{"id":1847,"date":"2013-04-16T21:29:51","date_gmt":"2013-04-16T21:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=1847"},"modified":"2013-04-16T21:37:27","modified_gmt":"2013-04-16T21:37:27","slug":"hope-town-the-real-bahamas-only-the-loyalists-know-for-sure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=1847","title":{"rendered":"Hope Town. The real Bahamas? Only the loyalists know for sure…"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the American revolution was heating up and it seemed that the British would be expelled from The Colonies, those loyal to the Crown fled the soon to be \u00a0United States. \u00a0Many of them settled in the Bahamas and some in the Abacos on Elbow Cay and founded the lovely village of Hope Town.<\/p>\n

Today, Tuesday, Brenda and I weighed anchor in Marsh Harbor and made the short trek, less than 10 miles, to Hope Town. \u00a0While we enjoyed Marsh Harbor (I finally got a haircut, my first since January) this island, even though it is very close to Marsh Harbor, is beautiful and a world apart.<\/p>\n

When I was reading some of the comments on Active Captain, a sort of Web based cruising guide, one reviewer likened Hope Town to Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard, a lovely spot known for their tiny Victorian cottages. \u00a0I agree, Hope Town has the same feel and is actually even nicer and better kept. \u00a0We went ashore and toured the Island, primarily to find a spot for dinner tonight and here are some of the sights we enjoyed.<\/p>\n

The main settlement of Hope Town is built around a very compact harbor. \u00a0The homes are lovely and each is more beautifully kept than the last. \u00a0The colors of the buildings, in true Bahamas style, are very brightly painted.<\/p>\n

These two pink buildings,\u00a0perfectly\u00a0maintained, with green grass all around, are home to an art gallery. \u00a0How magnificent.
\n\"\"<\/a>Out in back of the gallery, with a view of the ocean, is a lovely deck. \u00a0I’d love to have this sort of layout on the back of our home in Essex. \u00a0 \u00a0I can’t imagine a better spot to host a gallery opening. \u00a0I’d go, assuming that they were serving wine. \u00a0That’s what they do at openings, right?\"\"<\/a>The island is known for it’s candy stripe lighthouse. \u00a0It’s the last manned light and only kerosene light in the country. \u00a0The keeper still winds the mechanism and lights the lamp each night. \u00a0Actually, there are precious few lights that are maintained at all, manned or not in this country. \u00a0 I expect that the locals have something to do with this status of this light as there is clearly money on this little island.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>This is a good example of one of the “streets” that run all around the island. \u00a0Golf carts are the preferred form of transportation. \u00a0 The plantings are lovingly maintained.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>This was a particularly lovely walkway on someone’s property. \u00a0The large pendent trumpet flowers are datura. \u00a0Really impressive flowers. \u00a0Some folks in the US grow them as a summer patio plant. \u00a0Here, they grow well year round.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>Some of the plantings on the island are very old. \u00a0This one is from Captain Bligh’s stash of breadfruit plants brought on the Bounty from Tahiti. \u00a0 Pretty amazing. \u00a0Someone has worked hard to keep this plant living for all this time. \u00a0Breadfruit is clearly not an invasive species as this tree is showing it’s age.
\n\"\"<\/a>Everywhere you turn there is another lovely home to enjoy. \u00a0 The trim work on this one is perfect.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>So, did we find the perfect spot for dinner tonight? \u00a0You betcha!!! We will be dining at the Hope Town Lodge<\/a>. \u00a0Check out their site as it really gives a feel for how nice the place is. \u00a0The dining room requires “appropriate attire”. \u00a0“What would appropriate attire be”, I asked? \u00a0Hoping that we had something suitable aboard Pandora. \u00a0The answer was shorts and a polo shirt…and shoes. \u00a0Whew… I can do that.<\/p>\n

Prior to dining we will enjoy one of our favorite “adult beverages” on this terrace. \u00a0As luck would have it, the patio faces west so we can enjoy yet another Bahamas sunset. \u00a0I can hardly wait. \u00a0\"\"<\/a>So, is this the real Bahamas? \u00a0 Right again and one of our favorite stops yet. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the American revolution was heating up and it seemed that the British would be expelled from The Colonies, those loyal to the Crown fled the soon to be \u00a0United States. \u00a0Many of them settled in the Bahamas and some in the Abacos on Elbow Cay and founded the lovely village of Hope Town. Today, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1847"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1857,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1847\/revisions\/1857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}