On my last Abacos post, I left off with us arriving in Hope Town on Elbow Cay. We ended up staying there close to a week. It was simply a charming town.
Walking the streets of Hope Town.
There were a few other boat families here that we spent some time with. One is a family aboard s/v Take Two with 5 kids and a cat that has been living aboard for 5 years now. They are an extremely organized, efficient family and just plain fun to hang around with. Their blog site is taketwosailing.com if you want to check it out.
Boat friends from s/v Take Two.
A couple of friends from Take Two came over for boat school one day to build a radio.
Another family we have spent time with at previous anchorages is s/v Makana. They have logged a lot of miles and are a wealth of knowledge.
Boys swinging with their friend on s/v Makana.
We enjoyed some fabulous meals together, had fun swinging on the halyards and swimming in the pools. You can learn more about them at makanatours.com.
Hope Town has a fantastic museum which we really enjoyed.
Cole and Logan in the back. Mark, Christine and Bill (s/v Providence) in the front. We all rented a gulf cart one day and explored Elbow Cay.
Four of us leaving Hope Town together. Providence is in the lead, followed by Moonshadow, Slow Flight and us.
After Hope town, we sailed over to Marsh Harbor to re-provision. It was definitely a big city. Logan put it best when he said, “Good thing we stopped here to start acclimating us to what it is going to be like going back to the states.” We were in awe of all the food and the big grocery store.
Mermaid Reef on the north side of Marsh Harbor was fantastic. We were swarmed by a variety of fish and thoroughly enjoyed the long reef that we could swim out to easily from shore.
There was a big variety of fish on Mermaid Reef.
I never tire of watching the fish.
After Marsh Harbor we continued on to Man-O-War. Cruisers say that every island is different and it is so true. This island really states how different they can be. You’d have to see it and the people for yourself to understand it! We anchored north of town near a beautiful beach with good snorkeling and good fishing. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of fresh seafood.
Logan with a starfish.
Logan running on a path at Man-O-War.
This cracked us up. Any ideas on why someone would number their steps to their house?
Providence hooked a cable with his anchor. Mark is in the dinghy freeing it.
Next we moved on to Guana Cay for a day then to Treasure Cay.
Treasure Cay’s beautiful beach.
Finally, we sailed to Green Turtle Cay which required going through Whale Cay Channel. The Whale, as it is called locally, can be difficult. We picked a calm day and had long, slow swells.
On Green Turtle Cay, in the town of New Plymouth, we enjoyed the Captain Rolland Roberts House, an educational historic house. The poster below gives a history of how many of the other homes had been moved off the island. I found it amazing that they disassembled and moved a number of houses all the way from Green Turtle Cay to Florida back in 1846. I can’t imaging anyone doing that now days, let along back then. The house is full of really good educational exhibits and a medicinal herb garden out back. 
On the left hand side of this display are 3 conch egg sacks. To the left of the sacks is a baby conch. Continuing down the row shows their growth.
I have not seen a horse in 7 months until I saw this one on Green Turtle Cay. He is obviously quite old and roams the island freely. No one that I have talked to yet knows the story of the horse.
We were lucky to be at Green Turtle Cay when their Heritage Roots Festival was going on. The following is a video of the Royal Bahamas Police Marching Band.
They had fun activities. One was the universally fun tug of war. Logan and Cole were pulling with all their might.
Another cruiser we met at the festival that was stung by a lion fish.
The weather should be settling down for us to move on to Manjack Cay Tuesday to do some snorkeling and island exploring.
Fair Winds ~ Christine
Truansea 