Good Karma Adventures: Hope Town, Green Turtle Cay, Marsh Harbor and a Rusty update

Rusty likes almost everything about The Bahamas but his allergies. His allergies seem to be acting up so we have to drug him with allergy medicine that makes him sleepy. He is licking his paws and licked open a nice hot spot on his front right paw. I threatened him with the big collar around his neck but he doesn’t seem to care.

The medicine makes Rusty sleepy and kind of stiff so he is having trouble turning around in his house. We sometimes have to take the lid off and help him scootch around the correct direction. Rusty does not find that amusing. We are also running out of food and he doesn’t find that amusing at all.

Interesting fun fact about locals and dogs: They are terrified of big dogs! Absolutely terrified. We couldn’t figure out why anyone would be terrified of Rusty. He is so gentle and friendly. After Rusty almost put a guy in the water as he backed away from Rusty quickly, we finally got someone to tell us why.

Really big mean black dogs roam the island and attack people. They have big heads and big chests just like Rusty. So naturally locals are not taking any chances. If it is a big dog, they run. No questions asked. So Rusty cannot walk around without a leash and he needs to stay away from people. Poor guy. He stays on the boat and sleeps a lot. Tough duty.

As for Kermit and I we sleep too. Then sometimes we move the boat and sometimes it is better to let someone else ferry us around. The wind and wave, and most important the gas prices encourage us to explore with someone else’s boat.

Let me set up the geography for the places we will talk about in the Abacos in this blog. Remember The Abacos is one of a series of islands that make up The Bahamas. Most of us are familiar with Nassau and Freeport, maybe Georgetown but we are in The Abacos at the north part of The Bahamas. There is very little here that is comparable to those big cities. But that is what makes the Abacos so wonderful.

Kermit and I have talked to a lot of people around here who have been coming here for many years. Most of the people we meet are Canadians. But there are a few Americans. We never heard of this place till we started this trip. Never heard of it. And we have been to all the big cities in The Bahamas. Hard to believe that we had no idea something this beautiful even existed.

Treasure Cay and the marina we are at for March is attached to Great Abaco Island, one of the big islands in The Bahamas, at the north and east end of the archipelago. Treasure Cay is towards the northern half of the island on a little spit that sticks out on the east side. The Atlantic Ocean is just across the bay about 5 miles or less to the east northeast.

1. Marsh Harbor is south of Treasure Cay in what is called Central Abaco, still on the same island but about 20 miles away by car.

2. Elbow Cay is a tiny island about 25 miles to the south east of Treasure Cay Resort and a short 5 mile ferry ride from Marsh Harbour. The main town is Hope Town.

3. Green Turtle Cay and New Plymouth are directly north of Treasure Cay about 10 miles across the bay. We can see if from the Treasure Cay beach. But you can’t get there directly across the bay. Remember we traveled from Green Turtle Bay to Treasure Cay and had to go all the way around the islands, past Whale Cay in the Atlantic to get to Treasure Cay because the water directly between the two places is so shallow.

4. Nippers Beach Bar and Grill is on Great Guana Cay, an island about 10 miles directly east of Treasure Cay Resort. On the east of this little town is the Atlantic Ocean. You can almost see Portugal.

So we have four famous places to visit from our base in Treasure Cay. We took three different modes of transportation to reach each place. We took Good Karma to Hope Town on Elbow Cay. We took a ferry to Great Guana Cay to visit Nippers and to Green Turtle Cay to visit New Plymouth. We rented a car to visit Marsh Harbour. This meant we could travel without spending the gas on Good Karma, it was faster because the ferry boats can travel places and at speeds Good Karma can’t go and in weather we wouldn’t dream of traveling in with Good Karma. It worked out well.

1. Monday March 4, all six of us (Marilyn and Dan Lipka and John and Judy Vellucci and Kermit and I) rented a car and went to Marsh Harbour. We heard a lot about this place. It is where wealthy people have big homes. Lots of people winter here on boats or in rentals. Martha's friends Liz and Tom have a vacation home at Marsh Harbour.

It took about 45 minutes to get there driving on the wrong side of the street. We made Dan drive. On the way out of Treasure Cay there is a big sign that says, “Haste ye back”. Isn’t that sweet?

Scenery along the way to Marsh Harbour

A local restaurant

Float from a parade the day before

The island has a lot of scrub trees, palm trees, and scrub bushes. Not too many homes. Homes are mixed up between businesses. Along the way we saw some of those big dogs that the locals are scared of. Most of them looked like pit bulls. I’d be scared too!

Marsh Harbour is a pretty big town compared to Treasure Cay. It has a traffic light!

While Treasure Cay has two strip shopping centers with the basic services of banking, groceries, liquor, restaurants, and hardware store, Marsh Harbour probably has two or three of each. Really huge!!

We drove around a lot to see the big homes and the pretty beaches, the marinas, and the commercial district. We had a great lunch at Mango’s. Great conch and corn chowder. I had lobster roll which was amazing.

It was really windy and the surf was up. I tried to capture the wind and waves in the photos but it is hard to see. What you can see very well is the amazing blue water contrasted with the deep blue sky.

It was really cold, that sailboat is really sunk, and that is the big
ferry to the big islands in the background. The wind is
puffing out my jacket - I am not that big!!!

Hurricane damage on a water front home - Sandy

This is called The Castle, it is a cafe now but used to be a residence

see the waves?

see the waves? amazing...

The marinas are packed with folks who took their boats to the Bahamas for the winter. Sort of like us but in a bigger town. The marinas are small with narrow fairways and very crowded. The swimming pools are tiny compared to our resort pool. I ran out of battery so don't have pictures. This is a publicity shot of Mango's where we had lunch. It has a big marina.

We took so many pictures that we ran out of memory.

What was memorable to Kermit was outside of the marinas how few people we saw. It was really expensive too.

2. Tuesday March 5 was a gorgeous day for boating so we all piled in Good Karma and took off for Hope Town. This is the furthest away of the places we wanted to go so it seemed like a smart place to take our own boat.

John Vellucci getting comfortable as we leave Treasure cay

L: Judy, Marilyn, and Dan on Good Karma

The water is amazingly clear. We traveled in at least 20 feet of water in most places and we could see the bottom as if we could touch it. We saw starfish that appeared to be waving to us. We saw manta rays and even a small shark swimming on the bottom. We could clearly see conch shells and sponges on the bottom. We didn’t go swimming because our Ohio friends thought the water was too cold at 75 degrees. We took a gazillion pictures!

can you see the shark silouetted?

Starfish

Storm in the distance as we approach Hope Town
but we had sunshine all day

Hope Town Lighthouse

Say it slowly outloud

Preserve the pristine water

an island home outside Hope Town

Hope Town

A cute town

It took about 3 hours to travel the 25+ miles to Hope Town at about 10 mph or less. It was a leisurely stroll of a boat ride. We arrived around 1pm.

One of the risks of taking your own boat is finding a place to tie up. Hope Town on Elbow Cay is a small town with just about 2 blocks of town visible from the water. There are no resorts, cruise ships or touristy things there. The only place to tie up are a few mooring buoys in the middle of the harbor. But these were filled with sailboats there for the winter. So we toodled around the harbor and went back home.

Lots of sail boats in the harbor - notice the Bahamian anchor tie?

Observations about Hope Town: It is really pretty. The buildings are all painted pretty pastel colors.

Hope Town is home to a great lighthouse, The Elbow Reef Lighthouse. According to the literature it is the most recognizable landmark in Abaco, built in 1863. It is one of the last manual lighthouses in the world. It burns pressurized Kerosene oil with a wick and mantle. It has rotating Fresnel lenticular panels that are supposed to be pretty special.

A lighthouse keeper has to wind up the weights every 2 hours to the light came be seen from 17 miles away, sending out light at 325,000 candlepower. Evidently they use mantles from Coleman Company like we use in our Coleman lanterns. Go figure.

We had sandwiches on the boat on the way back to Treasure Cay.

We read on the way home and enjoyed the sun.

Marilyn

Dan

john and Judy

3. On Thursday March 7 we took a ferry to New Plymouth on Green Turtle Cay. Kermit and I stayed at Green Turtle Cay Resort with Bunny and Evan the week before but we never got to visit New Plymouth because we rushed over Treasure Cay to take advantage of the weather window. So we were excited to visit the town.

Kermit getting off the ferry

Dan and Marilyn on the ferry

Dan and Marilyn kept talking about how wonderful Green Turtle was. We couldn’t figure out why. We stayed there and it was nice.

In my frustration I said, “See this big pitcher? That is Treasure Cay. See this salt shaker? That is Green Turtle. There is nothing there.” Finally I realized that according to Trip Advisor Green Turtle Cay had a 4 star rating and Treasure Cay only had a 3 star rating so Green Turtle must be better. Not so, in my opinion. Green Turtle is certainly pretty but there is nothing to do. The beaches, the food, the variety are much better at Treasure Cay, in my opinion. But I was really glad to visit New Plymouth. I wish we had time to visit the GT resort on the other side of the island.

New Plymouth on Green Turtle Cay is another very small town with very little going on. We visited the history museum and learned a lot about The Abacos. Evidently the Abacos were uninhabited for centuries after Columbus and the Spanish removed all the Lucayan people or killed them off in the 1500s.

The ferry harbor at New Plymouth

At the end of the American Revolution, a bunch of loyalists who were not pleased with the revolution’s outcome petitioned the British government for some other place to live. Their lives were in danger if they stayed in the USA. So King George III gave them land grants in the uninhabited Abacos in The Bahamas. They arrived in 1783 with their furnishings, the bricks to rebuild their homes, and their slaves. They made a living salvaging wrecks, building small boats, and farming, although the land is not really suited for farming.

The Loyalists built Marsh Harbour, Hope Town, and New Plymouth. Slavery was outlawed in 1834. Some places have only a few family names. New Plymouth has Sawyers, Lowes, and another name I can’t remember. Man-o-War Cay is famous for the Albury family. Most of the people in the town are related to one another.

Downtown New Plymouth, seriously

We got off the ferry at about 12pm. The small ferry goes very fast directly between Treasure Cay by the airport across the water to GTC across water too shallow for Good Karma on most days.

narrow sidewalks and pastel houses

Our gang has a great lunch!!

The place is pretty deserted. They guy at the museum said there are a few hundred people living in New Plymouth now. It feels like that number is a stretch.

This is the outside of that cute little restaurant

Kermit had cheese steak sandwich and I had grouper -
it was great and the best ice tea

We had a great lunch then visited the Albert Lowe Museum in a small wooden house filled with pictures, paintings, and artifacts about the town history. There are big ship models that Albert Lowe built including models and pictures of the rum runners used during Prohibition and blockade runners used during the Civil War.

The Albert Lowe Museum

We walked down the street to see the Loyalist Memorial Statue Garden. We ran into a few people, a few golf carts, and even an SUV in a small traffic jam of about 3 vehicles at about 1pm – probably going home for lunch.

We walked the entire length of the town and back, had a Goombay Smash at Miss Emily’s. We were ready to go home at 3pm. We were grateful the ferry was enclosed. It was cold and breezy.

Inside the Albert Lowe Museum

The post office

The nice lady at the environmental center

Walking the town

Have to stop at the cemetary

The jail

Critter alert - sand crabs and sea gulls working on a dead fish:

Kermit pointing out the crabs in the water

Miss Emily's Blue Bee Bar is famous. Evidently Miss Emily invented the Goombay Smash, a drink with pineapple and coconut and lots of alcohol.

The place is covered with business cards, signs, and stuff. We put our boat card on the wall.

4. On Sunday March 10, after our guests returned to Ohio, Kermit and I took a ferry to Grand Guana Cay to visit Nippers Bar. Nippers has a 4.5 star rating from Trip Advisor. We were excited. This is a must see when visiting the Abacos. There are bunches of YouTube videos about Nippers, most of them showing a big party going on all the time. This is apparently all true.

We left at 10:30am for a 45 minute ferry ride on a bright sunny day. Kermit had to tell anyone who would listen about our trip. Who did we see anchored in the harbor? Headquarters!! Tony and Shirley left Treasure Cay on Saturday morning for a few days at Nippers.

The harbor was essentially empty except for about 6 or 7 boats anchored out in the harbor. Nippers is a short walk down the road and up a path to the other side of the island, facing the Atlantic Ocean. You can hear the ocean while you are walking. You can also hear tons of birds and a little bit of music from the few bars along the way.

We passed the cemetary along the way. Notice anything funny about this jet ski? Like the outboard motor on the back?

On the road to Nippers

High quality electrical work

We passed a Poisonwood tree along the way. Those of you in the pool – I almost touched it. Kermit stopped me and said Evan told him it was deadly poisonous. It is a member of the cashew or sumac family native to the American tropics that produces irritating oil close to poison sumac or poison oak. Evidently it doesn’t come off. I didn’t touch but I might have.

This is what the Bahamas means to me!!

Continue walking around the bend and see a beat up beach bar. Walk a little further and see the best ocean view in the entire world. It took our breath away!!

We had the Sunday pig roast with the most amazing macaroni and cheese I’ve ever had!! It was perfect. You have to purchase these little chips to get the paper plate. If you go back for seconds (as we did) the plate is a little smaller. Portion control the Abacos way.

Please enjoy these amazing photos of the ocean. I will forever associate Kenny Chesney and Alan Jackson with Kalik beer on the porch at Nippers. Unbelievable.

We reluctantly walked back away from Nippers when they switched to rock and roll, certain that we could stay there forever and certain we would return.