for part of the distance. As it turned out we walked about a third of the way there and received two rides, going back we again walked about a third of the way and was picked up by Ken who was driving his truck to get gas at the marina. We met some friendly people and were even invited to visit the home of one.

We had a great time walking around the little town. The homes and businesses are all painted in bright pastel colors, some are more than 100 years old, and everything is neat and tidy. We visited the B & M Seafood store and met Bodie who sold us a bag of lobsters and educated us on some local information. We had found Bodie three years ago when we visited here and were happy to see he was still here with plenty of lobsters in his freezer for us to buy.

We visited all the grocery stores, there are at least three or four just downtown. Jim bought some rum at the liquor store, we also toured the sculpture garden.

We had a “Goombay Smash” an original rum drink at Miss Emily’s Blue Bee Bar. Originally  made famous by the legendary Miss Emily, this potent and fruity drink is served throughout The Bahamas and in specialty restaurants through the world. True to her Christian principles, Miss Emily never tasted her Goombay Smash - or any other form of alcoholic beverage. Nor did she ever reveal the secrets of her “patented” anesthetic to anyone outside her immediate family. This establishment is now run by Miss Emily’s daughter.

 The walls and ceiling of this bar is covered with business cards and T-shirts mostly. You can see on the walls the water line for the past couple of major hurricanes that went through. Jim glued our boat card to the wall high enough that the next hurricane will not destroy it.

We came across this tree that looked like it was decorated for someone who had been sick. Each ornament had an expression of good thoughts for that someone.

On our walk back from town we stopped to see the ocean side of the island. We have had strong gale winds all day today and it was raging on this side of the island. We have been waiting for a calm day to cross Whale Pass to get to Elbow Cay. The winds have been strong and as you can see from the waves in these photos not the conditions anyone would want to go out in. So we are still waiting.

We ended the day with an elegant dinner at the Green Turtle Club restaurant. As we said before you can use your dockage fee toward drinks and food at the restaurant at this marina. One heck of a deal. Charlie and Linda joined us and we all ordered lobster.

Off early this morning to make our way south into the Sea of Abaco and Green Turtle Cay. The winds are 15 to 20 knots again, making the ride a little lumpy, but manageable. We arrived early enough to secure a mooring ball in Black Sound for the night. When we entered the harbor we were searching for an empty mooring ball to tie up to and were having a hard time since the harbor was quite full. After a few minutes a gentleman, Arnold, on a sailboat waved us over and told us we could use his private ball for the night for a minimal fee that he would donate the the town’s Sculpture Garden. This was a very kind offer, we accepted and had a peaceful night in Black Sound.

We arrived early enough today to take the dinghy down and make our way to Pineapples for happy hour. Pineapples Bar, a must stop when at Green Turtle, sits on a bluff overlooking Settlement Creek and the town of New Plymouth.

The next morning, knowing that gail force winds are expected for the next few days we left Black Sound early and worked our way to White Sound and the Green Turtle Club Marina and Resort. They have a great off-season deal here where you’re able to eat at their restaurants for free, up to the price you pay for you slip on a daily basis.

Green Turtle Cay once was a breeding ground for hundreds of green turtles, now they are scarce and on the protected species list. This was also once a haven for pirates. Many of the people living in New Plymouth can trace their ancestral roots to the Revolutionary War Loyalists who first settled the island.

We left on Tuesday morning with our friends from Freedom’s Turn to make our way to an anchorage in Great Sale Cay, an island in the middle of the Little Bahama Bank, 50 miles away from the West End.

One enters the Bank from the Ocean through a break in the coral reef about a mile north of West End. The channel is narrow and the water is shallow so it’s important to take your time when navigating up onto the bank. The depth ranges from 5 and 6 feet to 12 feet for as far as the eye can see.

Once settled into our anchorage we prepare ourselves for two very special treats. Watching the sunset descend into an unincumbered horizon… no houses, no artificial lights, no one else here but us and the five boats at anchor here in this little piece of paradise, its worth every minute of the effort to get here. Our next visual treat happens just before bedtime when it’s the darkest out. We step out onto our cockpit to gaize into the night sky to witness mother nature’s brilliant light show of stars, again enhanced by the remoteness of our anchorage.

After a nice calm crossing it’s  nice to sit  for a few days at Old Bahama Bay Marina, a first class marina resort complete with restaurant, pool, beach-side bar and entertainment.

A dip in the pool, a walk on the beach, a cold rum drink and watching the sunset over the Atlantic were our first order of pleasure.

The winds kicked up the day after our arrival preventing us of leaving so we ended staying three days… darn good I say cause Lisa really likes this place. We had to spend more time at the pool, taking long walks, watching the waves crash on shore and listening to the wind howl through the marina and checking the weather to find out when it would be comfortable and safe to leave.