Up close and personal with a lighthouse

Hopetown has one of the 3 remaining manned lighthouses in the world.   It is open for self guided tours during the day and if you show up at dusk, the keeper will let you go up to watch him light the torch.   The mechanism that rotates the light has to be wound every 90 minutes so two men share the care for the lighthouse and split each nightly shift.   The live in small octagonal shaped homes at the base of the light.  To get to the top you climb 101 steps so they definitely earn their keep (OK, no more puns but I couldn't resist that one).   The keeper we met, Sam, said both his father and grandfather had the job before him.   The first thing he does every night is to take down the curtains that surround the light during the day. The curtains are there so that the sunlight refracted through the lens won't start a fire. He tell us this as we are climbing the last ladder and the sun is still visible in the sky. Yikes!  Sam is about 6'6'' and probably tips the scales near 280 lbs.   To start the light, he actually walks around a tiny walkway that surrounds the lens and then he climbs through a small opening inside the Fresnel lens, no small feat for a big guy.   The lens is about 8 feet tall but only 5 feet in diameter and the torch takes up a fair amount of room in the middle.   The mantels are supplied by Coleman free of charge.   Sam also has to keep the lens clean which he said is his least favorite aspect of the job (imagine keeping something like venetian blinds made out of glass dust free).   Sam let us climb that skinny ladder and sit on the tiny walkway while he lights the torch.   The mantel needs to heat up for about 10-15 minutes because if it isn't the perfect temperature, it spits kerosene, burning him and making his lens cleaning job even worse.  OSHA has definitely never taken this tour.   Once the mantel was good and hot, Sam lit the torch and we watched as he cranked the turning mechanism for another 10 minutes.   His arms definitely get a good workout rewinding this every 90 minutes (think of the grinders on America's cup yachts).   The views from the lighthouse are spectacular day or night and we had a magical experience watching the light come to life.  

Hopetown Lighthouse view from across the harbor

Up close and personal

Window to Hopetown

Joe blowing the conch horn at sunset

We were so close, I couldn't get the whole lens!

Sam sitting inside the lens watching the mantel warm up

Descending after the lighting

On the move again

Since we last updated the blog, we’ve moved approximately 200 miles north which puts us back in the Abaco Islands (northern Bahamas).   The weather at Emerald Bay kept us in the marina for 8 days (ka-ching!) and was predicted to continue to be squally for the next 5-8 days.   The marina did it’s best to keep the stranded boaters happy by setting up two happy hours in the clubhouse.   The marina is owned by Sandals so they stocked the bar, sent bar tenders over from the resort and you could either buy sandwiches or bring your own food.   It really a great place to be stranded.   However, eight days is a really long time to sit in one place so when  the wind dropped down to 18 knots on March 10 (and the waves were NOT breaking in the channel) we cast off the lines and bogeyed about 30 miles north to White Point.  At least a dozen other boats left the marina that same morning.  

White Point is a pretty anchorage on the Exuma Banks side and is protected for the North and East which is where the squalls were coming from.    We didn’t get to go ashore because the winds blew between 20-30 knots and we had squalls for 3 days.  

Once that weather system cleared (see a pattern yet?) we hauled the anchor and headed out Dotham Cut to Rock Sound on the island of Eleuthra (about 42 miles).   We had great wind but only at about 40 degrees off the bow so it was a close hauled sail at best.   We love Eleuthra and we got one beautiful sunny day there before the rain came again.   Last year, we didn’t have hardly any rain so Mother Nature is apparently making up for it this year.

From Rock Sound, we had a great sail to Royal Island (about 60 miles).   To get there, you have to pass through Current Cut (aptly named) so we actually had to slow the boat down so we wouldn’t get to the cut too early and have 4-6 knots of current running against us.   Talk about torture, we were flying along when we did the calculation and realized we had to sail slower.   Royal Harbor is one of several natural harbors in the Bahamas where Americans came in and started a marina development and then abandoned it when the recession hit (just imagine how popular that is with the locals).   Dolphins (2 adults, 1 baby) were swimming around the boat while we were trying to anchor.    I actually had to wait for them to stop playing below the bow before I could drop the anchor (insert smile here).

We just did a quick overnight in Royal Island and made one more long haul across the Northeast Providence channel to Little Harbor in the Abacos (54 nm).   This time we were even closer to the wind and had to motor-sail to make time.   Little Harbor has a very shallow entrance (6 feet MLW) that we can only enter on a mid-rising tide but the timing worked out perfectly.   We had 2.1 feet of water under us as we entered the harbor and picked up one of the last moorings.   The harbor is protected from the ocean surge and wind from almost all directions.  In the 1950’s an artist named Randolph Johnston moved there with his family.   Initially, they lived and set up a workshop in one of the caves.   Subsequently, they built a home, foundry, gallery and a pub.    Bronze sculptures done by both the father and son are scattered throughout the property and the foundry and gallery are open for tours.   Today, the harbor is lined with Bahamian cottages but it still has a laid back feeling (the roads are sand, not macadam!) and we are adding the Pub to our list of best beach bars anywhere.  Several turtles and rays live in the harbor and kept us entertained.    The rays and possibly a bull shark leaped completely out of the water while chasing smaller fish.   Now there’s a picture I would love to have caught!

Since Eleuthra, the weather has continued to be squally with rain showers almost every day.   We have seen 4 rainbows in the past 5 days and the showers were short and didn’t stop us from any activities.   Besides, when you live on the hook, rain is the only wash down the boat gets so we welcome the rain to rinse the salt off!  

This morning (March 20) we made a short motor-sail to Hopetown, one of our favorite places in the Abacos.   This is another small and very protected harbor.   Because of the size of the harbor, no anchoring is allowed inside the harbor; you either take a mooring or a slip at one of the marinas.   For the past several days, we’ve been listening to the chatter on the VHF that indicated all the moorings were filled.   We were prepared to anchor outside the harbor and wait for an opening but there were 2 open moorings when we arrived.   No dolphins to greet us but the guy running the moorings happened to be out in his skiff so he met us at the mooring and handed us the lines.   It doesn’t get much easier than that!  In Hopetown, there are many beautiful Bahamian rental cottages, several good restaurants, a manned lighthouse to tour and enough knick-knack shops to be cute but not too touristy.  I only know of one coffee house in all of the Exumas (Southern Bahamas that we just came from) and I never made it there so I will be definitely indulging my java habit a bit here.   All part of easing back into life at home!   We plan to be here for several days, hit a couple more spots in the Abacos to meet up with some friends from home and that we met along the way and then point the boat into the gulf stream towards home.   We’ve been gone for 5 months at this point and really miss friends and family back at North Point and at home!

Little Harbor-view from Pete's Pub.  Short Walk is behind the blue power boat.

Little Harbor-like the "pot" at the end of this rainbow?

Little Harbor-rainbow #2

Little Harbor-view from abandoned lighthouse

Little Harbor-summer kitchen at lighthouse

Curly Tail lizard

Cave in Little Harbor

Did I mention the weather?

Last year, the steepest part of the Bahamas learning curve for me was the wind.  On the Chesapeake or Maine, we are used to convective wind that is affected by the difference between the air and water temperatures.  In the Bahamas, the wind is triggered by cold fronts, troughs and ridges coming down the east coast of the US or across the Gulf of Mexico and Florida.   When the wind decides to blow, it usually blows for days at a time.   In fact, the dominant easterly trade winds are one of the factors that make this such a great sailing area.   However, the first month last year, this kept me up at night wondering if the anchor would hold when the wind piped up at night.   After a while I gained confidence in the boat and the anchor (already had confidence in the Captain) and began to sleep again.

This year the weather has either been glorious or treacherous.   We had warmer weather sooner, more fabulous sailing days than last year and many calm days which are a pleasure at anchor.  However, the cold front I already blogged about (Is it a sailboat or a hobby horse?) and the cold front we are experiencing now are lessons in the extreme.  

We came back into Emerald Bay Marina so Donna and Sterling could catch a plane home.   Listening to the weather, the forecast indicated that the next cold front was going to be the biggest of the season and the high winds and seas were predicted to last for a full week.   This is unusually long, most cold fronts blow through in 24-48 hours.  We had to make a choice to make a run north (where the storm was coming from) or to sit tight in the marina and wait it out.   We love this marina but it can have a bad surge if the ocean swells are from the N or NE.   With 7 days of winds, we were worried.   However, running through the storm north (it was predicted to be less severe and of a shorter duration in the northern Bahamas) didn't sound like fun either.   So we talked to the marina and moved the boat to the south side of the facility to lessen the effect of any surge.   The winds came as expected and blew 25 30 knots sustained with gale force gusts (over 35 knots) for much of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.   We turned the electronics on sporadically to check the wind velocity and the highest we saw was 39 knots.    The boat was being pushed up against the docks (we have double lines trying to hold us off) and we popped one fender.   However, we haven't had any damage and there hasn't been any surge so bottom line, we are thrilled to be snug and secure here where we can get off the boat and stagger through the wind each day.   If we were at anchor, we probably would be stuck on the boat everyday as it can be tricky getting in and out of the dinghy (not to mention getting wet!).   The marina arranged for rides into the market and set up happy hours for us.  Going to the beach was out of the question unless you wanted to get your tan sand blasted off.

The winds settled down to 20-23 Thursday and Friday (yeahhhh!!!) but the issue now is the sea state.   The weather service has reported 11-15 foot seas in the sound and there were breaking 8-10 foot waves in the channel coming into the marina.  At the height of the windshe the waves were actually coming over the concrete wall in the picture below but I couldn't stand in the wind and hold the camera still to get a picture   Two of the red and green markers broke loose and washed up on the beach.  We are definitely not leaving until the waves subside.   Wherever we go, we would have to go through a cut between islands or out in the open ocean and we will wait until the seas are 5 feet or less to be safe.

So for now, it is reading, cribbage, crosswords and billiards in the marina.   Guess we had to pay for all those glorious days sometime!

The channel into Emerald Bay on a calm day

The channel at Emerald Bay in gale force winds

Passing the time in Georgetown

As of our last blog, we had ducked into the Marina at Emerald Bay a few days prior to Donna and Sterling's arrival in anticipation of nasty weather stirring up the inlet.   The weather was a false alarm but we hung out anyway and enjoyed the amenities of this lovely spot.   When our guest's arrived, we did a quick exit and short motor trip south to Georgetown.   The anchorage off of Stocking Island was jammed with boats and we anchored off Hamburger Beach (to the left of the powerboats in the picture below).   At last count that week there were close to 300 boats in the anchorage.  Yikes!   However, the hiking and views are always good there and everyone has to experience Volleyball beach and see the hurricane holes at least once.   A night or 2 there is more than enough for us and we moved the boat over to the Georgetown side of the anchorage to reprovision and see the town.   Georgetown is the largest town in the Exuma chain and the probably the fourth or fifth largest town in the Bahamas.   However, is still is a small town and clearly it is the gathering places for boats in the Exumas.  

Our biggest surprises in Georgetown were the dolphins swimming around the boat a couple days, a sea-plane doing what appeared to be training take-offs and landings right in front of us in the anchorage and a small octopus that was attached to the anchor when we were leaving to pick Donna and Sterling up.   We also got a not so fun surprise one night when another boat anchored too close for comfort.   In the picture below, we anchored an appropriate distance from the other sailboat and the very large powerboat decided to anchor between us while we were in town.   On the Georgetown side of the water where we were, there was plenty of room and other choices for this boater.   The powerboat was even closer to the other sailboat that it appears in the picture.  This is not a comment on powerboats; we've had plenty of sailboats snuggle up to close too!   Don't know what some people are thinking at times.   This may not be our favorite stop because of the crowds but it is always entertaining!

Right around the corner from Georgetown is one of our favorite anchorages, Red Shanks.   The water is a bit shallow at low tide going in (5 ft mean low water) but Joe motored the boat in with no problem and we shared the anchorage with only 5-6 boats each night and had a great time exploring the shore by dinghy and on foot.   For me, the highlight of this anchorage is always the giant starfish.   The picture below is actually from last year but the giant red/orange critters were still there this year.   Truly spectacular to see.  

All in all we had a great week catching up with friends from home and swimming, snorkeling, eating, drinking......What else have we got to do?

Sea plane flying over the anchorage - Georgetown

We are anchored right behind the catamaran-Yikes!

1/4 of the anchorage off Stocking Island Georgetown

Dinghy dock behind Exuma Market-at least 50 dinghies

Exiting from the dinghy dock Georgetown

Dolphins swimming around the boat in Georgetown

Starfish larger than Joe's hand

Starfish in Red Shanks

Powerboat anchored between us and the other sailboat-why????