Hope Town

As I mentioned in the previous posting, Brock and Brianna went to Treasure Cay for a few days before Patrick and Jessica arrived. Treasure Cay is about 20 miles from Marsh Harbor by road and about 15 miles by boat. It is a resort with a class A harbor (class A means that it is protected from wind in all directions) and has a beach that is one of the 10 most beautiful in the world. They came back to Marsh Harbor on Dec 26th and immediately took the ferry to Hope Town on Elbow Cay where we had rented a house. All the homes in and around Hope Town have names and ours was Coconut Cottage. The cottage was very nice with full kitchen, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, living room, and was close to Hope Town for the morning coffee run. Hope Town is a small “settlement” with just a few hundred residents but we have found it to be “where it’s at” for the sailing community. They have many anchor buoys to hook your boat to and lots of bars, restaurants, shops, and a great coffee house. It is also a class A harbor with the most photographed lighthouse in the Bahamas which, by the way, still works with its 1860’s light.

We also rented a golf cart for getting around on the island. The Bahamas was settled by loyalists who fled the colonies when it became obvious that the USA may succeed in their little revolution of 1776. Therefore the Bahamas is a very comfortable country to visit with everyone speaking English and with the Bahaman dollar tied to the US dollar so they are equal value and are interchangeable. The only problem I had was learning to drive on the left. I played “chicken” a few times with oncoming traffic and lost after succumbing to the screams of my passengers.

The locals said that the cool windy days that we experienced the first few days was “very unusual” but it got steadily warmer as we approached the New Year. The younger group went snorkeling right off the beach at Hope Town and Brock and Brianna went scuba diving. The cool air limited our snorkeling and ocean swimming but we found lots of other activities on the island. Today it is very nice and warm with just a light breeze so maybe they weren’t ”pulling my leg”.