It has been pretty windy here on Elbow Cay and we had hoped to use the dinghy more. Today winds were down and we took a dinghy ride to the Hopetown Lighthouse.
The lighthouse was not a popular idea with the Elbow Cay islander back in the 1800’s. Salvaging shipwrecks was the biggest business in town and employed half the male population. Britain commissioned the 89 foot, 101 step Elbow Cay Lighthouse which has a 15 mile range light from pressurized kerosene canisters and a Fresnel lens. It was completed in 1864 and there were many delays as the townspeople sank vessels bringing in building supplies, refused to give water and provisions to the lighthouse builders and sometimes dismantled the work already done. It survived all this and hurricanes and still shines brightly over beautiful Hopetown harbor.
