When the wind allowed, we headed south from Man-O-War Cay to Elbow Cay. We’ve been there several times before with guests, since it offers a good variety of activities. For the first time, we found an available mooring ball inside the Hope Town Harbor, which made for a very comfortable three night stay with easy dinghy rides or paddle board trips to the public dinghy docks.
While in Hope Town, we explored the island by rental golf cart, enjoyed beach walks, swam in both the Atlantic (Rose) and Sea of Abaco sides of the cay (all of us!), had happy hour overlooking the ocean, and even a yoga session at the local resort (Anne). There is a cruiser community in the area, and we met a lot of people who spend the whole season there.
As on previous trips, we saw marine life both in the harbor and on the Atlantic side, including sharks, rays and sea turtles. We even got treated to the sight of a shark chasing a ray right off Tilia’s stern — the ray leapt right out of the water to escape the shark!
Brian headed back to the States from Hope Town, taking an easy ferry trip across the Sea of Abaco to Marsh Harbour, and then a short cab ride to the international airport there. He did have to make the trip in a torrential downpour… as before, he was a great crew member and companion during his two week stay.
After leaving Hope Town, we headed out to anchor one night just south of Elbow Cay. It was nice to have a quiet night at anchor, and to give Anne and Rose a chance to swim off the back of the boat. It’s not advisable to swim in a harbor with little water exchange and lots of boats (and sharks!) moving around.
After a night on anchor, Anne and Rose had a chance to snorkel on a well known reef just outside Marsh Harbor and saw many schools of beautiful tropical fish. No rays this time, and thankfully, no sharks!
We spent a night in the Conch Inn and Marina in Marsh Harbor. It’s a nice chance to do laundry (linens are just too much for our little machine in the boat), provision at the big grocery store in town (they had broccolini and fresh fennel, what a treat!), and take “Hollywood” showers at the marina.
After our one night at the marina, we saw Rose off to the airport. We had such a great time with her! We found lots of time to relax, read, learn to knit (Rose), and play lots of cards, in addition to the water and land activities. Once she was on her way, we cast off and headed to the southern end of the Sea of Abaco to get setup for a jump to Eleuthera.