Smooth seas and Whale Cay

                           Mother Ocean leads the group out of Green Turtle

Today was an even more perfect day than yesterday with nary a ripple on the Sea of Abaco as the five intrepid Great Harbournauts headed south from Green Turtle Cay, bound for Elbow Cay and Hope Town harbour.  The sea was like a giant aquarium and you could clearly see starfish and conch on the bottom as we cruised across the calm turquoise waters.

                                Believe it or not, it's 12 feet deep here!

One obstacle in the way of a successful north-south transit of the Sea of Abaco is the much-feared "Whale Cay Passage".  This passage avoids a large sand bank by taking you out into the Atlantic, around the small, rocky Whale Cay, and back into the Sea of Abaco at Loggerhead Channel.  This CAN be a difficult or impossible transit during a rage sea (waves breaking all the way across the inlets).  However, rage seas only occur in winter or with a hurricane.  Suffice to say there was no rage sea today!

                             Hard at work transiting Whale Cay Passage

We continued on and entered beautiful Hope Town harbour at about 1pm, where we had our slips waiting for us at the Hope Town Inn & Marina.  I managed to burn my bare feet running about from boat to boat on the gray-painted dock surface. But we got everyone safely into their slips - plus helping Lee and Karen onto their mooring ball in the harbour.

After putting on some shoes - and getting everyone checked in at the marina office, we all got into dinghies and headed over to the Lighthouse dock.  The candy-striped Elbow Cay Reef Light has been standing watch over the central Abacos through all manner of storms since 1854.  The grand old lady is the last hand-wound, kerosene-fired lighthouse in the Western Hemisphere and her 1st-order Fresnel lens shines over 17 miles out to sea.  I have climbed the 101 steps to the lantern room countless times, but I still get a thrill out of it.  Every time.  I am sure the rest of the group did too as we climbed out onto the observation deck and took in the magnificent views.

                                                    At Last on her mooring

After coming down from the light tower, some of the group dinghied off across the harbour to check out the town, while others (me included) headed back to the marina.  I found a seat at the in-pool bar, ordered a delicious frozen pina colada, and soaked my poor scorched feet!

Later, we all met up at "Bridget's Rum Bar for another excellent and entertaining group dinner.  Now, the PLAN has been to stay here two nights and head over to Marsh Harbour on Saturday morning.  But, unfortunately, this tropical disturbance working its way up the Florida coast might prevent us from moving - with forecast winds of up to 35 knots.  If so, another day in Hope Town shouldn't be too much of a hardship!

Before I close out this day's blog, I wanted to share a very cool pic that my colleague Joe Senn took last night at the Green Turtle Club.  The light and colors are strictly from the underwater lights on the swim platforms and transoms of some of the boats.