Month: March 2019

No visit to Eleuthera would be complete without a stop at Spanish Wells and Harbour Island, which are both located at the north end of Eleuthera. We had a great sail from Alabaster Bay to Spanish Wells and had no trouble getting through Current Cut. Passage through this narrow cut requires timing with the tides – we hit it perfectly and had a helping current that added 2.5 knots to our speed!

We decided to stay at a marina and checked in on Tuesday, March 26. The marina is very nice with an on-site restaurant and a pool! It wasn’t very full when we arrived but some very windy weather has filled the place! The marina is pretty central to the town and we have walked the whole place. It’s a really clean, pretty town (really makes George Town look bad) but man it’s tough to walk – too many golf carts and cars zipping by on narrow streets with no sidewalks!!

Harbour Island is on the opposite side of Eleuthera from Spanish Wells and to get there, we had to take (in this order) a water taxi, a taxi, and another water taxi! Lots of fun. Dunmore Town is on Harbour Island and we spent about 4 hours walking around the place. It was very interesting with lots of touristy places. We had lunch at Sip Sip – a very popular beach restaurant that only serves lunch.

We’ve had a good time here at Spanish Wells and have enjoyed the marina but it’s time to keep heading north. We’ve had a few days of big north winds and some stormy weather but it looks like we’ll have a good weather window to jump to the Abacos this weekend. So next stop – Lynyard Cay!

After our visitors left us on March 11, we decided it was time to start heading north. We left George Town very quickly – the weather was calm on Tuesday, March 12 and winds from the wrong direction were heading our way, so at 1pm we motored to Cat Island. We arrived at almost 11pm so we anchored away from the main anchorage (just to be safe) and moved closer in the morning.

We anchored at New Bight and it was very interesting. The little town had the best grocery store we’ve seen so far in the south Bahamas and the Island boasts the highest point in the Bahamas of 206 ft above sea level. It also has an interesting heritage site – Father Jerome’s Hermitage. Father Jerome was an Anglican missionary (who converted to Roman Catholic) who came to the Bahamas to rebuild churches after a hurricane in 1908. He built this hermitage as his home where he lived to the age of 80.

Our next Island stop was Little San Salvador which is a private island owned by Holland Cruise Lines. One cruise ship was anchored at the island when we arrived but left around 4pm. This was a good stopping point between Cat Island and Eleuthera but it was a rolly anchorage – not a lot of fun when you’re trying to sleep.

The next morning (March 17) we jumped to Rock Sound Harbour, Eleuthera and we’ve been here almost a week. The winds have not been cooperating so we’ve just stayed in the very well protected anchorage.

We’ve had a bit of excitement here. First of all, it’s a relatively small anchorage due to the water depth and in the middle of it is the main shipping route for the supply boats. We anchored just north of the government dock (outside of the shipping route) but a few other boats who arrived after us, anchored in the route. That was a bad idea! The supply ship arrived at 3am (yes 3am) – how do I know the time you might ask – well it’s because the captain of the supply boat blew his extremely loud horns at 3am and started yelling at the 3 boats in his way. It was absolutely terrifying!! The whole anchorage and town was awakened by the noice and those poor boats got out of the way as quickly as their confused, shocked brains would let them! It was quite the talk the next day!

We also rented a car and toured most of the island. We visited some of the little towns and had a really nice lunch in Alice Town (Hatchet Bay). We went on a very nice nature walk at the Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve and found an old USA navy base that is basically looks like a concrete parking lot now. All in all it was a fun day and it was nice to see the island.

We are hoping to continue north this weekend – heading to Spanish Wells. Our journey back to Florida will take us to the Abacos which we haven’t visited yet. The rough plan is to be back in Florida – near Jacksonville, by the end of April. Here’s hoping the weather cooperates with our plan!

It’s been a few weeks since my last post – sorry about that! We’ve been busy with our guests. Caroline joined us on Feb. 22 and we decided to leave George Town and head up to Black and White Cay (at the north end of Great Exuma Island). This is a very nice area with pigs, a blue hole and a great restaurant. We did lots of swimming and snorkelling and saw some nice coral around the blue hole.

We left this area on Tuesday Feb. 26 intending to stop at the Marina at Emerald Bay for a night before heading back to George Town to pick up Bill and Donalda. Well, we got to the marina and decided to stay until Friday – it was nice to have a real shower and to swim in a fresh water pool! It also had free laundry!

Donalda and Bill flew in on Thursday, February. 28 and met us at the marina. Since then, we’ve traveled to George Town to get more food and then we headed to Conception Cay. The wind was stronger this time so we ended up snorkelling a different coral area which was really good. We saw lots of fish and 2 turtles!

We’re now at Long Island, in Thompson Bay. We rented a car yesterday and drove about 2/3rd of the Island. It was a great day, exploring this very interesting island. We visited a little museum and a very deep (200m) blue hole. We had lunch in Clarence Town at the Flying Fish Marina (very fancy place!). The restaurant had some hot sauce on the table that was locally made. So we decided to go to the little village where the hot sauce was made to buy some. Well that was not as easy as it sounds! We drove north and found a nice little place called “Da Spot” and had ice cream and a great chat with the owner. The place was a restaurant/bar/beach/ etc, etc. Mark asked the owner, Steven Jolly, about the hot sauce maker and sure enough, he knew where they were located. We head out again on our mission for the hot sauce and boy was it a journey. We went through one gate (to keep the goats in), drove along a rutted, sand path (road is too nice a word for this thing), opened a second gate and then honked the horn as we came close to the house (that was the directions on the sign leading to the house). This very nice lady opened up for us and we got our hot sauce!

We’re heading back to George Town tomorrow (Friday, March 8). Caroline flies home on March 9 and Donalda and Bill leave on March 11. The time has gone by so quickly – we’re been busy and having loads of fun!