Hopetown

 High tide was forecast at 3:30 pm today so we figured we could go through the cut at about 1:30 and still have about a foot under our keel…wrong… we didn’t actually hit bottom but our depth sounder showed zero although we do have it offset for our comfort zones! There were two boats that left earlier than us and we know one of them drew more than we do so they must have scrapped bottom…

    From inside the harbour it looked relatively calm outside but once we were in the cut it was anything but calm… our first forty-five minutes today was absolutely wild! Once past this it did calm down and we had a great sail winding through the narrow, shallow channels to Hopetown.

  We anchored outside Hopetown in front of the lighthouse so our view was magnificent even though we only had about two feet below our keel.  It is no surprise how many catamarans are here given the shallow depths. After getting the boat settled and checking that our anchor was secure we headed in to see Hopetown. We had heard that it was a nice place but very touristy and both comments are understated. The town is like a post card with beautiful little pastel cottages and narrow little pathways big enough for golf carts all surrounding a lovely harbour where you couldn’t possibly squeeze in another boat. We had a great time wandering around and had a delicious meal at Captain Jacks before heading back to the boat for the night.

     Sunday morning we went to the Methodist Church in town which is a lovely peach and yellow building and has large windows at the front of the church overlooking the ocean, talk about a distraction if your mind tends to wander off the sermon! The congregation was all retired foreigners with an average age of about seventy (not hard to tell that this is not only a tourist destination but a wealthy retirement area as well) The choir consisted of about half the members of the congregation and it was obvious that they took their roles very serious as their they sang beautifully. The Pastor was the only Bahamian and was a young woman in her mid thirties she was absolutely amazing as she delivered a phenomal sermon. We truly felt blessed being able to be part of this lovely service.

     After church we had lunch overlooking the harbour before heading over to tour the lighthouse. We couldn’t have picked a hotter time of the day to climb the tower but it was well worth it as the view was phenomenal. It is one of the only old Fresnel lights still in operation so the lighthouse keeper must wind it up every two hours… he must be in great shape!

   As the tides were in our favour we decided to head over to Marsh Harbour, which is about an hour and a half away.