Spanish Wells & Hatchet Bay

Wednesday Dirk and I decided to get off the boat and poke around town a bit and check out the Food Fair grocery store. I have heard different accounts from different folks on their ideas of the best provisioning places. My advice is if you need something get it, even if it is 20 cents more but don’t over buy anywhere except for when you leave the states stocking up on items you may really like that might be hard to find. Face it, the Bahamas are expensive so be prepared to pay about double for what you buy and be happy when you find a deal. The Food Fair Grocery was fairly large with a good selection of pretty much everything you could want so we stocked up on a few items and headed back to the boat stopping only to pick up a few coconuts we saw to replenish our stock. We hopped in the dinghy and on the way back we saw a few folks hanging around a dock throwing greens in the water. We putt over and see a manatee. Hummmm, I didn’t know there were manatees in the Bahamas…..Of course I didn’t have my camera so we went back to the boat, picked it up and headed back. The other folks had gone but the manatee was still there and very inquisitive about us coming right up to the dinghy. Soon a gentleman drives up, gets out and we find out he is from some sort of marine & wildlife organization. He informed us that the manatee was actually a female and due to give birth any day now. Her name was Rita and she somehow managed to get from Florida to Eleuthera. I believe he said it was the 3rd such one that has done that, and she is actually tagged for Florida. They have no clue how or why they do it but somehow they do. The last one they had was in Bimini and they transferred it back as it was beginning to stave as I guess the food supply is a bit different here. The government has had the marine specialist from Atlantis resort come over and they say that after 3 months of her being here she is doing well. Here she is being curious with Dirk as he is taking her picture

Part of the reason being of course is the folks from Spanish Wells have spoiled her. She hangs around one dock and gets handouts on a daily basis and even the large ships going in and out of there know to look for her and it was told she held up the channel traffic for almost an hour one day. The gentleman was full of information and it was great to be so close to and photograph her. The afternoon was spent spear fishing with another couple moored next to us. Dirk did manage to spear a good size gray snapper and the last thing he saw was the fish heading for deeper water with his spear shaft. The other guy had speared one also that got away but 15 minutes into the hunt with another shaft he sees it swimming by and spears it again. Well at least he found his, and Dirk spent 30 minutes looking but never could find his. Oh well, what can you do? We decided to hit a little beach on the way back. The waves didn’t appear to be very large coming in but as I stood up to take a step out of the dinghy to pull it to shore a wave hit us and just about capsized the dinghy. I remember flying face first into the water and looking back I saw Dirk doing the same. We quickly pulled the dinghy to shore and realized it was half full of water and everything was floating in it including the canvas bag that had my non-waterproof camera inside. It only took a matter of minutes for me to realize it was a hopeless case. I was so disappointed all I wanted to do was get back to the boat as everything was drenched and full of sand. My fun meter was pegged for the day. Our neighbor told us that she heard if you take it and put it into a bag of raw rice that might help, heck at this point it wouldn’t hurt. Well it’s been in there for a day and a half and it is still not working. At least we still have Dirks camera but his is the nice one that I hate to take to shore. I’m gonna miss that camera and have stated the next one will be waterproof. Friday morning one last trash run and internet run was made along with a trip to the fish market to buy a new spear shaft for Dirk. Note to self…Next season bring more than one. About 10ish we headed out making tracks for Current Cut making sure we hit it with the incoming tide as it is a narrow cut that runs like a river through it. At just about idle speed we were making about 7 knots. As soon as you make it through you have to hang a tight right so as not to get washed up onto a grassy bar so things were a bit un nerving for me momentarily but we made it through with no problem. From there we headed to Glass window where we spent the evening anchored off a nice beach being the only boat. Sun downers and a beautiful sunset concluded the day. The following morning we prepped the boat for a short sail down to Hatchet Bay in Alice Town. Dirk pulled up the sails, raised the anchor, and off we went without starting the engine. Great start to a beautiful day until the wind shifted and we were heading straight into 20 knot winds so the engine was started and we motored the last 30 minutes or so into the very narrow opening of Hatchet Bay. Once we were inside we headed to the west end looking for a mooring ball as the bottom is grassy and holding can be iffy. Besides all the mooring balls are put here by the government and offered for free to boaters. Free is good…..As we are heading in we see a boat that looks very familiar and sure enough we spot Bill & JoAnn from s/v Ultra. Last time we saw them was when they were traveling through Panama City Florida from Texas close to a year ago. Wow, small world….Sun downers were planned at their boat for the evening and they invited most of the harbor so we met several new folks and got some nice information as we are headed in opposite directions. Sunday was a lazy day for us, It was beautiful and we should have been off the boat poking around doing something rather than lounging about reading all day but that’s what we elected to do. I stepped outside at one point and saw our friends from s/v Sovereign Swan just coming into the cut. When we had left Marsh Harbor we had to leave them behind as they were having battery issues and would have to wait on new ones from the states. They were suppose to catch up with us later but after several days of the batteries being delayed in customs we figured there would be no way they would. They pushed hard and made up several days so we will press on together. Once we turn back for the states they will head further south for Hurricane season. Several of the boaters were talking about getting together and heading into town for the evening to go to a little place called Da Spott, a little outside bar for dinner and some rake & scrape music later in the evening so we figured we would join them. It was just a little hole in the wall place that was very welcoming. There wasn’t a great selection of food but what we had was wonderful thrown right on the barbeque pit outside. We sat around watching a basketball game on the TV over the bar and had a few drinks catching up waiting on the band to arrive. One of the band members arrived and it was determined that the other one was too intoxicated to come. Oh well, this is the islands, so much for the band we still had the house music and the basketball game. Today we sit out a front and as I look at the cut I can see it is rough out there. We are in the safest Harbor in Eleuthera and it feels nice. Tomorrow it should be nice so we will head down to Governors Harbour.

Finally Made it to Eleuthera

Well we did it. We finally broke the chains that held us in the Abaco’s. Don’t get me wrong now, the Abaco’s are great but when we were trying to leave for so long only to be forced to stay and wait and wait, and wait for weather to do anything it was getting taxing. I have said this before and saying it again, the weather Gods have not been too forgiving this year for any place. The folks here have all noted that this is the weirdest weather they have seen.
On Saturday the 17th we pulled out again from Marsh Harbor along with FinniRish heading for Lynyard Cay to stage for the passage to Eleuthera. We left our friends Dawn & Harvey on s/v Sovereign Swan there waiting on batteries to come on a slow boat from the states. Hopefully they will catch up with us at a later date. When we arrived in Lynyard Cay there were so many boats there anchored waiting to go North & South, our plan was to leave the following morning but after listening to several reports we decided to wait a day. Of course the next day were kicking ourselves as it wasn’t as bad as predicted and we could have made it. Oh well what can you do…. So Dirk and I went beach combing and added several new nice pieces of sea glass and shells to my collection. Once it got to the point of what I call beach combers cramp, basically when you can’t walk bent over another step we decided to call it quits and do some conching. Dirk hopped in the water with a line hanging off the back of the dinghy and I drive pulling him slowly around as he can cover a lot more ground this way. It almost feels as if I’m trolling for something large using Dirk as bait. Within 30 minutes or so we had 5 good size conchs and decided that was plenty. Dirk is getting to the point where all he eats these days is conch. He loves making conch salad, fritters, and trying new ways and things to batter it in and eat it. Guess the more of that he eats the less I have to cook as he cleans and cooks the conch himself.

Bowl of Conch without shell waiting to be cleaned, not too bad for an hours work

Monday was spent reading, sleeping and eating as we had horrible rain and wind all day. This was yet another cold front that was passing us.

This is what most of our day looked like from the cockpit

After watching and listening to the weather all evening we discussed it and made the decision that the following day would be a good day to give it a shot. The worst that would happen would we would get out the cut and have waves too big and turn to come back and wait another day. The alarm went off nice and early at 6am as I pulled myself out of bed to put the much needed pot of coffee on. We turned on the VHF and heard the other boats chattering about leaving also so we knew we wouldn’t be alone. We listened to Chris Parker on the single side band and felt this was a good day so at 6:45 we were firing up ole Max our trusty Westerbeke and pulling anchor heading south. The sunrise that greeted the morning for us

We made it out the pass between Lynyard Cay and Little Harbor with no problem, there were some good size swells but the time in between was good so we felt it would be a good ride for us. Not so much for poor Butters which we are getting very good at predicting the days he hurls. He must hate us by now….The trip was 63 miles and only took us 10.5 hours, wow; try doing that in your car down the highway. LOL The winds were light and variable as predicted. One minute they would be 40 degrees off our port and then 3 seconds later right from the rear so trying to adjust sails kept Dirk busy and frustrated. But what else is there to do to pass time but fish, eat, and lounge around. Now try doing that in your car going down the highway……speaking of fishing, Dirk has been waiting for this crossing to do some fishing in hopes of catching a Mahi or Tuna. As we were coming out of the pass the first thing he does is throw out his line and no sooner does it hit the water, he says fish on…As he reeled it in we saw it was a barracuda about 40 inches long with lots of sharp pointy teeth. Dangit…..Back in the water he goes and we didn’t get another strike until about 6 hours into the trip. Dirk was setting the hook when the fish leaped out of the water and leaped right off the hook, double dangit. As we pulled into Eleuthera we were complaining about no fish biting, well one line he brought in had the hook bent open so something had to have gotten that and the other line was pulled in and it had been bitten clean through, just wondering how long we towed that empty line through the water. One day….Were gonna get a big one, one day…..just not today. So we are on a mooring ball here in Spanish Wells and it is a very tight mooring field. Only 8 balls here at 15 bucks a day and it’s just a short hop to the city wall where you can tie up your dinghy and get into town.

Looking out towards the Atlantic

A typical street here in Spanish Wells

At low tide it looks impossible to leave or enter here as they left just enough room to swing without hitting bottom. But as usual, when we make a long crossing we like to spend the first day in a marina or a mooring so that we can get a good night’s sleep without worrying about the anchor in an unkown area. On Thursday we will probably head out of here and head somewhere else around here. Not quite sure yet, maybe anchor out around Royal Island, perhaps do some snorkeling and beach combing for a couple days before we start heading south. Tomorrow will also be the day that our buddy boat FinniRish will be departing as they are heading to the Exuma’s tomorrow. We have been together since we left Marathon in January and hope to run into them one day down the road. As for us, we will continue looking for adventures and hope that Mother Nature will give us several good weeks to enjoy the time we have left here in the Bahamas before beginning our journey back to the states. Will keep you all updated as internet will allow.

Will we ever break away from the Abacos?

Last place I left you all was in Little Harbor awaiting a weather window to scoot on down to Eleuthera Island. We were moored there for 3 days when we decided to take our bikes off the boat and see if we couldn’t run into Cherokee Sound which is 5 miles away to pick up a couple things we were running low on. One of our buddy boats decided to do the same but decided they would walk it. Two miles of the road is dirt & gravel, & rock and also not very well maintained. I thought for sure I would wreck my bike when my tire would slide down in a pit or hit a large rock as some of the hills were very steep. At best I figured I would end up carrying my lungs back as I am not at all in the kind of shape it takes to pedal a bike up some of this terrain. I was never so happy to see the paved road begin, but once we were on it, it seemed to go on forever. 45 minutes later we arrived in Cherokee Sound, a very nice quaint town that was so nice and clean. It would go on my list of prettiest and cleanest towns along with Hope Town. You can see some of the folks take so much pride in their homes as it shows by the details they put into them. Here is one of the main roads, yes road in Cherokee Sound

Here is Cherokee Sound at Low Tide, Boy is it shallow in there.

We hit the one grocery store in town and as always had a good chuckle looking at some of the prices of food. Our total was $63.45 but I had only brought 60.00 with me so something would have to be put back as they don’t accept debit cards. Oh well, bye bye pretzels, some other day….We couldn’t bear to part with our $6.85 bag of Oreos though. They were going home with us no matter, sometimes you just have to splurge. It took Dawn & Harvey 2 hours to make the walk there and lucky for them but they were offered a ride back which they gladly accepted. The next day was day number 4 of waiting out the weather and unfortunate for us but it wasn’t getting any better for at least a week. The decision was made that the following morning we would leave Little Harbor and head back to Marsh Harbor as our water and fresh food supplies would be next to nothing when we did decide to make the jump. Besides that our refrigerator decided that it wasn’t going to cool anymore. Geeeeze what now…..I guess this would be as good a time as any for it to go out as we are close enough to Marsh Harbor to get what we needed. Turned out we had a fitting shake its self loose and let the Freon escape. Easy fix for once…..at least we hope it’s fixed. So once again here we sit and wait until Mother Nature gives us the go to head south. Today the Bahamians put on an agriculture type fair. There were food booths set up selling all the wonderful Bahamian foods, booths set up with ladies selling their straw handbags & hats, some selling sea glass jewelry and jewelry made with all the oceans bounty such as sea shells, conch feet, or toenails, and Chitons which I understand they also eat. We saw an interesting demonstration on safely cleaning and eating Lion Fish. Lion Fish are gorgeous fish that unfortunately have somehow made their way into Bahamian waters and are beginning to do damage as their numbers are increasing very quickly and they feed on the same fish, lobster, and crabs we do so it’s only a matter of time before it begins to harm the fishing industry. They are trying to educate people on proper methods of handling, and cleaning them as they are a fish with toxic barbs that can really put a hurting on someone. They also gave out free samples of the cooked fish and it was very good. To me it tasted like bass. Very clean tasting with a nice texture. Hummmm looks like Lion fish may be on future menus. It looks as though tomorrow the 17th that we can make the 4 hour trip back down to Lynyard Cay to stage and hopefully take off Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday. Our first destination will be Royal Island or Spanish Wells if we have enough daylight. Hoping to update once we get there to let you know where from there.

Heading South

Wednesday the 31st we pulled anchor, headed to the marina to fill the fuel cans and fill up the water tanks. This would be the first time we had to pay for water to fill them if you don’t count the “no option” water charge at the marinas for $4.00 a day. Twenty cents a gallon wasn’t bad and it had been some time since we last filled the tanks. We took off about 11am and waved Marsh Harbor goodbye. It served its purpose but we are getting bored and ready to go. s/v Sovereign Swan, FinniRish, and Tybee Time all took off finally making tracks for islands south. The weather is calling for calm winds and beautiful skies for the next 5 days so we wanted to take advantage of it. Our first stop was anchoring in front of Tahiti Beach on Elbow Cay. We dropped anchor in about 8 feet of clear water and took the dinghy to shore where there was a pretty beach and many coconut palms lining the scenery. It was the last day of lobster season so Dirk & Harvey took off around the cut to see if they could get lucky. Ellie, Jim, Dawn, and I decided to hit the beach and do some relaxing and beach combing. I was happy as I was finding sea glass from the start, besides I can be perfectly content beach combing all day. Later, Dawn & I walked into the palms to see what coconuts we could dig up. I of course forgot my shoes so I spent most of the time digging sand spurs out of my feet while Dawn was able to go a lot deeper and find some nice ones. The men came back empty handed but with tales of trying to tag team a grouper, the grouper won. Dawn decided to have Dirk try and climb a coconut tree and grab some green ones for sun downers in the evening.

This is Tahiti Beach where there were so many coconut Palms

We all met at FinniRish and the men began hacking away at the green coconuts finally cleaning enough for us to have our sun downers. What a nice evening it was and it was the first time I had the coconut milk right in the shell with rum. Ummmmmm .

Just pour a bit of coconut milk out and replace with rum, insert straw and enjoy

Sunset at Tahiti Beach

The next day we headed to Snake Cay which is an old abandoned lumber operation. We anchored just south of the mouth and dinghied into the opening where about 15 to 20 spotted eagle rays hang out. The entrance has a fairly deep spot where the currents work in and out and I guess the eagle rays like that. Everywhere you look you can see remains of the old operation as you can see parts of machinery and vehicles along with many old tires littering the bottom. We anchored the dinghies and all jumped into the water hoping to have a close encounter. I saw a rather large ray and dove down to swim alongside him. It was absolutely wonderful and it’s so easy to forget that one must come up for air when you are alongside them. Totally amazing when you see how large and graceful they are really never paying too much mind to us. Dirk managed to capture the entire group on video. After testing our lung capacity for a while I played around a bit in the shallower water and found several fish and a green moray eel hanging around. Soon we climbed back into the dinghy and made our way about the maze of little isles that littered the scenery looking for rays and other assorted sea life littering the sea bed.

Here's a pretty star fish "sea cushion" brought out for photo opps.then released

As we approached the end the guys happened upon another deep hole which unfortunate for them but three conchs had fallen into. Two were legal so Dirk decided they would be a good addition to sun downers in the evening. When we got back to the boat we decided to pull anchor and head to Tilloo Cay and anchor for the evening. While we were at Snake Cay we spotted Hobbs & Heidi from Big Toot. We had spent some time with them in Marsh Harbor and we asked if they wanted to join us, so now we were a pack of four traveling together. That evening sun downers were at Big Toot , introductions were made, and assorted snacks were happily consumed along with the fresh conch caught only hours earlier. Can't get any fresher then this

The plan for the next day was to head to Sandy Cay to do some snorkeling and diving but we found when we arrived the next day that the anchorage was not the greatest as it was hard to set an anchor. S/v Sovereign Swan was not happy about the anchor set so they said they would meet us at the Lynyard Cay which was our next anchorage. We set anchor and decided that the seas were too rough to attempt the dive so we all picked up anchor and headed to Lynyard Cay which we would end up staying for a couple days due to seas being too rough to make it to Cherokee point. Easter Sunday found us up early with calls to the family wishing them a Happy Easter and heading into Little Harbor and Pete’s Pub where we had lunch and several Pete’s Pub Blasters.

Pete's Pub, is a great quaint outdoor pub

There’s a reason they call them blasters…..We were joined by Stu and Chuck from s/v Long Gone who we had met in Marsh Harbor along with a couple of their friends. A great day was had by all and a nice day on the beach collecting sea glass and shells made it that much better. Here is Dirk adding our Tybee Time to the wall

Tuesday the 6th we decided the anchorage was getting a bit rolly and the winds were due to clock around which would mean we would be exposed to more waves. Two nights of restless sleep and our decision was made to make way for Little Harbor which was a 30 minute trip from the anchorage. We had to wait until high tide as there isn’t much water getting in there and Dawn & Harvey draw a bit more than we do so they followed us in with us calling out depth every few feet so they wouldn’t ground. We grabbed a mooring ball and they anchored in one of the few spots to do so. Big Toot had come in the day before and FinniRish decided that if we had to wait on weather they would do it from Marsh Harbor so they could at least re provision and take care of some business. We should be here a few days so they will rejoin us before its time to head south. Little Harbor is a great little place, little being the best description. There is a small harbor surrounded by a high cliff on one side which opens to a small cove with a beach on the other side. Pete’s Pub is an open air bar that serves lunch at a pretty reasonable price. Large angus cheeseburger with a side of rice & corn and coleslaw for $14.00, and I might add, it’s very tasty. Of course one must wash it down with their signature drink called a Blaster. Moorings are 15.00 daily and the 4th day is free when you pay for 3. Garbage is 5.00 per bag to dispose and there are no facilities. But what a great place to hang out…..There are no grocery stores or businesses so stock up on food, water, and anything else you might need before you get here. Here is where we are moored in Little Harbor

Today Dirk was itching to do some conching as he keeps seeing the locals come in with lots but can’t find any himself. He ended up going over to the bar and asking if there was a local that could help him out. Charlie was pointed out and agreed to give Dirk some pointers and show him some good spots to go. Not an hour later they returned with their limit and a beaming Dirk. He was happy as he always is when he gets to do his hunting and gathering business. Charlie also sat there and helped Dirk clean them up giving him pointers along the way. Looks like conch fritters might be on the menu tonight. We finally decided that if we were to be here for several days we would bite the bullet and buy Internet for the week so we could check in with folks back home, update the blog and have access to some weather sites. One never realizes just how much we rely on these darn computers to make our lives easier, but just like TV we are learning to live without it. Our plan is as soon as we get a decent weather window is to head south to Eleuthera. You may hear from us before then depending on how long we will be here.