Hopetown, Elbow Cay, Bahamas 26 26 32.321N 076 57.564W
Wednesday March 11th, 2009 to Friday March 20th, 2009
We pulled in to the Sea Spray Marina on Elbow Cay with the top of the tide, and the dock assistant, Rodney, assigned us a slip, where we proceeded to do boat chores, including washing the decks. Charlie was chatting with the dock master, Junior, a couple of hours later, and Junior suddenly realized that the slip we were in was not going to work on the full-moon low tide, so we moved slips. We did not feel that there was much more water in the new slip, but it turned out that there was only silt underneath us, where there were rocks below on the previous slip. Besides giving Lady a good cleaning, we were also there to determine if this is the marina we will leave her at for a month while we return to Tulsa in April. No, it's not the marina. Besides the full-moon depth issue, their monthly rates increase April 1 from $400 to $2,000.
So, on Thursday we departed White Sound and an hour later we picked up a mooring in Hopetown Harbour. Parking dinghy at the Hopetown Sailing Club dock, lunch ashore was delicious, and we explored the northern part of the town.
We found the bakery, the Cholera Cemetery and a memorial to seamen 
lost on the Elbow Cay Reef.
We were amused at the house with a deer head mounted on 
the porch. Wonder where that came from?
We explored the harbor by dingy over the next few days, and made friends with people on other boats.
On Saturday we heard that Debbie and Craig on Charmed were coming our way. We knew that they had already been up to the top of the light house, so that seemed like a fun outing while we were waiting for them.
We took the hand-held VHF and were able to talk to them as they crossed the Sea of Abaco, coming in 
from Treasure Cay. We watched the dinghy races while we waited their arrival. We got a lot of great pictures of Charmed coming in to the harbor and picking up a mooring close to Lady.
We dinghied over to them and had lunch together. They had things they needed to do aboard, so we went into town, and explored the southern 
end, visiting the museum and the Hopetown Harbour Lodge that we had last visited about 25 years ago.
Dinner aboard Charmed was delicious.
The Abaco Inn had planed an art showing for Sunday, with brunch available. Craig called and arranged for transportation, and the four of us had a lovely day further down the island. Besides a delicious meal, Debbie and I were able to walk on the beach and find a few shells.
That evening, NASA launched the space shuttle Discovery, and we were able to see 
the flare passing over to the north and east. Not a very good picture, but something different to remember.
Charmed left the next morning, choosing a weather window to take them back to Florida in 36 hours. (We have since heard that they arrived in Miami safely, and that Jay See Dee is also back in Florida.)
We dropped our mooring and headed south to Little Harbor. There was quite a bit of surge in the anchorage there, so we turned around, and anchored off Lynyard Cay. A walk on the beach found a couple more lovely sea biscuits.
We knew that more weather was heading our way, so we wanted to be back in 
Hopetown that night, but we made a lunch stop off Snake Cay, and took the dinghy in to explore uninhabited shallow areas.
We saw a few rays and sea turtles, but the wind was picking up, so the water surface was disturbed. Then I saw a couple of ducks. They are not in my bird book, but they were certainly very smart-looking.
I had seen postcards of Abaco wild horses, and I got quite excited when I though I saw a pair of them walking along the beach. They looked quite small, and Charlie insisted that they were a couple of dogs. When we got close enough, we found out that we were both wrong - they were wild pigs!
Back in Hopetown now, we have recovered from St. Patrick's Day, and had a couple of rainy days. Next we are off to Man-O-War
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