Hope Town, Elbow Cay
Hope Town is the prettiest harbour in the Abacos: a near-landlocked pool of water ringed by pastel clapboard houses, with a candy-striped lighthouse standing over the entrance. It is the single most photographed place in the northern Bahamas.
The lighthouse
The red and white striped Elbow Reef lighthouse dates from the 1860s and is one of the last manually operated kerosene lighthouses anywhere. The keeper still winds the clockwork mechanism that turns the light. You can climb it for a view over the harbour and the reef, and it is worth doing at sunset.
The settlement
Hope Town is a loyalist village of narrow lanes, no cars to speak of, white picket fences and painted cottages. There are good restaurants, a museum, a bakery, and a long ocean beach a few minutes’ walk across the cay. It has been battered by hurricanes more than once and rebuilt each time.
The harbour
The entrance is narrow and shallow, which keeps larger yachts outside. Inside is a mooring field with excellent protection in almost any weather. Deeper-draft charter yachts anchor outside in the Sea of Abaco and run guests in by tender.
Nearby
Tahiti Beach at the southern end of Elbow Cay is a sandbar that appears at low tide, and the reef off the ocean side snorkels well in settled conditions.
Send us your dates and party size and we will put together a shortlist of crewed yachts that can take you here.