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Hope Town Mooring Field

Lat / Lon: N 26° 32.276' / W 076° 57.593'
Depth: 8-14 ft
Description:
Hope Town Harbour is full of moorings with no room to anchor. Moorings are all first-come, first-serve. Blue and red floats belong to Hope Town Inn and Marina. White with blue stripe belong to Cap'n Jacks Restaurant. Double green floats belong to "Lucky Strike". Long term visitors mark their moorings "reserved" with a third float or a lifevest. Pick up an available mooring and if you don't know who to pay, chances are someone will be around to collect your money before long.

4.60

(5)

4.60 out of 5 stars

Holding:

5.00

Wind Protection:

4.80

Current Flow:

5.00

Wake Protection:

4.00

Scenic Beauty:

3.80

Ease of Shopping:

5.00

Shore Access:

5.00

Pet Friendly:

4.75

Cell Service:

4.20

WiFi:

3.00

Review for Hope Town Mooring Field

Reviewed by: Jason Spitz on Dec 18, 2023
Vessel Type: Sail
LOA: 40'
Draft: 4.0'

Overall Rating:

5

Holding:

5

Wind Protection:

5

Current Flow:

5

Wake Protection:

3

Scenic Beauty:

3

Ease of Shopping:

5

Shore Access:

5

Pet Friendly:

5

Cell Service:

5

WiFi:

3

We spent 10 nights on a Lucky Strike Mooring (green mooring) through the strong winds in December. Winds were over 40 knots at times and we had winds from every direction. The mooring field remains calm throughout. The largest wakes are from the constant flow of ferries in/out and around the harbour.

Hope Town itself is charming and one of the more affluent cays. Beautiful homes, many available for rent, dot the shoreline harbour side and Oceanside. The residents are friendly. You'll find homemade art, baskets, weaving, jewelry, as well as an assortment of gift shops. Vernon's Grocery, famous for home baked goods - the banana pineapple raisin bread was excellent, as well as a few convenience stores are available for provisions.

Moorings are currently $30 and depending on the vendor, most offer discounts for longer stays. Lucky Strikes was offering 1 night free with 6 and the Hope Town Inn offering 2 free with 5. Cap'n Jacks is recommended for a meal. They have WiFi and their moorings are close to the restaurant. WiFi was present from Hope Town Inn in the mooring field. You'll need to check to see if they offer the password if you stay on their moorings. BTC cell was very strong throughout town. We have Starlink so did not use WiFi except while eating at Cap'n Jack.

This is a great place to wait out weather if you want a nice town. Don't miss a trip to the Elbow Cay Lighthouse. It's special and they just completed a major renovation. Looks fantastic!

Please check out our posts for more on Hope Town and Elbow Cay. Here's one of the first ones:

https://www.facebook.com/100063618668322/posts/pfbid07ApwteUjNkTucKs6Csj9wrNm8KLXQDpFguamjvovHTNnE2MvdFSvKj86SpF3HKWvl/?

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Review for Hope Town Mooring Field

Reviewed by: Tom Allison, Senora, on Nov 18, 2023
Vessel Type: Sail
LOA: 45'
Draft: 5.0'

Overall Rating:

5

Holding:

5

Wind Protection:

5

Current Flow:

5

Wake Protection:

4

Scenic Beauty:

5

Ease of Shopping:

5

Shore Access:

5

Pet Friendly:

5

Cell Service:

5

This is a great place to grab a mooring ball (or two) and spend a few days or ride out some bad weather. Many of the moorings have two painters. We were recommended to use both and attach them independently. It served us well as we waited out three days of 30+ knot winds.

The entrance to the harbor is shallow and narrow. You may have to wait for traffic. We prefer to go in and out at high tide.

In the anchor you will experience small wakes from the many boats zipping around the harbor. The moorings are tight, and you may have to watch your swing when there isn't enough wind to keep the boats faced the same way.

There are multiple places to tie up a dinghy. The Hopetown Inn is open to the public so you can use the pool and eat at their restaurant. We spent our time walking the narrow streets enjoying shops and trying the many small eateries. Renting bicycles proved a great way to tour the island.

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Review for Hope Town Mooring Field

Reviewed by: Lawrence Wolfenden on Mar 3, 2023
Vessel Type: Sail
LOA: 38'
Draft: 4.0'

Overall Rating:

4

Wind Protection:

4

Current Flow:

5

Wake Protection:

5

Scenic Beauty:

3

Ease of Shopping:

5

Shore Access:

5

Cell Service:

5

WiFi:

4

While this is a good mooring field in theory, actually finding an available ball can be difficult, especially if high winds or bad weather is in the forecast. Waiting until the last minute is not advisable. If you keep your VHF scanning 68 as well as 16 you may hear the periodic announcements that the harbor is full and no moorings are available, particularly when there is high traffic. This will save an unnecessary trip.

If you can't pick up a mooring, anchoring just outside the harbor is a good option and fairly well protected in the prevailing easterlies with good holding in the many clear sand patches.

There are a few shoppes and Cap'n Jack's offers good food and drinks and is a social center with regularly-scheduled trivia, karaoke, and (informal) card games. Across from Cap'n Jack's is a liquor store with a decent wine selection. Not far (100' as the crow flies) to the north is Vernon's [grocery] Store. There is a self-serve laundry at the Hope Town Canvas Shop ($7/load to wash, $7/load to dry). It is open 24-hours/day, and they ask that no powder soap be used. You can contact the Canvas Shop at 242.815.0242 or [email protected].

As of March 2023 Hope Town is—for us—the best option for refilling propane tanks; much better than Marsh Harbour which requires a cab ride out to near the airport. In Hope Town one can drop off a propane tank (marked with your vessel name) at a dock on the east side of Nigh Creek where it will be magically filled over the following night or two. Payment can be made at the otherwise closed Harbour View Grocery (currently open MTWFSa, 9-10am). Call or text the gas company at 242.821.8154, or email [email protected].

The cost to refill a 10# tank was less than what the cost of the cab on Marsh Harbour would have been. The "propane dock" is pretty obvious: there are numerous tanks, large and small, old and new, and a yellow boat there.

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Review for Hope Town Mooring Field

Reviewed by: Jeremy Hatch, River Girl, on May 10, 2022
Vessel Type: Power
LOA: 49'
Draft: 5.0'

Overall Rating:

4

Holding:

5

Wind Protection:

5

Wake Protection:

4

Scenic Beauty:

3

Ease of Shopping:

5

Shore Access:

5

Pet Friendly:

5

Cell Service:

3

Hope town continues to rebuild, - even better than last year. Mooring only but although close, they easily accommodate 50'. Truman's are green floats & unlike the usual thimble on a single pennant, there are 2 pennants, each with an eye splice designed to be pulled on deck and over cleat with chafe protection at the fairlead, allowing each float to slide down to the water. One we grabbed, had the hard plastic chafe protection slid almost off the eye making it initially hard to fasten. $25 per night gives easy access to Elbow Cay, groceries, lighthouse, trash etc.
Because of the boating density, boats are requested to use their holding tanks in Harbour & most do not swim or make water. Since the moorings are first come/ first serve, boats, leave a water jug or bleach bottle on the mooring if they go outside to pump out or make water but inevitably, some leave the mooring & forget to take their marker - making the mooring temporarily unusable.

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Review for Hope Town Mooring Field

Reviewed by: Lucy Wilcox, Independence, on Apr 7, 2018
Vessel Type: Sail
LOA: 38'
Draft: 4.0'

Overall Rating:

5

Wind Protection:

5

Scenic Beauty:

5

Ease of Shopping:

5

Shore Access:

5

Pet Friendly:

4

Cell Service:

3

WiFi:

2

There is no room to anchor inside Hope Town, but there are moorings available first come, first served. All around wind protection. There are multiple dinghy docks available to use. Hope Town is the perfect walking town and offers a great coffee shop, many restaurants and gift shops and 2 grocery stores and of course the landmark light house! BTC has 4 bars of 3G with occasional 1 bar of LTE service . You may be able to pick up Wi-Fi from a local restaurant from the mooring field.

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