Good Monday morning from Hope Town Harbor in the Abacos. Since the last post, we finished exploring Spanish Wells, took a quick dinghy ride for a day trip over to Harbor Island, and have moved to the Abacos across the North Atlantic Ocean in deep water!

We spent 4 nights at Spanish Wells and really enjoyed the laid-back island life and the safe area. This island and the people that live here are great to spend time with. If they came by you while you were walking, they stopped and give you a golf cart ride. This saved me on a couple of very hot days walking to stores!

We rented a golf cart for a day to explore the entire island area. Even found this great bar and grill on the beach for an early lunch.

Pretty hard to beat this view for lunch! By the way, the restaurant was empty until right at noon when all the charter boats arrive and then the place was packed. We came at the right time!

Got to do several beach walks and Memphis even got an afternoon swim. I wish I had a picture as she was retrieving a coconut instead of a ball!

Had to stop and see the goats to feel like DC!

Our buddy boat friends that we met up with again in Spanish Wells. We have not seen them since Staniel Cay.

Our view for our last dinner on Spanish Wells at the point!

We felt like we had seen everything Spanish Wells had to offer, so the next day, the four of us took both our dinghies for the 10-mile run through the Devils Back Bone to Harbor Island. The Devils Back Bone is a famous hard route to navigate through shallow areas and reefs to arrive at Harbor Island. It was easy in the dinghy!

Pano arriving at Harbor Island.

The wonderful Valentines Marina.

Another little reminder of DC. I know it is spelled differently.

Harbor Island is known for its pink sand beaches. We took a walk on one and it truly was pink. There is something red in the sand and it changes the color.

It might not look pink in the picture, but it is.

Final lunch on Harbor Island before we would part ways after a dinghy ride back with our buddy boaters. They are done with their loop and will take the boat back to Florida on a different route than us and put their boat up for sale and go home to Seattle.

Arriving back at Spanish Wells and saying goodbye to our buddy boaters.

This brings us to Sunday morning 3/17/24. We moved across the North Atlantic to the Abacos. The forecast did what was expected, and we had 2-4′ waves from mostly behind us so the ride was easy. We pulled out of Spanish Wells at 7:30am to get out before low tide. We ran slow for 1-1/2 hours until the waves picked up and ran fast after that until we had protection from the land again. This meant 5 hours for the 82 miles Sunday. We needed to go slow for the last part as well, so we would arrive at close to high tide. This worked out perfectly and we arrived with the tide +1.4′ which was enough for us to get into the harbor without touching bottom!

No NEBO again, as I messed it up. Those numbers on the chart are depths and all the little “X” are coral heads. It was fun getting out the north pass from Spanish Wells. Had to zig zag through the coral and out a 40′ wide channel at the end before entering the deeper water. Navigation in new water every time we move does keep my attention.

The first islands of the Abacos for us. There is a string of small barrier islands east of Great Abaco Island where we entered. This puts us back into shallow water.

The last 17 miles of the day we had to zig zag around sand bars and reefs. This is just how you have to navigate in the Bahamas.

Arriving in the narrow channel at Hope Town on Elbow Cay. You can see the sand bar straight ahead. I had to hug the shore on the right until you take a hard left around the new sand bar before going back to the right and through the narrow cut in the top right of this picture.

The famous light house at Hope Town.

We will tour the area for the next day or two based on weather and get some better pictures of the area and light house.

Sunday was also St Patrick’s Day! There was a cancer fundraiser for a local woman who was instrumental in the rebuilding of the area after Hurrican Dorian, so we crossed the harbor and arrived at a beach bar to help support the cause for our St Patrick’s Day celebration.

Pictured with another loop couple on Three Sons. They will be heading our direction and continuing past our wake crossing.

I hope the Pano picture works so you can all see the entire area. Band on the right and Atlantic Ocean on the left.

We will start to explore the island today before storms and heavy winds arrive tomorrow. We are supposed to move to Marsh Harbor tomorrow, but I will call and see if we can push our reservation for a day so we don’t have to move in the bad weather tomorrow.

I will post again in a day or two and let you know! Until then have a great start to your week.