Waiting for tide, and other things...

We picked up a mooring here Sunday afternoon as the harbor is really too small for anchoring.  Several sea turtles have poked their heads up to look at all the boats and we've seen dolphins swimming through the moorings.  We have spent the last couple of days exploring Hope Town.  It is one of the prettier settlements we have seen,  possibly because it is such a popular tourist destination.  To my eye over half the houses here are rental properties.  And probably 25% of the buildings are for sale.  Depending on the size and the location you can rent a house for $1000 to $4000 (or more) a week.  The buildings are all pretty well maintained, with typical tropical pastel paint schemes.

Yesterday we climbed the Hope Town lighthouse.  It was built in the 1860s and is 120 feet tall.  It is a key wound kerosene light - one of the last three in the world.   There is also a nice little museum here with interesting artifacts.  We hiked south out of town a mile or so and then walked back into town along the ocean side beach.  We had considered renting bikes but it was so hot we decided the money would be better spent on ice cream.  We had some local conch and lobster meals at a place called "Munchies" - I'm sure it's not a chain as Mr Munchie cooked our meals and then sat under his cork or fig tree (he didn't know which) talking with us.

Right now we are waiting for enough tide so we can leave and go to Man O War Cay.  As we listen to the weather reports in the morning people are calling in to see when the winds will be favorable to cross the Gulf Stream.  A few people started leaving the Bahamas a month ago and now a steady stream of boats are heading north in the Abacos to get ready to make the crossing back to the States.  We have a few more places we want to visit, but have also started watching the forecasts for a decent weather window.  We're at a point where we don't really want to leave, but we also don't want to miss a good opportunity since our crossing will be over a hundred miles.  In the next few days as we work north I think we will lose cell phone/Kindle coverage.  SPOT should keep showing our progress.