Abacos Cay - Marsh Harbour and Hope Town

We were back into the Atlantic rolling swells for our trip to the Abacos Cays which was fine for the first 5 hours but as the wind dropped off our sails started to flap, so it was engine on for the rest of the day which was a bit frustrating.  Even the tankers were suffering in the swells.

Big tankers bobbing in the swell

Next day the plan was to head for Man o War Cay, knowing that a strong northerly was on its way, so we needed to get shelter. This was not much more than 10 miles away but we had to motor most of it as we were weaving around sand banks, also we wanted to stop on route to attempt to get some wifi.  After around 5-6- miles we stopped close to a marina in the hope we would pick up wifi. We did and thanks to their generosity, unlocked broadband, Amanda called her mum and dad before they went on holiday.

So we upped anchor and headed back out to deeper water, but in under a minute we slid to a halt. Mark came running up from below to see what had happened. We had driven onto an unmarked sandbank and Magnum liked her new resting place as she seemed very reluctant to let go of her hold on the sand.
Quick action was required as the tide was falling and we could be marooned here until the next high tide about 9 hours later.
We tried reversing off the way we had come......nope,
we tried going forward hoping it was a small raised patch of sand........nope
we tried putting the helm hard to port and pivoting the boat using wash from the propeller, this did turn the boat but we were still stuck...
In a final last ditch effort we span Magnum to starboard until we had a good angle to the wind, we then unroll d the foresail and sheeted it tight. We drove the engine hard in forward and held our breath as Magnum healed over, reducing our draft. Slowly we slid off into deeper water (2.6m!!)......we were off!

We resumed our journey to Man o War but the day was conspiring against us and we a strong westerly wind meant we had to change our plans so more difficult navigation across another very shallow sand bank to get into Marsh harbour, we were relieved to arrive in one piece and find space to anchor.

Marsh Harbour

Marsh harbour is a reasonably large settlement and is good for supermarket, fuel, laundrette, all our essentials.  It is also quite touristy with some nice little gift shops and some lovely looking restaurants.   From here various ferries run to some of the smaller islands, we were really keen to visit Hope Town as we had heard it was very pretty but it was also very shallow so we took a ferry, was nice to be on someone elses boat,

Hope Town is on Elbow Cay and is a beautiful little place, it was one of the original loyalist colonies and has lots of picture postcard houses that line the tiny lane, most of which seem to be holiday lets.

Even the school is quaint.

There are also some beautiful beaches.

Amanda alone on the beautiful beach at Hope Town

It was a lovely place to spend a day exploring, but in typical West Indies style, the museum which was supposed to be open every day, was not open and there was no explanation :)   Hope Town is a beautiful place and glad we had an opportunity to visit even if it was not on Magnum.

Mark taking in the world at the entrance to Hope Town

The friendly curly tail lizards

Entrance to Hope town harbour

One final sunset in the Bahamas and we were off to America, wow that seems like another big adventure.