Lighthouse Chronicles

Hi All,

We are back in Marsh Harbour again after spending most of the week in Hope Town and briefly in Man O’War Cay. We came back because of a strong cold front that just hit here about 7 AM. Predicted gale force winds and rain for 2-3 days, but so far it hasn’t been too bad. Plus we tied up to a dock for the night at a marina with Showers!
Catatonic in Hope Town Harbor

As I said we spent most of the week in Hope Town on Elbow Cay, about 7 miles from Marsh Harbour. Hope Town, an old loyalist settlement ( escapees from the American Revolution) is probably the most scenic island we have been to yet. The little cottages are really done up nicely, and the lighthouse there, built in 1864, is still operating, fired by kerosene with Fresnel lenses to project the light. We walked up the 101 steps inside to the top and stepped through a really heavy steel door out onto the parapet. They would never let you do this in the States, but the views were spectacular.

Inside the Fresnel Lens



We went ashore to find several artists painting the lighthouse and other neat scenes on the island. Of course, Ronnie fell into conversation with them, and found out that there had just been a large class of tourists that had been there last week, just to take art classes and paint. The resident artist is an ex-marine who has been painting his whole life and is very good. He and his wife come back every year to rent a cottage, give lessons, and just relax. Great place.
Going up the 101 steps inside

Ronnie did another painting while on the boat this time of the lighthouse and the surrounding harbor. She had a great time while I puttered and read.

One morning we rode our bikes about 2 miles to a little shack called “On Da Beach” where we had lunch – hamburgers. Great spot, overlooking the Atlantic, although it was blowing so hard that they had windscreens up, so your food didn’t blow away.

Finally after 4 days at Hope Town, we decided that with the wind and seas dropping, we would try diving at a recommended dive spot. The trick was that it wasn’t marked, and we had to be careful bringing the boat in not too close to the reef. We managed to bring it in to about 5 feet of water and anchor. Then we launched the dinghy – manhandling the 65 pound outboard onto the transom in bouncy seas. We motored the dinghy about 1/4 mile to where we thought the diving looked good. Long story made short, we found only a small school of blue parrot fish ( not good for eating). I was armed with a spear but the currents were pushing us out to sea, so we swam back to the dinghy, and with some difficulty and a total lack of grace, got ourselves back in. We have been trying to catch fish for dinner, either by normal fishing or spearing and are batting zero so far.

Anyway, it’s now pretty windy outside, but we intend to get ourselves over to a friend's boat about a mile away where we are going to watch the Patriots play the Chargers. We have had some success using ichat to talk to our kids over the computer (an application on Macs), but I have heard about Skype, a similar application that might allow us to call anyone from our internet accessed computer. More on that probably next week. The technology is really amazing and it keeps on coming!

That’s about all for now. Look for us next week when we will have Ronnie’s brother, Dennis, visiting for about 5 days.

Arnie and Ronnie