January 14, Departing Man-O-War, Abaco

January 14, 2012, Departing Man-O-War, Abaco

The partly cloud day finds us motoring to an anchorage North of Little Harbor on the Great Abaco Island.  Yesterday a cold front came through which plunged the temperatures into the low 70"s; very delightful by my standards.  The wind is steady a 15 kt so it will be a great day for exploring in the sail-yak and hopefully snorkeling once we anchor-up.

The last two nights found us at a Man-O-War Marina on Man-O-War Cay which is famed for boat building, sail making and because it is a safe harbor.  A long walk on a deserted Ocean beach brought us to a secluded home of a couple from Cape Cod who sailed here 7 years ago and never left.  

A walk to Lola's resulted in the purchase of yummy homemade cinnamon rolls and Bahamian bread for French toast breakfast tomorrow.  Everyday Lola bakes bread and cinnamon buns and delivers them to the two local grocery stores.  As we walked across the lawn towards her home she greeted us from the chair swing on the porch of her home.  At 76, she has been baking bread "forever" on the gas stove in her tidy kitchen.  Her husband collected the cash and regaled us with tales of living on the Island. Their "accent" was a bit of a challenge to understand as many initial consonants were left off and accents within words were in unfamiliar places. 

This morning Lola was on her golf cart delivering goodies to the bake sale at the high school (one room) where locals supporting locals were trying to raise money for a college bound young man.

I knew about the bake sale as late in the afternoon of day before, I happened to be on the ferry  from Marsh Harbor to Man-O-War Cay.  The  half a dozen locals engaged in easy conversation about the "passing" of five locals within the past two weeks, and the upcoming knee re-replacemnt (in Fort Lauderdale, without health insurance since his wife retired,) of a gentleman on board. Everyone agreed that the loss of power each evening was to blame for one death as that person was dependent on oxygen due to emphysema and her oxygen machine "surely burned out due to the frequent power outages." and wasn't it good that none of them was smoking anymore....

Boxes of homemade cakes and goodies were on there way to the bake sale; I got to sample a treat when a gregarious gentleman started rummaging through  the sacred goods and having found the holy grail for doughnut lovers, negotiated with the college bound senior and treated each ferry goer to a donut. Needless to say that 30 minute crossing passed quickly.

I ended up on that ferry as a result of a day trip in the inflatable from Man-O-War Marina to Hope Town on Elbow Cay; home to its famous red and white striped lighthouse.  Leaving no challenged unanswered we climbed to the top of the lighthouse where we were rewarded with panoramic views of the harbor and distant Cays.  Elbow Cay Lighthouse (aka Hope Town Lighthouse) is one of the last three, continuously operated, kerosene-fueled, hand-wound rotation lighthouses in the world.   it's 89' tall (with 101 steps) and sits 120' above sea level, ( another 30 steps to climb,) and  it flashes every 15 seconds.  The lighting source is a 325,000-candlepower vapor burner that runs on kerosene that is pressurized via a hand pump and travels up a tube to a vaporizer where  the vaporizer sprays the fuel on a pre-heated mantle (think giant Coleman lantern mantle)  that is known as the "soul" of the lighthouse.  The Fresnel lenses concentrate the mantle's light into a laser-like beam that can be seen 15 nautical miles away. 

Hope Town is a cruisers dream, a safe harbor ( unfortunately with a shallow entrance, we could only enter at or after mid-tide.)  The town sits upon the circular harbor and the pastel cottages and businesses adorn the three parallel roads that intersect the rise from the harbor to the crest where numerous paths descend down to the endless miles of gorgeous Ocean beaches with seas sporting their brilliant green colors out to the breaking water at the reef where the the deep dark blue beckons the mariner. 

Yesterday strolling down the low road  at Man-O-War brought us past the busy boat building shops where the local Aubury boats are built and to the Aubury canvas shop where local ladies have been sewing canvas bags and hats for decades. The canvas shop is festooned with bags of every conceivable size, color and shape; while there the local school Principal came is complaining that everyone wanted the two local schools closed because of a bug problem, I never did discover which "bug" was the concern but the gentleman was certainly railing on about how good it was that he had given up drinking years ago or this problem would certainly "put him on  a binge."  Interestingly there is a total ban on the sale of alcohol on the Island which supports a very strong spiritual commitment that keeps the little community somewhat apart from the ways of the outside world.

Today brings us to an anchorage in the lee of a small Island on the West side of Great Abaco. A wet dingy  ride ferried us into Little Harbor where we meandered around the iron foundry built by eccentric artist, Randolph Johnson in the 1950's and today is run by Pete, one of his sons.  We met a young man from Boston who is an apprentice at the foundry and he explained that  the bronze foundry uses the lost art of cold wax molds.  Randolf Johnson, his wife and children sailed from Northampton, MA, on their schooner Langosta, "to escape the maddening rush of civilization to live their lives in sight of no man, in pursuit of a free life and  devotion to art."  They arrived in Little harbor and lived in caves until they built thatched huts and a foundry.  The lifelike bronze statues adorn the waterfront and gallery; dolphins frolic in the patina bronze surf, a bald eagle wrestles a prize fish from the sea, turtles gracefully swim amid bronze kelp and a mountain lion leaps to grasp a fish from and eagle. Needless to say the statues are stunning....