Leaving Eleuthera, we headed to the Abaco Islands. Still recovering from the Lobsta’ Incident, Tracy laid around most of this rolly, bumpy 51 Nautical Mile ride.
We anchored in Tom Collins Point and our buddy boats had plans to dingy into Pete’s. We visited last year, and Tracy had no intention of eating or leaving the boat, so popcorn for Bob was on the menu. It ended up Pete’s was closed so everyone just ate onboard.
The next morning, we headed to Hope Town, a small village on Elbow Cay, our first stop in the Abacos. The area had a population of about 450 and golf carts are the district’s main mode of transportation, while most of the supplies for the area are brought in by barge each week.
We weighed anchor before everyone else because our intention was to grab a mooring ball in Hope Town Harbor, while everyone else was heading to a marina. It was wishful thinking because, no balls were available. We had a reservation at Hope Town Inn and Resort starting in two days and at that point we did not feel life back tracking out of the harbor to the anchorage, so we dinghied to the resort and they found us a spot earlier than our reservation. It is a gorgeous marina with a pretty good price tag to go with it. We decided to enjoy the amentites so, we headed over to the pool to chill with drinks and apps.
Light dinner and games on board to end the day and FINALLY, Tracy won one!
We went on a dingy ride the next day and visited Tahiti Beach which was beyond beautiful. Drone flying, Bocce, chatting and sharing lunch with buddy boaters were on the agenda. After leaving the beach we stopped at Firefly for Linner. The squeezed us int and we scored a beautiful table on the deck, delicious food the most expensive mud slides, ever and a fabulous view.
We are in the center of this drone shot in a circle with a blue umbrella.
The next day, we rented a golf cart to explore the island. It was an interesting adventure to secure a cart due to a wedding being in town. We thought we were lucky when we found one, but the woman did not show up! After a few more phone calls, other company delivered a cart within 20 minutes.
Our travels brought us down dirt roads, close to fences, trimming a few trees, Sea Spray Resort, Tahiti Beach, Abaco Beach Resort for lunch, Da Beach Bar for cocktails and Captain Jacks for dinner. It was quite a full day! It was amazing to see the waves crash in the Atlantic Ocean and just on the other side the calm seas in Abaco Sea.
Last year, we were with Who Dat when they placed their sticker on this random electrical box. This year, we added ours!
HA! Funny running into friends in the liquor store! Happy they joined us for a drink.
The next day, we headed over to the other pool at our marina. It was nice so relaxing with nobody at this pool but the 8 of us. Thanks to Andy, we meet Jeffery, the Elbow Reef Lighthouse Keeper at 7PM to watch and help him with the lighting. The Elbow Reef Lighthouse in Hope Town is one of the last manned lighthouses which is still hand-wound and fueled by kerosene. It is painted like a candy cane and 101 windy steps later we were at the top! Interestingly, the lighthouse windows are covered during the day to prevent a fire from the sun rays reflecting on the lens. After we all watched Jeffery pour the kerosene and light the wick, we all helped him crank the of the weight mechanism that keeps the lens turning. We all squeezed through the tiny porthole door to the observation deck to enjoy the sunset views of the harbor. Then we said thanks and goodbye to Jeffery, leaving him to climb the steps every two hours until sun up to keep the lighthouse lit. We ended the night on Ship Faced with a game of Farkle. The best quote of the evening was “This game needs Whiskey!” It was so much fun, and Bob was the winner – using an Andy rule??
Theresa had to sit this one out due to a bad knee, but I snapped some photos of her snapping some of us!
Our fourth day was a mixture of pool, walking around Hope Town and some chores. The day ended with a celebration of our last night together as a group of 4 buddy boats. We started the evening with apps and drinks aboard Ship Faced. Kim brought over some moonshine she acquired at Pattie’s in Green Turtle Bay in Kentucky. It was symbolic since it was an establishment we all had visited on our Loop. Dinner was awesome with live music in the background. Sad, but wonderful last night together.
The next morning was bittersweet, we were separating from our buddy boats. After meeting back up in January in Florida, we have traveled the last 8 weeks throughout the Bahamas together. We headed to Marsh Harbour to meet Zach, while Into The Mystic was holding back to meet family and Sweet Equity and Ship Faced were taking advantage of a weather window to get back to the USA. We stole a few more hours with Bailey while Sweet Equity rode with us over to Marsh to provision and took the ferry back.
Once in Marsh Harbor and tucked in to the Conch Marina, we walked to the market and enjoyed some pool and hot tub time while we waited for Zach’s plane to land!
