Man O War Cay to Hope Town
We departed
Man O’ War Cay on the ebb tide. We
entered Hope Town Harbour about 90 minutes later. The approach is well-marked and we had no
difficulty getting into the harbor. The
challenge was trying to find a vacant mooring.
We meandered our way through the very tight mooring field several times
without success. Claus on Silver Girl saw us and said we could
have his mooring as he was soon leaving.
We rafted along-side and moments later Truman, who manages the mooring
field arrived to tell us we couldn’t raft.
He also advised us the mooring was already assigned to a boat coming later
in the day and the captain had already paid for a month on the mooring. We then cast off and took a place at anchor
outside the harbor with about a dozen other boats. Hakuna
Matata headed over to Marsh Harbor to get a slip as all the slips were full
at Hope Town. Like Marathon in the
Florida Keys, people come here and stay for months at a time thus keeping the
marinas and moorings full..
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| Hope Town Harbour |
There was
plenty of room to anchor a short distance from the harbor entrance. We dropped the hook in about 7 feet of water
with a sand bottom. The anchor grabbed
right away and dug in deep. We laid out
a hundred feet of chain and decided to take a nap before heading in to Hope
Town. We got up early and lost an hour
of sleep due to the change to Daylight Savings Time.
Hope Town is
very picturesque settlement. The houses
are small and well-kept. The streets are
narrow – about a single car lane wide.
The local government has passed ordinances which prohibit buildings
being more than two stories high and the architecture must emulate that of the
surrounding structures many of which are a hundred years old or older. A large number of these cottage homes are
rented to vacationers. Tourism is the
major economic driver. The light house
dates back to 1864 and is still a manned facility burning kerosene to create
the warning glow which can be seen for about 17 miles at night. The town also has a small museum of local
history. The beaches and reefs on the
Atlantic side are beautiful and easily accessible.
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| Hope Town Light - Still Illuminated With Kerosene |
We spent the afternoon at the Hope Town Harbour Lodge where we had lunch and sat in the shade under the pergola surrounding the swimming pool and with a view of the ocean. We called friends and family to bring them up to date and learn about what was happening back home. We wandered about the streets for an hour before heading back to the boat for the evening. We spent a very peaceful night at anchor.
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| Hope Town Harbour Lodge Beach |
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