After listening to the weather this morning, we decided to move the boat to Hopetown. Everyone is predicting heavy winds Wednesday night. We thought if we went to Hopetown today, before the weather gets worse, we may be able to get a mooring ball in the harbor. Dave cooked breakfast and Dean did the dishes while Dave and I got the boat ready to move back to Elbow Cay. We anchored outside of the harbor and took the dinghy in to look for a mooring ball by 12:30. It’s is such a crowded area, that we didn’t want to wander between the boats with our boat looking for a free mooring ball.
We passed the Hopetown Sailing Club’s boat race as we sailed to Elbow Cay, so we knew there may be empty mooring balls with reserved markers on them. But luckily we found a couple open balls. We decided on one that would be easiest to navigate our boat to that belonged to Cap’n Jack’s. We tied a small fender to it marked with our boat name. We dropped off Dean at Cap’n Jack’s to pay for the ball and let him explore the town. Dave and I took the dinghy back to the boat to bring it in to the harbor. By now it was between 1 & 1:30, and low tide was at 2:20. So we headed towards the channel to enter the harbor with inches under our keel. Yesterday was the full moon, so the tides are more extreme right now, too. We made it through fine and found a direct route between boats to our mooring ball. Dave was at the bow as I crept up to the ball. He had to grab it with a boat hook and bring the end of the line to our boat so he could run two dock lines through it, one off each side of the bow. It all went very smooth.
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| safely attached to mooring ball |
We sent a hand held radio with Dean so we could connect. He was having a lobster roll at Cap’n Jack’s, so we just had lunch on the boat. After that, we joined him on shore and headed to Hopetown Lodge. We picked up a couple drinks and headed right to the beach. We had about an hour before the sun would go behind the island. We just hung out on their beach chairs and enjoyed the view and sound of the ocean. Once it started to cool off, we moved to the Reef Bar that overlooks the ocean. We visited with Gwendolyn, the barmaid. She was telling Dean he needed to find a wife, but be sure to treat her right. When a man gets in trouble, we sometimes say he is “in the doghouse”. They say “da dog eat yo lunch”.
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| cool tile at the Reef Bar at Hopetown Lodge |
We strolled down to our favorite dinner restaurant, Wine Down Sip Sip. This was the third time we have been there this month. They have their 2 drinks for $6 happy hour everyday. We shared their conch flitters, more like a crab cake, one of their flatbread pizzas and one order of their special tonight, chicken parmesan. Again, everything was delicious.
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| we played around with the Snap Ghost app |
We decided to dinghy over to the Hopetown Inn and Marina just to show Dean what it was like. Then he could take the shuttle there on his own if he wanted to. The place was pretty empty, but we had fun joking with the staff. When one young woman’s shift was over, she even sat with us until we left. Her name was Kerline, but they called her Kerly, like curly. She invited us to her church on Sunday, the Assembly of God. It sounds like there would be lots of great singing. She said we would probably be the only white people there, but they welcome all visitors. We just might do that if we are back here on Sunday. Dave’s not so sure. He said he attended one when he was younger and called them the “holy rollers”. He thinks it’s a little strange, but I am curious.
Back at the boat, I headed to bed, but Dave and Dean stayed up later sharing stories of who knows what.
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