Category: Captain’s Log

Captain’s Log – Thu 4/17/25

Short sail to Hope Town this morning in a pleasant 15kt NE breeze. Still had to run the engine to generate power to make water but just using the engine as a generator doesn’t burn too much fuel. At Hope Town we putted around the harbor looking for a mooring ball for about half an hour before we gave up. Most of the unoccupied ones were marked unsafe. Which begs the question as the what the criteria is for being safe? On a scale of 1-10, is a 5 safe? Do they wait till it’s a 1? We decided just to anchor outside the harbor instead.

Hope Town are s a beautiful little section of Elbow Cay. It s home to the last manned kerosene lighthouse in the world. The lighthouse is nearly two centuries old. The fresnel lens floats in a giant bowl of mercury so it spins freely even by hand. Every two hours, the keeper must pump kerosene up by hand, then hoist the clock weight back up which uses gravity to turn the light at a set interval with a giant clock spring mechanism. Fascinating. No electricity or modern technology. With the fresnel lens it makes 325,000 candle power, visible for 17 miles.

After touring the lighthouse we walked the small town. It’s full of colorful little cottages. We stopped by the museum and finally at a dock bar called Jacks to have a cold drink.

The island was originally settled by British Loyalists ran out of the US after the Revolution.

After running around town, we went back to the boat and decided to put the Bimini top up on the dinghy. It’s getting pretty toasty here in the afternoon sun, and we’re thinking of taking to Tahiti Beach tomorrow.

We dined ashore at Hope Town Inn which is one of the best restaurants we’ve been to here.

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Captain’s Log – Wed 4/16/25

We took the dinghy a couple miles to Mermaid Reef, which is just East of Marsh Harbor. I’m so glad we were able to work this in before we left because it was the best snorkeling we’ve done so far here in the Bahamas. There may be better sites on the Atlantic side but the weather hasn’t cooperated for us to try those. Anyway, Mermaid Reef exceeded our expectations.

The highlight for me was a swim with the turtle. He didn’t seem to mind the company, and I felt like just another one of the magical sea creatures as I followed.

We then made a run to the grocery store to pick up a few more things. The dinghy is running great, not sure what the problem was the other night at Guana Cay but seems to be OK now. That done, I finished ready the Patterson novel I had and took a nap on deck… a delightful afternoon.

I had a plumbing issue to take care of… unfortunately it’s not all swimming with turtles, napping and hanging out at tiki bars. That taken care of, it was 5 o’clock. We had dinner ashore again, this time at a local restaurant called Snappas. One thing I’ve noticed here in the Bahamas is that if you want a salad you must specify that you want it before your entree otherwise it will come with your dinner and you’ll eat it while your food gets cold. Even if you ask, it might still come with your dinner. Notably, Josh wines, which I’m fairly fond of, are pretty common here.

Tomorrow we will head to Hope Town.

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Captain’s Log – Tue 4/15/25

It was a slow start this morning after hitting the beach bars a little hard yesterday. Fortunately it’s a short sail from Guana Cay to Marsh Harbour. We managed to pull up another tree branch when we raised the anchor. 🙄 Seems to be a forest under there. We set the sails in a nice 10kt close reach all the way there once we got out of the anchorage and turned for Marsh Harbour. We did have to run the engine for about 45 minutes to make water.

We anchored in Marsh Harbour not too far from the public access docks in case I had to row again. Still tired from yesterday, we skipped the snorkeling we had planned at Mermaid Reef. Perhaps tomorrow if it’s not too rough.

Instead, I dug out the tools to work on the dinghy engine which must have scared it straight because it fired right up like normal, no problem. 🤷🏼‍♂️ I went into town and bought a new spark plug wrench because I noticed last night the one on the dinghy was corroded. Grabbed a few groceries while I was walking around. Note the Ace Hardware is boarded up and closed despite appearing on Google Maps.

We went to dock bar for dinner called Colors that was as recommended by friends.

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