There’s a term given to a few harbours in the Bahamas that you just never want to leave – Velcro harbour! Well Hope Town harbour is one of those places!! We decided to extend our stay here because there’s so much to see and it’s such a lovely spot!! We’re also enjoying our visit with Julia and Brad.
A few days ago we had the opportunity to explore an area south of us called Snake Cay. Crimson Kathryn and Alizarin (Julia and Brad’s boat) sailed down to this cay to explore the mangroves. Sea turtles, sharks and rays have all been known to gather in the mangroves so we were excited to see some of this marine life. It took a little over an hour to get to the island and anchor. Aboard our dinghy, we entered the once lush mangroves to find a significantly depleted area. Hurricane Dorian’s impact is everywhere!! Although the mangrove had a long way to go to return to its former glory, you could tell it was recovering. We saw lots of turtles and a few rays zooming along. The seas turtles are mostly green turtles and these guys can move!! It’s hard to get close to them. We enjoyed our visit to this area and headed back mid-afternoon to avoid low tide.
Yesterday (Jan 27) Mark and I walked to the north end of Elbow Cay. There was a lot of cottages in this area and some pretty spectacular homes (mostly on the ocean side). The majority of these places have been rebuilt since Dorian and some have added substantial concrete walks to help with the erosion of the sand. It’s hard to believe people would rebuild in the same spot after a major hurricane but they certainly have and there’s still more houses being built! Our path back to town was along the ocean beach. We were the only ones walking the beach (it’s was a cool, blustery day) and it was very relaxing!
This morning (Saturday) we headed to town for a farmers market. Unfortunately the market didn’t happen so instead we went to the Elbow Reef Lighthouse. The lighthouse was built in 1864 and is one of only a few operational kerosene lighthouses remaining in the world. You can climb the 101 steps of the spiral staircase to the lantern area and from there you have an awesome view of the harbour and island. The lighthouse has just recently been repainted and it is the pride and joy of the Hope Town community.
So we’re here for a few more days. We’ll explore more of the area and wait for another weather window to head south.
Crimson Kathryn and her crew 