Hopetown

 At the other end of Tilloo Cay is Hopetown.  It is a very iconic part of cruising the Abacos.  Every guide and previous visitor told us to put it on our must-do list and we're glad we did.  It is a small town with a great harbour.  The entrance is narrow and shallow so we had to be careful but we managed to find a mooring ball and meet some nice folks. This was the most repaired/restored island we have come across in the Bahamas.  Many of the houses are rentals so there is more money invested in getting them habitable quickly. We walked miles and saw just about the whole area.

Cap'n Jacks is a fun if pricey place to eat.  I guess you're 

paying for the view.  All the places are painted in bright colors.

There are pave roads but more scraped ones.

And then you get the paths.

The center of the garden.

A very cool memorial garden with plaques honoring

important people in Hopetown's history.

A bigger picture of the memorial garden.

One of the grocery stores.  We were there on days before

the supply boat came so not many options.

We climbed a hill to get this shot of town.

A sunrise view of the harbour.

A large house that has been repaired from Dorian.

Still a lot of repairs ongoing with private homes.

One of the many lanes leading over the hill to the ocean.

A typical road.

The beaches are stunning.  I can see why people make the

effort to come spend a vacation here.

A cute and tasty coffee shop.

Lush plantings are everywhere.

More houses.

We couldn't see the house but it must be grand to be 

worth all those steps to climb.

A memorial to sailors and fishermen lost at sea.

A cute cottage.

Sorry, I just couldn't get enough of the quaint, well kept lanes.

A public restroom.  Pink is their favorite color.

This scrawny looking pine towers about anything else.

We were impressed that is survived Dorian when so much

else did not.

We went up a few creeks and found so much damage

and derelict boats.  This one was being worked on 

with a long way to go.

If you zoom in, you can see the wash hanging under

the second story deck.  This was a hotel.

Channel Cay to Tilloo Cay

 Once we left Little Harbour, we anchored off a small, private island called Channel Cay.  The plan was to dinghy back to a National Park area off Sandy Cay and snorkel but the waves were too rough so we just rode around and looked through our viewing bucket.  The next day we went a few miles and anchored off Tilloo Cay near Elbow Cay.  In the Sea of Abaco, the islands are very close together so we don't have to go more than a few miles to see something completely new and different.  A nice way to travel.

They are trying hard to keep this palm viable.  Hope it works.

The Tilloo Cut out into the Atlantic. What a sailor wants to see,

calm and flat water.

Houses at the North end of Tilloo Cay.

We couldn't find out what this is.  Either a very large house

with separate guest houses or some type of private club.

Regular old house you'd see anywhere, right?

The Abacos are famous for miles of uncluttered beaches.

What most of Florida looked like before developers.

From our bucket view, puffy sea star.

Sea urchin

Sea Biscuit under all that camouflage.

At the Southern end of Elbow Cay is a neighborhood of houses.

Some were in the process of being rebuilt after Dorian, or repaired or

awaiting repair or simply abandoned.  This was a road project with

a new house to the side.

Think of the power it took to lift this boat this far inland.

Nice concrete road.  There must be some money here!

A private club for the residence of the neighborhood.

All that was left of this octagonal house were some appliances,

interior walls and the tile on the floors.

Lots of new builds.

Low tide exposes a lot of interesting features on this

tiny bits of island.

This is a live conch.

the very end of Tilloo Cay

Nice place to anchor for the night.

They have their priorities in rebuilding, Tiki Hut first.

Looking over to Lubber's Quarter.  What a name for an island.

Tahiti Beach. At low tide there is so much room to roam

so popular for shelling.

This is a very large, very damaged house.  There didn't seem

to be any effort to repair it going on.

The house and it's faux lighthouse on Channel Cay.

Aunt Pat's Beach anchorage.  I couldn't resist taking this one.