Hope Town Harbour, Abaco

Spanish Wells was a very locals/fishing community and supposedly accounts for over 50% of all the lobster caught in the Bahamas. Not as warm and friendly a place as Eleuthera of Exuma. We had Mystique at a marina overnight to fill up with water and fully charge the batteries. We walked around the entire island (about 2-3 miles) and were just flabbergasted at the extent to which these people decorate their houses, trees, shrubs, signs, and anything else that's exposed outdoors, with lights and Christmas decorations (plastic Santas, reindeer, elves, candy canes, and home-made sea-life of all kinds, plus inflatables of the same which they unplug during the day so they sat limp in the yards). And plastic manger scenes also, just by the way! It was amazing and we'll post some photos soon.

Tuesday afternoon we had a HUGE rainstorm for about an hour, and then moved Mystique 5mi. out to Royal Island, close to the NW tip of Eleuthera and near our jumping off point the next morning to Great Abaco. We didn't get much sleep, both because the wind was howling in the rigging and because we were a little nervous about our 9 hour sail in the open Atlantic. We weighed anchor Wednesday morning at 6:30, just as the sky was brightening. We raised our jenny, went through the cut in the reef and out into the Atlantic. As we got further from shore with the wind right on our stern we found significant waves coming from three directions at once. So it got rocky and rolly and the lessening breeze from astern did not let the sails stabilize the boat much.

We soon saw a HUGE cruise ship coming around the northern tip of Eleuthera straight at us heading for Nassau. It was close enough that we saw the name "MSC" on the side which turns out to be an Italian cruise ship company. Looking at MSC's departure schedule we learned it was the "POESIA", 1275 cabins, 3013 guests, 964' in length and 93,000 tonnes and coming from the Caribbean. Again let me say, BIG! There were also several freighters that came within six miles of Mystique, all of which were tracked on our RADAR. After getting further north of the New Providence Channel around 10am, the shipping traffic disappeared and we just settled in for the slog up to our cut into the Sea of Abaco shallow banks.

It was a clear day with winds in the 15kt range, so things could certainly have been worse. But the confused 6-8' waves kept us from being too comfortable until we made the cut around 3:30. It is always a great comfort to come in from the ocean into calm waters with land around! We found a quiet secluded anchorage, went for a snorkel and had a good night sleep. That evening we watched the water around the boat in amazement as small patches of light came and went - phosphor-luminescence from some sea creatures (jelly fish?).

Thursday morning we caught Chris Parkers' weather on single sideband at 6:30 as usual, and then for the first time the VHF radio "Cruisers Net" at 8:15 which carries all the news for cruisers from Marsh Harbour for the Abacos. With a cold front predicted for Friday it sounded like a number of boats were headed into our destination, Hope Town - just east of Marsh Harbour, for moorings so we decided to hightail it up there so we wouldn't lose the mooring which we had reserved earlier.

We arrived in Hope Town around 3:00 Thursday. This joined us up with Mystique's track on our chartplotter from the spring of '08, and completed our 'circumnavigation' of the Bahamas. It was nice to be back in familiar territory where we had enjoyed sailing with our friend Bob Bruce in tandem with his boat, and Andy's company when he crewed with us from Florida to here and flew home from Marsh Harbour.

Hope Town was first settled by white British Loyalists escaping the US after the Revolt in 1780. It is a quaint little harborside village with pink, white and blue cottages and many descendants of those first settlers. Plus many 2nd homeowners, yachties and tourists. Quite a different scene than quiet George Town, Exuma! And a LOT more money here.

Another front is hitting us tomorrow with 25-30kt winds and some rain, so we're sitting right here in this snug harbor on our mooring until Sunday. WiFi, coffee shop, several harborside cafes and restaurants, and other boats around to keep us busy.

We have about 25 more miles to go to our final destination, Green Turtle Cay, where we plan to pack the boat up and have her hauled out of the water for the winter. She'll dry out and be ready for a new coat of bottom paint just before we come back in April to continue the Voyage of Mystique! There are several fun places where we can stop between here and there - Marsh Harbor, Man 'O War Cay and Great Guana Cay.

We hope to get some photos uploaded soon - will let you know when that happens.