rest of the week...in Hope Town

It has been a little over 3 weeks since returning from our trip, so unfortunately the details of the final 10 days of our time in Abaco are becoming less and less vivid for me.

Our time in Hope Town, as you can tell, was unforgettable. The rest of my memories will have to be in short passages, as I remember them...


I remember late night talks on Estella or Charlotte Ann with our family, Tiffany, and the MacLean's...sharing dinner, laughing with our excited/goofy children as they try to get our attention, listening to music, and sharing things about our lives "on land" back home, which seemed so far away...

Snorkeling in the reefs off the beach! It was beautiful, but unfortunately I got "spooked" when my mask kept leaking and freaking me out... but Brian had a great time! I tried again later in the trip and had a better experience.

I remember visiting the beach every day of the week when Tiffany was here. She and I enjoyed taking turns playing with the girls and reading our novels.

Here is an interesting crab we found near the lighthouse




I remember the girls being "silly" with their Aunt Tiffany, and Madelyn making her laugh with her inventive new "language"!

One day Brian was not feeling well and needed to rest on the boat all day. Tiffany and I took the girls to Hope Town Harbour Lodge to see the swimming pool and poolside restaurant. Tiffany ordered "conch fritters" and loved them! This day was colder and very windy. The girls put their toes in the pool, but it was too cold to swim. (This first photo is from Google, when someone else was visiting in better weather!)

I remember taking the dinghy to the marina in the dark with Tiffany at night to go to the showers. We wanted to shower on land to preserve Estella's water supply, and we typically showered at night because it was easier to organize w/ the girls. One night we also did laundry at the marina. As we slowly made our way to the marina's dock, we glided past all the sailboats in the quiet harbor, and saw the flame in the famous lighthouse shining brightly. I remember that my senses seemed heightened, with the cool air, night sky with stars, moored boats, my husband and daughters sleeping in Estella, my friends near on their boat, and my sister with me in the inflatable boat. I wanted to savor these moments! The end of the trip was approaching quickly, too quickly...

Of course, I remember the daily Cruisers' Net on the VHF radio. We listened every day at 0815am.
http://www.usual-suspects-sailing.com/exp-abaco-cruisers-net.htm

I remember walking through the little streets of Hope Town, stopping in some tiny shops to look around, and having ice cream at "Munchies". Randomly, we were serenaded by an older Bahamian man who sang an Elvis Presley song "I Can't Help Falling in Love with You" to us. :)

I remember going out with Tiffany one night to Harbor's Edge bar, when Brian graciously watched the girls on Estella. We tied up the dinghy at the bar's dock using a flashlight to help us. Then as we ordered drinks at the bar, we saw the Indianapolis Colts were playing on the bartender's TV! The live band was from a nearby island, Lubbers' Quarters. We loved the band's reggae/calypso music and the people-watching. The crowd was a mixture of local Bahamians, North American cruisers, retirees who spend the winter on Elbow Cay, and others.

I remember leaving Hope Town in the morning on a very windy day. We had to motor sail the entire way because the wind was (once again) on our nose. It was refreshing but wet sometimes as the salty spray splashed onto our dodger and faces. The sail was only a few hours long, and then we were back in Marsh Harbor again, this time dropping our anchor instead of tying up at the dock. We were reunited with the MacLean's who had met up with their cousins the day before.

Elbow Cay Lighthouse

On a gorgeous but very windy day, we took our dinghy over to Lighthouse marina to see the famous island landmark.



From Wikipedia:
"Hope Town features one of the last operational kerosene-fueled lighthouses in the world. This lighthouse was built in 1862 and became operational two years later, it is striped horizontally red and white. Its light can be seen from 23 nautical miles away.

The Hope Town Lighthouse is one of only three Manual Lighthouses left in the World. It has a spring mechanism that has to be hand cranked every several hours to maintain the sequence of five white flashes every 15 seconds. The lamp burns kerosene oil with a wick and mantle. The light is then focused as it passes through the optics of a first order Fresnel lens which floats on a bed of mercury."

We climbed the very steep stairwell inside... (I think the inside color is a mixture of the red-and-white paint left over from painting the outside!)

There were a lot of interesting details inside, such as this creative doorknob.

Bahamian Food

The next morning, feeling groggy from a late night of laughter and memorable conversation on Charlotte Ann, we met up with the MacLean's at a local restaurant (Capt' Jack's) for a "greasy spoon" breakfast. It was typical of American-style breakfasts, with toast, eggs, coffee, etc. It was a sunny morning, with a great view of the harbor, and we enjoyed more time with our new friends and my sister (how I wish she lived closer to us back home!). Here is a photo of Brian and Tiffany...



So, what do Bahamians eat?
It seems they do not have much of a food culture, but there are a few standouts.

One is a fruit called the plantain, which is similar to the banana, but starchier (is that a word?) and cooked most like our potatoes. Fried plantains usually sweetened with sugar or syrup are a staple at local restaurants as a side dish. When we were still in southern Florida, we bought plantains at a local market and I experimented with a recipe for dinner one night. It was fun!

Here is a Google photo of a typical Bahamian lunch or dinner plate. Almost every restaurant carried the same menu. Baked macaroni and cheese, fried chicken, and "Peas and Rice" which is lima beans with rice.

One of my favorite things was visiting local bakeries to buy bread! This is another Google photo of a Bahamian bakery, and it seems very accurate. No frills at all. Just simple loaves of unsliced bread, freshly made that morning, wrapped in clear plastic, with nothing else to sell. The bread was sweet, and we especially liked the coconut bread, also called "Abaco bread". Madelyn loved it with honey!

We enjoyed the local beer, Kalik, on quite a few occasions. :)

A few times we also had their local soda, which takes like pineapple and lemon.

In general, we seemed to eat mostly in our own environment on Estella, rather than going out to restaurants. The food was 1.5 to 2 times more expensive, and we needed to closely watch our budget. Also, it seemed that by this time (over two months since leaving home), we preferred to be "home", relaxing and enjoying our little family. I realized how much time we spent eating out at restaurants in the past few years. It was our form of entertainment, which is fine, but I think now I feel calmer and more content inside...and I don't need to be "entertained" as much as I value the simplicity of time together with the ones I love the most.

Hope Town Beaches

The MacLean's arrived in Hope Town and we were thrilled to see them again!



Their catamaran arrived through the Hope Town Harbor entrance, and we happened to be passing through on our dinghy, so we followed them to their mooring ball. Madelyn and Katja were jumping up and down, laughing and waving, chanting in a sing-song way "Charlotte Ann, Charlotte Ann, Charlotte Ann..." and it felt great to look forward to some time together once again.





One of the first things we did was explore the beach together.



Here is our "favorite" (translation: easiest entry with toddlers) street leading to the beach...

Here is a charming photo of Mark and Lisa walking on the beach together... It's paradise!

Mitchell and Brian enjoyed making a drum out of a bucket they discovered...

Miss Delaney amazed us with her constant energy, imagination, and playful spirit with our girls.

Brian made a sculpture of a dog... Impressive!

It was fun to see Mark enjoying kite-boarding! We were all impressed again!...

"Aunt Tiffany" was thrilled to see the azure waters and great beach....especially since she was in very cold snowy weather in Indiana just a few days before! It was warm, about in the low 70's; however, with the windy weather on this day, we needed layers later in the day. The water was refreshingly warm, but we felt colder when we got out! Tiffany was so much fun to be around, and she was up for anything... her great attitude was contagious!

I loved these little "picnic benches" scattered along the beach.

Here are the girls pretending to "cook lunch" for us.

It is hard to describe the feeling of contentment at the end of such a day as this. Surrounded with family and our new friends (who were quickly becoming close friends), lovely views, and nothing to do but enjoy ourselves and look forward to more and more days ahead... it just made me feel unbelievably blessed. Of course, we had boat projects to do, as well as other important planning activities, but our mindset was finally beginning to change. We were learning how to relax.

Falling in Love with Hope Town

The next day, we were all excited to leave Estella and go exploring in town! As Tiffany would quickly realize, a family that includes two toddlers takes quite a bit longer to get going. I think it was almost noon by the time we all loaded into the dinghy and set off.

Here is a photo of the Hope Town public dinghy dock. This picture was taken at a relatively high tide. When we came and went at low tide, we had a very long ladder to climb up or down, which was more difficult with beach paraphenalia, stroller, newly-purchased gifts or groceries in tow.


The first thing we saw after walking up the dock was this large interesting tree and a playground! After days and days of windy rain in Marsh Harbor, which was also full of US-type strip malls, the mother in me was thrilled for the girls to have such a quaint place to play.

As if on cue, during our first moments on land in Hope Town, the local church bells started to chime. Later we were informed that the bells chime at noon and 6:00pm every day. This became part of our routine as you could hear the bells from all around the town and harbor. I'll try to insert a video here...

Here are some photos of the tiny library, operated by volunteers and open daily from 10:00am until noon. The girls donated a few of their too-familiar books from Estella, and traded them for some exciting "new" books of their own.

This is the little medical clinic, run most days by a nurse. The doctor visits by boat from the mainland once per week, from 10:00am until 1:00pm. I want those hours!

Here is the Methodist church and the bell tower....

Here are some other views from around the town...

Here is a sign outside the tiny police station, with English at the top and Haitian Creole at the bottom of the sign. I like the last sentence, "Mesi bon kou." (Merci beaucoup).

If you are interested in learning more about Hope Town, here is a link to a helpful website:
http://www.visithopetown.com/

The island itself is much larger than Hope Town itself, and maybe if we visit again we can rent some golf carts or bicycles to do some more extensive exploring.

We enjoyed strolling through the tiny streets past brightly colored homes, restaurants, a scuba shop, little storefronts, a cemetery, a little volunteer fire station, art galleries, and a grocery store.

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That morning, when listening to the "CruisersNet" on VHF 68, we heard about a art show in Hope Town. So later that day, found Hope Town Lodge and browsed the show. This was an annual event marking the finale of a weeklong workshop of art lessons, hosted by Walter Bartman of "Yellow Barn Studios" in Maryland. The artwork presented was created this week by his students.

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Here are some fantastic results from some of his students...

This one is from Susan Abbott,
here is her website:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanabbott

where there are 5 other fabulous Hope Town paintings...

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This one is by the host Walt Bartman himself, who can be found at http://www.yellowbarnstudio.com/

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And from William Jameson, at http://www.williamjameson.com/painting.asp?cateID=1

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Also from Karen Hagan at www.karenhagan.com