I wanna live here !!!

Before we left Green Turtle Cay we discovered this beach, pretty nice.  It was just a dinghy ride then a short walk from where we had the boat moored. 

 

We left GTC early in the morning with Whisper, a beautiful 47' Passport (sailboat), with Craig and Carol aboard.  They were "first timers" to the Bahamas also.  Because of the several days of calm winds, the Whale Passage was smooth .... as they say "coulda crossed it on a shingle". 

 

We dropped the hook in Marsh Harbor, the third largest city in the Bahamas (population 5,300) and had lunch with Craig and Carol to celebrate. 

 

After lunch, Whisper moved on to a mooring in Man O War Cay and we set off, to do a little provisioning.  The big grocery store in Marsh Harbor, Maxwells, is only a few blocks from the dinghy dock and has a reputation as being the best and most reasonably priced market in the entire Bahamas.  While I couldn't compare it with Cub Foods, it was good and we were able to build back our supplies of dairy, produce, and bread, knowing it was the best shopping we'd see for the next month.  It's funny how much meaning getting food takes on when one is cruising, something we take so much for granted when we are home.  We had heard that Marsh Harbor was dirty, crowded, and loud, but we found it delightful with plenty of helpful, friendly people.  The water was crystal clear where we anchored, as you can see the chain going all the way to the bottom. 

We spent a peaceful, quiet night at anchor and set off the next morning on yet another calm, sunny, warm day.  A couple of pics of the short cruise to Sea Spray Marina, where we will spend the month of February.  The water is only 12 feet deep and we could see the bottom clear as could be.  I took several pics trying to capture it, and this one is the best as it included a starfish.  If you didn't have a depth finder, you'd swear  you were gonna run aground.  Actually, there are plenty of shallow spots, and we both keep a close eye on the electronic charts and on the water itself.  The main passages are all marked on the charts, so just stay on the line. 

 

And the water again was flat calm...

 Sea Spray Marina is located on Elbow Cay, a narrow 6 mile long island, with a population of about 500 souls, most of them living and working in the settlement of Hope Town.  Hope Town has a small natural harbor with mooring balls and a couple of marinas.  We are about 3 miles down island in another small natural harbor called, again, White Sound.  They have a terrific dockage deal in this "off season" and there are three other cruising boats from Harbortown (our Fort Pierce home) here, along with a couple of others in town.  We are extremely pleased with the marina and absolutely in love with the island and with Hope Town ... I wanna live here.  The marina is small but has all we need. Showers just steps away, a pool, outdoor bar and restaurant and laundry service.  They send it out and it all comes back clean and folded !!!  There are also cottages for rent and just over the dunes, is the Atlantic Ocean.   Here's the view, about a block from the boat.  We can hear the waves crashing as we nod off into dreamland every night. 

This beach is a rocky one, not good for swimming, but great for finding treasures from the sea and there are several other places to swim close by.  The day after we arrived, we unloaded the bikes and biked a scenic 2-3 miles into Hope Town, which is about the most charming and adorable town we've ever seen.  Within minutes, we ran into Steve and Elaine, who had their sailboat, October, on a mooring ball.  Before they came over by boat, they rented cottages in Hopetown and they gave us a great personal tour. Here's the harbor with the famous Hope Town Lighthouse in the distance, more on that later. 

Here's Steve and I sitting in conveniently placed chairs at the end of a street overlooking the entrance to the harbor...

... and here's Steve, Steve, and me on the beautiful swimming beach just over the dunes from town. 

 

This is our favorite place so far and we've been very busy since we got here.  Lots more to tell and hope to get another blog up soon.  Hang in there, Minnesota, it's Feb 1.