Tieing A Knot...: Life on a Rock

Here is our Route Map. The shortest jaunts would have been crisscrossing the Sea of Abaco but weather has dictated our every move so far. We started last week going around the Whale and down to Marsh Harbour and then across and a little further southeast to Elbow Cay and Hopetown. It looks like the weather is going to start looking up so tomorrow we are heading to Man O War

and then up to Guana where we will hopefully be able to anchor and make it to the Sunday free for all at Nippers. We were told in our first planning stage we HAD to go on Sunday. Obviously something special is in store if we can make it. I am looking forward to being surprised. After Guana (weather permitting) we will make a stop at Treasure Cay before heading back to Marsh Harbour for water and any needed provisions before heading south to Little Harbour and then Eluethra, The Berry Islands and Bimini where we will cross back over to the states south of Miami. The time frame is still a little loose we are not in a rush.

We have had a great time in Hope Town and even Tuesday's down pours had an unexpected bright spot. While we hid inside reading and staying dry there were 5 young couples (that would be in age not 'at heart') on a rented Catamaran who were having a BALL! They had a French playlist of I would have to say it was Club musicand they were singing, shouting, and dancing up a storm on the aft deck. Then they would jump in the water, cool off and start all over again. One of the girls aboard had a birthday and they all sang Happy Birthday in French. We really enjoyed it, it reminded us of all the fun we had when we were young and boating with our friends.

On Monday we rented a golf cart to tour the Island

The wind had started to kick up the Atlantic for this weeks bout of nasty weather.

Tahiti Beach on the south end of Elbow Cay

Lunch at Poppa Nasty's BBQ...and experience, hopefully not to be repeated.

A better choice might have been'On Da Beach'......
a bar and grill on the Atlantic...but closed on Tuesday

One of the 'miles to' signs along the narrow highway

The Hope Town school...we found out that high school students take the ferry to Marsh Harbour .We talked to one man whose children were going to school in North Carolina where his wife is from. He told us that education in the Bahamas is not very good. They only teach Bahamas history and when his A student kids got to N.C. they were way behind in everything. So he visits them every couple of months and the family spends the summer in Hopetown once the kids are out of school.

Eight of the French Crew of Ten they were all smiles because Sue had taken pictures of them and offered to email them. Wish we would have thought to take some of their "party"!

Most of the houses we have seen on the Island are for rent. With price tags of thousands a week.
The man we talked to about the school was a property manager, a very good business to be in here.We asked who owned the houses and he told us mostly Americans with some Canadians and Europeans thrown in.

More of the beautiful foliage. A yellow Mandevilla with 4" blooms! The plants everywhere are so vibrantly colored it is a wonder when you figure they are growing on islands of rock that are covered in sand.

One of Hope Town's little critters a Leiocephalidae (wow I could barely spell that let alone say it )

more commonly known as the 'Curly Tail Lizard '
native to the Carribean and ranging from 4 to inches.

A beautiful final resting place on a bluff looking out onto the Atlantic many of the graves were from the 1800's as far as we could tell. They were in pretty poor shape from the salt
and sand blasting over the century.