We decided to ferry to Hope Town for the day. I had called several small motor boat rental places but the one in Marsh Harbour did not rent for the day and the others on nearby cays did not answer inquiries.
It seemed like the ferry was the best option. We wanted to visit Man-O-War Cay but there was no return ferry until 5 and we wanted to have some time with Jeff and Deb. There were no boats between Man-O-War and Hope Town. We opted for the 9 am ferry to Hope Town with a 3 pm return. If we were running late, there was a 345 as well.
We set out in the morning and walked to The Crossing, which is a little over a mile away from the marina. All the ferries to Hope Town and Man-O-War leave from there. We could see “The Castle” on our way.
We got to the ticket window. One window says “tickets”, the other “beer.” We purchased two round trip tokens. There were some school children waiting as well as lots of workers. We were the only visitors. We left the dock shortly before 9.
The journey took about 20 minutes. We entered the harbour as a catamaran was trying to exit. The ferry stopped at 4 docks and traveled pretty fast from dock to dock waking all the boats in the harbour and reinforcing our decision to stay outside the harbour with our boat. We got off at the post office dock.
We rented bikes from the canvas shop and decided to ride to the south end of the island on The Queen’s Highway. Our destination was Tahiti Beach, a large sand bar that would be exposed for another several hours. It was a beautiful ride past homes and lagoons and ocean views. There were some hills but not much traffic and the cars we did see were narrow or golf carts.
Tahiti Beach is on the south end of Elbow Cay and faces Lubber’s Quarter where the Marx family has their home. There is an anchorage between Lubber’s Quarter and Elbow looked deep enough for us and there were some large boats in there as well as several that came in at low tide. The charts do not support this theory but that is often the case. I think we could definitely get in there at high tide.
We identified the Marx’s home, beautiful. Bill was so nice, offering his number for advice in case we were able to get a small boat for exploring.
Tahiti beach was beautiful! Conch lined the shallows. We walked, waded, swam and talked with some other boaters and their dogs. A family we had seen at Lynyard sailed into the anchorage. As we were leaving, The Thirsty Cuda bar pulled in.
We decided on the Abaco Inn for lunch, recommended by John. We shared the lobster bites appetizer and ordered some sides. The lobster was delicious.
After lunch, we biked back to town. We wanted to go to the little museum but it was not open. The lady next door said they did not have anyone to run it until Saturday. We returned our bikes and walked around the settlement. We went to a check out a cemetery that Beate had liked to walk through. A path along it leads to the ocean beach.
The cemetery path also leads to Scoopalicious which happened to be open with some delicious cappuccino chip ice cream. There, we ran into some of our boater friends from Cape Eleuthera. It was great to see them again.
We then headed to catch our ferry back. We saw ferries go to other docks and finally one came to ours and we headed back across. We stopped at the little grocery on the walk back.
When we arrived at the marina, Jeff and Deb were there! We said hello and planned to meet for dinner. They were busy with boat work and showers. I swam and did some laundry and we all headed to the restaurant around 530. It was great to catch up with them. They may stay in Marsh Harbour for at least a week. We plan to leave tomorrow to get around Whale Cay before the weather acts up again.