Hope Town Settlement Lighthouse Tour
Bucket List: Elbow Cay Lighthouse in Hope Town, Bahamas
We docked the dinghy, with a stern anchor out, right at the lighthouse dock for our free self-guided tour. The woman in the gift shop was very friendly and informative.
The light in this lighthouse is the only one in the world that still runs on kerosene and is hand-cranked! We saw the block-and-tackle they use to bring up the kerosene to the pressurized tank. OSHA has no jurisdiction here...
101 steps to the top. It's fascinating to us that a cochlea is a naturally occurring geometric shape. Part of the beautiful way God made order in the universe.
According to the brochure, "The lighting source is a 325,000 candlepower "Hood" petroleum vapour burner. A hand pump is used to pressurize the petroleum (kerosene) which is in the heavy green iron containers below the lantern room. The fuel travels up a tube to a vapourizer within the burner which sprays into a preheated mantle. Pressurized camping lanterns operate similarly."
"The beautiful Fresnel lens with its five "bull's-eyes" concentrate the mantle's light into piercing beams which shine straight out towards the horizon, instead of up and down and all around, as in a camp lantern." - from the brochure
The view of the entrance to Hope Town Harbour from the top of the lighthouse is amazing. We love the clear, blue water of the Bahamas.
Hope Town Harbour is full of moorings so more boats can fit. One guide book says that there is an anchoring spot in there somewhere. Yeah. Good Luck. The cruisers here are so helpful. They run a Cruiser's Net on VHF channel 68 every morning at 08:15, answer questions, and help to find supplies.
We enjoyed our stay so much, that we ended up anchoring off Parrot Cays five times to visit the town, get propane, see the lighthouse, and walk the beautiful beaches on the Atlantic side of the island.
Lots of bougainvillea, tidy yards, pastel houses, and white sandy beaches. The effects of Hurricane Dorian can still be seen, but are being erased by a resilient, cheerful people. One guy had a shirt on that said, "Dorian destroyed us, but Dorian does not define us."
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