Our cruising guide describes the Marsh Harbour Triangle as having it's apexes at Man-O-War Cay, Marsh Harbour and White Sound on Elbow Cay south of Hope Town. We have now visited two apexes, Marsh Harbour and Hope Town, but have not made it to Man-O-War yet.
When Karen last posted we were planning on taking the ferry to Man-O-War primarily because I had fond memories of visiting it with my parents and brother Adrian and his wife many years ago during a bare boat charter. Man-O-War is known for its boat building and sailmaking heritage. In particular we wanted to visit the Man-O-War heritage museum so I phoned them to check on when they are open and the cost of admission and learned that they are moving and won't open until the end of February! I was pretty disappointed, but we thought we might try and stop in towards the end of the cruise on the way back to Florida. Thursday and Friday turned out to be rainy days anyway, so it probably would not have been much fun walking around town in the rain.
Thursday Sheila organized a Happy Hour among those docked at Mango's Marina. Everyone brought an appetizer to share. We enjoyed meeting some some more cruisers. Of course after chowing down at Happy Hour we didn't feel like a full dinner. Karen and I went across the street to Wally's, a restaurant that a fellow cruiser had recommended. We shared some delicious fish cakes, served with salad and truffle frites with a glass of white wine. Yum!
Friday actually dawned sunny and by midday we were complaining about the humidity (so Canadian). We did some more shopping, using our new wagon to bring our groceries back from Maxwells, and to stock up on some more beer and wine from Jimmy's across from the marina. We were very surprised to find some nice Chilean wine on sale for $6.50 a bottle! I went to the hardware and bought some supplies to make our dinghy boarding ladder. "Brown Tip" the diver checked our zincs (all good) and encouraged us to drop by the Abaco Beach Resort in the evening for a Rake and Scrape. Instruments included maracas, what looked like a cheese grater and a hand saw! It was really entertaining, especially watching Sheila dance and play the saw with one of the band members!
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| Rake & Scrape with Brown Tip |
Saturday we finally bid Mango's and dockmaster Rey a fond farewell and motorsailed over to Hope Town. Her Diamond and Aquila had preceded us, because we had to wait for mid tide to get in to the shallow entrance , and kindly reserved a mooring ball for us.
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| Elbow Reef Lighthouse |
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| Back range marker |
Once moored, Bob and Sheila picked us all up in their dinghy and we putted into the Hope Town Sailing Club dinghy dock, explored some of the town and had apps and a beer at Harbour Edge Restaurant. I poked my nose into the Hope Town Sailing Club "stand up" social to inquire about the Sunfish races I had heard about on the cruisers net, and was invited to join them! Unfortunately (or not I guess), they don't sail if it is blowing over 20 knots, which was the forecast for Sunday, so it was doubtful they would sail.
Sunday, most of the town was closed and it was blowing over 20 knots so the Sunfish races were postponed. We went for a walk on the beach and saw a Westsail 32 recently lost in the storm we weathered in Green Turtle Cay. Very sobering.
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| Westsail 32 |
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| Hope Town houses |
Weather doesn't look great this week for our crossing to Eleuthera, so we will likely enjoy Hope Town. It seems like a very active community, and is one of the prettiest towns we have been to.
We didn't envision spending this much time in the Abacos, but I guess that's the advantage of not having firm plans ... we make them up... one day at a time!
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