On to Hope Town

Sometimes this retirement stuff is pretty tough, but someone has to do it - poolside in Hope Town.

After Zingaro, ChrisDeke and Mskoki left, we spent the better part of a week hanging around at Fishers Bay. We moved the Stray Cat further into the anchorage so that no-one of any size could drag their anchor and hit us since they would surely go aground before they got this far.

Eventually, however, we set sail for Hope Town via Fowl Key. Fowl Key is supposed to be one of the 3 top snorkelling spots in the Sea of Abaco. Unfortunately, when some friends (who will remain unnamed in order to protect the guilty) where anchoring, they backed into the painter from their dingy. It did an instant wrap and we spent the next few hours trying in vain to un-fowl their port propeller in Fowl Cay.

Somehow, this place just seemed to be appropriately named. A couple of photos of the area are above and to the right.

Since we no longer had any appetite for snorkelling on the reef, we motored the rest of the way to Hope Town.

Hope Town itself is absolutely charming. The streets barely have room for one small car at a time. They meander with the shore line. Many of the buildings are painted in pastel colours. Its landscape is overlooked by a very famous and often painted lighthouse which still has an operational kerosene lantern. You can wander inside anytime and climb to the top. We did just that.

These photos are near the Hope Town beach. In calmer weather, it provides pretty reasonable snorkelling.

In addition, we also dove twice on one of the top 3 Sea of Abaco snorkelling spots: about 1 mile off Johnny’s Cay. Both times were spectacular although we saw many more fish the first time. The reef is not continuous. It is composed of a number of small reefs roughly forming a fuzzy line. It was a 3 mile dingy ride to get there. The second time, we took a portable GPS so that we could find our way back to exactly the same place if desired.

On our second dive, I spotted a humongous lobster. Unfortunately, I had left my spear at home. I borrowed a tool that is something like a lasso on a stick, but there must be a necessary technique of which I am completely unaware as I was totally unsuccessful at lassoing the lobster. Next time I will not leave the spear at home as I could have speared it quite easily.

By this time, we were having other troubles with cameras. Our new Olympus is supposed to also be an underwater camera for snorkelling. I tried to use it in a MEC underwater camera bag intended to allow you to snorkel with a normal camera. I could not get it to focus properly and all the pictures came out blurry. I then took it out of the bag (remember it is intended for this purpose), but it immediately leaked. As a result, we lost all sorts of Hope Town and underwater photos.

We did have an underwater camera which shoots 35mm film. When we got the film developed, however, almost all the negatives had overexposure streaks on them. I don’t know if the camera is defective, if the film was defective or if the film leaked light after the photos were shot. Anyway, these photos did not turn out.

So much for cameras. We can still shoot photos with our digital camera, but only a very small number. I bought an extended warranty, but it does not do me much good down here.

While in Hope Town we collected a few coconuts and had a coconutting party. I used a jig saw to cut up the husk making it much easier to remove. Alas, our coconuts were too old for the milk to have much flavour. The flesh was firm, however, and tasted quite good.

While there, I also resewed the genoa sail from ChrisDeke. It was interesting and even fun.

Like New Plymouth, the flora was sometimes stunning and like everywhere else down here, the sunsets were beautiful.

After about a week and in anticipation of a few fronts moving their way through, we sailed for shelter in Marsh Harbour. As the fronts passed by, we encountered gale force winds and even a waterspout. I am glad we were not on the high seas.