Bahamas Day…Ok, We’ve Stopped Counting

Elbow Cay

We have now arrived at our time on Elbow Cay. When we pulled in on Monday, February 10, we knew we had arrived in a cool place. We had no idea that we would spend nearly the rest of our time in the Bahamas in and around this wonderful island. 

But before I get into that, let’s talk a little more about Bahamian geography. In general, the hundreds of islands that make up the Bahamas are pretty flat, limestone islands surrounded by reefs. Many islands are covered in lush vegetation but it is fairly low-growing. For a sailor in the Bahamas, that means there are very few harbors deep enough for us with 360 degrees of protection from wind and waves. 

This can prove to be a challenge for sailors in the winter when low-pressure systems typically blow through with big winds every 5-7 days. There are multiple strategies for dealing with this winter reality: 

1. Constantly be on the move. Explore new islands when the weather is good and then run to the closest “protected” anchorage when the winds blow. Depending on the forecast and the time of year, there can be a lot of competition to get a good spot in these limited anchorages. This was certainly our experience for the 10 days we cruised in the Bahamas with Sean and Anna on SV Pokey last year – amazing days in between tougher days when we were running from storms.
2. Find a protected spot, get a mooring ball and use it as a home base. If you are lucky enough to get a mooring ball reservation in one of these coveted spots, you know you always have a spot to run back to but you are “stuck” exploring a relatively small geographic area on the nice days. You will also be surrounded by other boats instead of in remote anchorages.

As you can imagine, there are advantages and disadvantages to both strategies. Leading up to our own trip to the Bahamas, we met lots of people who were strongly in favor of one strategy or the other. 

By the time we arrived at Elbow Cay, we had already traveled nearly 1,000 miles since leaving Virginia in December. Even though the weather in the Bahamas had been fantastic so far, the long-range forecast was changing and we were ready to settle into a spot for a while, so cue strategy #2!

The main settlement on Elbow Cay is Hope Town, on the north side of the island. Hope Town is home to a beautiful harbor with 360-degree wind and wave protection. Over the years, the harbor has been filled with privately owned mooring balls that can be rented. A mooring field makes sense in this area because you can pack a lot more boats into a small area compared to everyone setting out their own anchors with many feet of chain. 

Getting a ball here is all luck and this year, we had a lot of luck. A few days before our arrival, Lucas found another young couple on a cruiser’s social media app. He began messaging with Mark and Emily. Right off the bat, Lucas could tell we had a lot in common, including our boats! Alaya and their boat, Mesmeriah share the same hull – so cool! Mark and Emily had arrived in Hope Town the day before we were set to get there. They lucked out and got on a open mooring ball and then reported to us as we traveled there from Guana that another ball was still open. Deeper-draft vessels like Alaya and Mesmeriah only have one shot each day to get into the harbor because we have to enter in daylight and high tide. So we took our shot on that Monday morning and were greeted by Mark in his dinghy. We made our in-person introductions as Mark helped us get tied up to our new mooring ball. 

Once we were tied up, we took a good look around and were very happy with our new surroundings. The harbor is surrounded by beautiful buildings and docks all around. On the west side sits the iconic Elbow Cay Lighthouse. We spent a few hours getting to know Mark and Emily and getting a tour of Mesmeriah. She is so similar to Alaya but just different enough. The boats were created out of the same hull pattern and then built by two different boat yards in Taiwan. We also went ashore for the first time and got a small taste of the beauty of the island. 

We quickly decided that if allowed, we would like to reserve our ball for the next month. Emily and Mark planned to stick around for a while too. Making that reservation isn’t as straightforward as it is with marinas in the US. Each mooring ball is owned by a different person or business, some have identifying markers or phone numbers on them but ours did not. Will, the lovely harbor host, greeted us the next morning and informed us that we needed to hail “Lucky Strike” on the radio after 6 p.m. to talk with the owner of our mooring ball. Will warned us that Lucky Strike is a little hard to get a hold of, he has a lot going on. We can be patient, especially in paradise.

From then on, we settled into our Hope Town routine. Each morning, we would lay in bed while listening to the 8:15 broadcast of the cruisers’ net, a radio “show” put on by local boaters, broadcast on VHF channel 68, informing everyone of weather, upcoming events, specials at local businesses and other announcements. One week, the net included a daily joke from some kids in Hope Town on their grandparents’ boat. Another day, someone would call in with a dinghy for sale. The cruisers net was a wonderful resource and great entertainment to start the day. 

Once the net was off air, we would decide what we wanted to do for the day over breakfast. There were so many options, we would usually pick based on the weather forecast and what our friends were planning. Some days were beach days, either on the Atlantic Ocean side of the island or at Tahiti Beach on the southern side of the island facing the Bahama bank. Other days were chore days, where we kept Alaya in tip-top shape, washed our unmentionables in the sink or helped friends with their various boat projects. There were also lots of places to explore on foot, including the lighthouse. We could go out for drinks or food at the local restaurants, trying to keep within our budget but also enjoying all the local specialties. On good weather days, we could take the dinghy out to go snorkeling on the bank. Lucas even went spearfishing with Mark and Devin, a solo sailor we met in Hope Town.

A week or so into our idyllic stay, Larry and Ginny on SV Misty arrived too. We helped them get on a mooring ball that happened to open up right next to us. Toledo Beach buddy boats reunited again! After one day in Hope Town, Larry and Ginny decided to stay for a month as well. It was great hanging out with them again. By the time they arrived, our battery bank was getting pretty low and we were contemplating leaving the mooring ball for a few days to charge up at a local marina. Instead, Larry was kind enough to lend us his portable generator! We ran it a couple of hours each week, in addition to our solar panels, to keep our batteries charged up. In exchange, we were able to help Larry and Ginny repair their headsail with my beefy sewing machine and Lucas was able to help them install a brand-new transmission when Misty’s unexpectedly died.

The week that we arrived in Hope Town, the island was hosting its annual Songwriters Festival. We knew nothing about this until my new friend Chip from Louisiana told us about it. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Every night during the festival, a different local venue would host four of the country songwriters for an intimate evening of songs and the stories behind the lyrics. We attended three of the shows and each one was better than the last. It was also a good excuse to check out the different venues and for Lucas to get a pina colada at each one. We met some really cool people in between the sets, sailors and vacationers alike.

Once the festival was over, the island continued to host a variety of events, many of them fundraisers for the local community. We attended a cruisers potluck happy hour at one of the resorts, Lucas’ buffalo chicken dip was a huge hit. We also participated in a sailboat race hosted by the Hope Town Sailing Club. Since the race was starting at low tide, we didn’t want to take Alaya out for it, so we volunteered to be crew on someone else’s boat. We ended up getting paired with a lovely cruising couple who were participating in their first sailboat race ever. We dinghied out to their boat and discovered it was a 29-foot steel boat with a full keel. Steel, full-keel boats are not known for their speed but she was perfect for the kind of racing I like. We had a lovely afternoon, coming in dead last in the two races. Eva and Damian were great sports and it was fun to meet them. After the race, we all went to the sailing club’s afterparty where we saw a guy wearing a Roos Roast shirt. For the uninitiated, Roos Roast is a hipster coffee shop in Ann Arbor. The guy ended up being John Roos, the owner of Roos Roast! Small freaking world. John just bought a sailboat that was moored a few balls away from Alaya.

We also celebrated Lucas’ 36th birthday in Hope Town. This is his second Bahamas birthday in a row – talk about spoiled! I think he had a pretty good birthday, it was a little rainy that day, so we made Kizer breakfast potatoes and worked on projects in the morning (I finished my smallest but most complicated canvas cover yet for our fuel tank). We then spent the afternoon with Mark, Emily and Devin, first sipping cold drinks on Mesmeriah and then going to the swim-up bar at a nearby resort. Our fingers and toes were very wrinkly after spending 5 hours in the pool and hot tub.

As you can tell, we really enjoyed our first few weeks at Hope Town. About halfway through our stay, we decided to venture out to some nearby islands but I’ll save that story for the next post.