The Abacos

Motivator on a mooring in Hope Town

As mentioned in a previous blog, many boats that cruise the Bahamas never leave the Abacos.  Venturing south to the other islands that make up the Bahamas is just too daunting for them, and they rightly believe there is plenty to do in the protected waters of the Sea of Abaco.

Motivator’s crew quickly got into “cruising” the Abacos with stops at our favorite places.

After Little Harbour, our first stop was Hope Town on Elbow Cay.  The brightly painted little cottages lining the narrow streets makes Hope Town one of the cutest places on earth.

Elbow Cay is another one of the islands settled by British Loyalist escaping persecution from those pesky American Revolutionaries.  My guess is that today there are more Americans with second homes than descendants of Loyalists living on the island.

But, the Loyalists had a few setbacks.

Swim up bar at Hope Town Inn and Marina

We were interested in seeing the Hope Town Inn and Marina that was still under construction on our last visit to Abacos.  They are still building cottages adjacent to the compound, but the main part of the development is completed and open for business.

The new marina’s dockage rates were more than we wanted to pay for the pleasure of being shoehorned in among the mega yachts.  So we opted for a mooring ball nearby and were happy to use their stellar WiFi.

Fellow cruisers told us that the restaurant at the Hope Town Inn and Marina was excellent, but we had to go back to one of our old favorites, Capt’n Jacks.

Another must-do for us is On Da Beach.  It is a healthy bike ride out of town, but worth the effort.

The specialty of On Da Beach is a drink called a “Turtle Racer.”  It consists of Bacardi Gold, banana rum, Amaretto, and pineapple juice.  More than one, and you are ready to race turtles.

Marsh Harbour was our next stop.  Maxwell’s Supermarket rivals most grocery stores in the states and is a short bicycle ride from Mangoes Marina in Marsh Harbour.  Pollie has “invented” a grocery carrier that bungees to the back of her bike.  Other than looking like a “bag lady,” it works pretty well.

Great Guana Cay is worth a stop in the Abacos.  The last time we were there was in 2011 on our sailboat Serenity.  We were surprised to find an available mooring ball in the small harbor.  The reviews on ActiveCaptain.com indicated that Motivator might be too large for the moorings.

However, the next morning when Troy from Guana Dive came by to “knock us up” and collect the mooring fee, he didn’t even blink at our size.

The big attraction a Great Guana Cay is Nipper’s.

Nippers is funky at best, but it is a good place to have lunch and relax either on the beach or by one of their two saltwater pools.

Our last stop was Green Turtle Cay (sorry, no pictures).  We only anchored there one night to stage for making a 180 NM (25 hours) run back to the states.