We have been on the move and are now in the northern Exuma's.
We spent a week in the harbor at Hope Town on Elbow Cay. Several of our other cruiser friends are here so we were able to spend some time with them. Hope Town is the home of the Elbow Reef Lighthouse, more commonly called the Hope Town Light. It is unique in that it is the last lighthouse in the world that is still lit by a kerosene lamp and the lenses are turned by a drop-weight that is hand cranked back up every two hour thus requiring an operator to be on duty every night. There have been many proposals to update the light but it is now considered a National Treasure and will continue to operate in the old way. The lighthouse has been turned over to a foundation that is dedicated to preserving it. This last year it has been going over a complete renovation including removal of all old paint, sealing any cracks in the concrete walls, repairing hurricane damage and a new paint job. The windvane at the top was damaged in Hurricane Dorian and has now been repaired and is again showing the wind direction. While we were up in the light there was a crew painting the exterior metalwork around the windows that protect the lenses.
When our week was up we dropped the mooring and made a stop at the fuel dock to top off both diesel and gasoline before heading out on the high tide. The winds were light so we ended up motoring down to Lynyard Cay to spend the night before making the jump to Eleuthera. We pulled anchor at first light and headed out Little Harbor Cut and with light winds on the nose we motored to Spanish Wells on the northern tip of Eleuthera arriving prior to sunset. The next day we made a trip into town to hit the grocery store, have lunch and some adult beverages. The next day we made a big move of two miles to Meeks Patch since that would give us some protection from the winds and would have a bit less rolling. The next day we were debating moving down to Current Cut to wait for the next day to go through the cut but instead we found that the conditions were good for going through so we continued on to the Glass Window. Current Cut is a problem when the tide is rising or dropping with a strong current through the cut. It is important to time it for slack tide or when the tides are changing and the current drops. We were a little early but only had about 1-2 knots against us as we went through. Once at the Glass Window we went ashore and walked up to the bridge to take in the view. The Glass Window is spot where there is a small barrier between the sound and the ocean. In storms or rough weather the ocean waves crash though the opening and the view from the bridge is impressive with the deep blue of the ocean and the light turquoise of the sound. While here we spent some time visiting with friends on G and Kenebeck, We met Steve on Flash and were invited over to Seas the Moment for drinks and snacks. We have been running into G and Kenebeck since we were all together at Donny's at Green Turtle. We moved next to Hatchet Bay which is a very well protected harbor and spent several days as the winds blew once more. Again we were able to spend some time with G and Kenebeck since they were also here to get out of the blow. I was also working on a ;low voltage problem and took the opportunity to recommission the water-maker. We would now have to make our own water since there will be few opportunities to buy water as we move on. Wishing to charge the batteries and run the water-maker we motored down to Tarpon Bay at the southern part of Eleuthera and prepared for the jump to the Exuma's.
The next morning we pulled anchor at sunrise and motored following the charted waypoints until we moved into Exuma Sound and then set the sails and sailed to Warderick Wells Cut and entered the Exuma chain of islands. Warderick Wells is the center for the Warderick Wells Land and Sea Park. On our trip across we had winds that increased all day and were forecast to continue for several days. Once we were anchored we spent the next day on the boat since the seas were rougher than we wanted to be out on in the dinghy. The next morning we dinghied in, registered, paid our park fee and checked out several of the hiking trails. The next morning we decided to move a little further along and were hoping to pick up a mooring at Cambridge Cay, another part of the park. Hearing that the moorings were full we stopped instead at Compass Cay which is just out of the park. The next day we took the dinghy up to Cambridge Cay to check out the trails there. The next morning, Saturday, it was windy with winds in the 20's and the boat was rolling a lot in the wind/tide combination so we pulled anchor and moved to Blackpoint Settlement.
In our previous trips to the Bahamas we had tried to go to Blackpoint several times but that was back when we had transmission problems and gave up and returned to the States. On our trip back through the Bahamas during Covid we stopped at Blackpoint just long enough to do a load of laundry and moved on. That time we were one of only two boats in the harbor. This is a very popular spot so the absence of cruisers was very unusual, but everything about the Covid years was unusual. This time there are about sixty boats in the harbor and a lot of activity. There are several boats we have met before and some that we only know from the single-side band radio nets and we have met several others while ashore. Cori is taking advantage of nearby beaches to go beachcombing and there is a party scheduled tonight to celebrate the opening of a new deck at one of the restaurants. The islands are still recovering from the devastation of hurricane Dorian.
It's the end of January and we have been in the Islands for two months now. We have several islands we have plans to go to for various events but otherwise we are just "wandering aimlessly through the Exuama's".
I tried including some photos but can't get them to download but here is our recent track.
