As promised the leftover shots from friends cameras of our day at Hope Town
Pretty good swinging for old folks!!
Sharing a Goombay Smash!
Mike saving our mooring ball for us as we come into the mooring field.
Day 26
Spent a leisurely sunny morning catching up with blog and boat duties. Bill also did a few drone shots.
We left Hope Town and retraced our route back east about 7 miles to Man-o-War Cay. This cay is known for its long time boat building business.
We entered Man-o-War Cay to scope out Eastern Harbor and its mooring field.
We decided to forgo the mooring field as the moorings did not look secure and there were many boats anchored within the mooring field. So we opted to anchor off the island with about 15 other boats.
After lunch, we splashed the dinghy and went into town, but did stop along the way to say hi to Anne on SV Meherio who at our age is single handed sailing through the Bahamas for her 6th year!
Landed the dinghy at Albury's Sail Shop that specialized in canvas totes and bags. Enjoyed talking with the two teens who were manning the store and hearing what life is like on a small island. Apparently getting to high school and returning home is the biggest challenge for them to overcome. Ferry ride and bus ride very early in the morning!!! We enjoyed perusing the wares and of course helped the local economy.
We then walked around the town with its cottages,
Museums and churches and Ligumvitae trees (National Tree of Bahama)
and the town's businesses- the largest, Albury's fiberglass boats. The Albury family used to make the fishing skiffs and sloops for Bahamian waters. Today they make 18-33 foot fiberglass fishing boats.
There is also sailmaking and wood working - especially the half ship models made by another Albury!
We found a street that was named after a friend's Grandfather- Chester Bethel.
We enjoyed finding the quirky and fun around town.
Returning to our boat we had to dinghy a different way as the tide had gone out and we no longer had enough water for the dinghy. Always something to keep us on our toes.
We stopped at the "best"beach on the island- called the Backbone. Really is is a small crescent beach at the narrowest part of the island. We walked across the sandy beach, up the stairs and across the limestone and concrete"road"- more like a path- to the Atlantic Ocean. The ocean side is very rocky.
When we got back to the boat we realized our anchor was not really dug in well. Not enough sand and too much rock. So we pulled anchor and tried 2 more times before we got set well. Winds are to pick up tonight so want to be good and set with the anchor.