New Crew in Hope Town :-)

Our friend Sunny Wilson joined us for a few days in the Abacos, arriving in Marsh Harbor just in time for the mad Easter influx of tourists. We picked Sunny up, spent about 24 hours in Marsh Harbor where there is not much to see or do except buy groceries and other provisions, and then motored over to Hope Town which is a couple of hours away. Hope Town's first-come-first-served mooring field is so crowded for the holidays that we reserved a slip for a couple of nights at the Hope Town Inn and Marina just to be sure to have a place to stay (it's too small a harbor to just drop an anchor). Here's a couple of photos of the Inn and Marina, a far cry from the remote and undeveloped beaches in the Exumas. It's been very windy and squally again with NE winds in the 30s, so most cruisers who make it into the harbor are not budging until the weather improves.

Although the marina is very upscale, as you walk around the perimeter you see (and hear!!) chickens and roosters, which is sort of charming!

This is the lighthouse in Hope Town - the last remaining Bahamian lighthouse which is tended by a lighthouse keeper rather than being automatic. It is lit with kerosene and the keeper is at work every couple of hours from dusk to dawn to keep the light lit. The lighthouse is open to the public and the photo below shows the spiral staircase. At present, volunteers from the cruising community are working to both raise money and provide labor to repair the lighthouse windows. 

From the top, this is the view to the Atlantic side of the island, with wild breakers over the reefs just off shore.

Looking west, it's obvious from the pale aqua water that it's very shallow as you approach the narrow channel leading in to the harbor. As the 3' tide drops, the entry channel seen in these photos becomes impassable for many boats with a medium to deep keel until the tide rises again 6 hours later.

In town, most of the pristine pastel-painted houses are for rent. 

There are lots of brilliantly colored flowers and well-tended gardens.

 The yellow shutters are on the arched side windows of the Methodist church.

 Pink house, pink garden.

We went to take a look at the ocean, wondering how many days it will be until the seas settle down. Billy and Rebecca are here too on Moonlight Serenade. This is Jim and Billy talking sea state.

 Here's Sunny on the beach, hair blowing like crazy in the wind!!

The poor tourists who came here expecting to snorkel and hang out at the beach for a week or two are braving pretty cool and wildly windy conditions....

On our walk today, Rebecca paused to take photos of a dad and two kids trying to snorkel right off the beach. You can see the massive rollers on the reef in the left background, where I imagine snorkeling is more interesting and more successful when conditions are calm. The temperatures have remained in the 70s in the daytime and the water is about 73 degrees. Quite cool for here at this time of the year.

In the Abacos there are palms of every description.  These must be fan palms - pale green, sort of different.

We walked through the cemetery today and this was my favorite grave stone, which reads at the bottom "I am fine". Except in my head Mary was saying loudly, repeatedly and in caps:
"Dammit, I'm FINE!!!"