THE ISLAND TIME FORGOT

           When I last blogged, we were preparing to leave Hatchet Bay and head north to Spanish Wells, a small island just to the north of Eleuthera. We were definitely excited about leaving that place behind even though it provided superb protection from the high winds we saw over a period of several days

The so-called Government Dock at Current Cut. Missing
roof shingles and broken-down vehicles kind of
tells it all...

            As we cleared the narrow opening to Hatchet Bay we set course for the only “challenging” part of this 35 mile trip; Current Cut. Aptly named, this narrow (not as bad a Hatchet, but pretty narrow!) opening between Eleuthera and Current Islands is notorious for the speed of the current at any time other than slack high or low tide. We’d gotten all sorts of advice on how to time slack tide and, along with Veritas, decided on a departure time which would get us there at when we thought would be high tide with very low if not totally slack current. OOPS! Guess we listened to the wrong guy because despite our best efforts to time our arrival, we were still met with a 3+ knot current directly against us as we made the final turn and negotiated the tricky channel leading through the cut. We made it just fine but REALLY SLOWLY as the current dropped our speed over the ground to about 2 knots for 10 or so minutes!

Our mooring field at the SE end of Spanish Wells harbor.
Tight fit!

            After we left the grips of the current at the cut, we turned right and headed for Spanish Wells (SW for now on), passing several beautiful islands on the way with some interesting names (Egg, Royal, Meeks Patch, etc.). Fortunately for us, Jennings on Veritas had called the day prior to “Bandit” on SW and Jock (his real name) had reluctantly agreed to hold a couple moorings for us. As we entered the small harbor I called Bandit on the radio to ask which moorings Veritas and Magic should go to and was told, in a very matter-of-a-fact voice, “…there are only 2 left so I think you should take them!" With only a little difficulty (this is a really small mooring field with just 8 spots) we picked up our moorings and settled in. We were incredibly lucky there since over the period of the next few days, no less than 10 boats came looking for a mooring and were turned away since the weather got progressively worse and not one of the boats here were leaving!

Spanish Wells fishing fleet

            We’d heard a LOT about this unique island in the Bahamas…and it all turned out to be true! First of all, this is the only place in the country that doesn’t rely on tourism for its’ economy. This is a fishing town and they provide a huge majority of the lobster tails (not really lobster, they are known as crawfish here) to places like Red Lobster. It is also the only predominantly white settlement in the Bahamas and although I cannot confirm it, we were told that a number of years ago, black workers here had to leave the island for Eleuthera (a 5 minute boat ride) every night by 5pm! Even today, there are very few black residents. 

Main channel. Note the "NO WAKE"
sign. They actually honor it here!

For those of you reading this familiar with the Chesapeake Bay, this place reminds me a lot of Tangier Island, the isolated fishing/crabbing town in the middle of the bay. The people of SW even have a similar, almost unintelligible accent that is part Bahamian, part English and part….well, I’m not sure. When we haven’t been able to understand someone we’ve kind of gotten good at smiling and nodding our heads a lot! It seems to work! Maybe they don’t understand us either!

Do not adjust your set. JL
with a COKE!!

Even though the fishing has declined in recent years, this is easily the most prosperous place we’ve been to since Nassau with well-maintained (and very New England’ish style) houses, well-dressed kids and adults, clean streets and nice shops and other businesses. It is a little like a place that time forgot 50+ years ago.  While the island is officially “dry,” and none of the restaurants (there are only 4-5!) serve alcohol, several allow you to BYOB with no “corking” fee! There is one place here where you can buy basic booze/beer…run out of a closet-sized room in a private home that also doubles as one of the few beauty salons/barbershops on the island! Kind of an off-the-books package store. Good news for us is that just a short dingy ride away on Eleuthera there is a well-stocked liquor store with a good selection of wines that even offers a discount when you buy case-lots. Not a problem with our little group!

"THE" way to get around
Spanish Wells!

One last item we all found interesting is that all (and I mean ALL) the men over 50 look alike! It is truly amazing, there are all these men, driving around in their golf carts (the primary mode of transportation on this 2 mile long island), wearing checkered shirts, ball caps and jeans, with weathered, suntanned faces waving to you as you walk by! I swear it is a big joke to them and there are really only a couple dozen men on the island and they make sport of changing shirts, hats and golf carts to confuse the visitors! I do not mean to make fun of these very kind, friendly and helpful people and truly loved meeting them.  

   We happened to get here right in the middle of Stone Crab season. Those of you familiar to this cousin of crabs all over the place, know that Stone Crab is a truly renewable resource since only the claw is eaten and when caught, just one claw is broken off (that’s gotta hurt!) and the crab is returned to the sea to grow another one. They are also VERY expensive and I’ve seen them at home for well over $30/lb. Here, right off the boat, the claws are an almost cheap $10/lb and we took advantage of the price twice during our stay and had a couple pretty good meals on our boats! I have found that Stone Crab tastes a bit more like Maine lobster than crab and definitely tastes better than the “spiny lobster” popular around here! Other than Stone Crab, we’ve feasted on a lot of local fish and have definitely helped the economic situation of the locals!

The "Express" delivery ship from Nassau. If the ship is green,
 it must be Thursday!

As in much of the Bahamas, life around here revolves around the arrival of whatever delivery boat is due in. On Tuesdays, it is freight with whatever larger items the island needs from toilets to construction materials. On Wednesday night, produce arrives in refrigerated trailers on a barge-like ship with a front-loading ramp. This ship comes into the harbor and turns around literally feet from those of us moored at the eastern end. Quite the experience. Only a couple weeks ago the wind caught this guy and he had a choice; either hit a moored sailboat or crash into a dock on the island. Luckily, he chose the dock but left quite a mess! Finally, the “Express mailboat” arrives on Thursday morning with other fresh goods like baked items. Everyone times their trips to the “big” supermarket in town based on the arrival of whatever food staple they need. Oh yea, even though I’ve seen a lot of eggs from the states in the market, I’m not sure why. This place has a zillion chickens and enough roosters to take care of business for a long time! Even if I wasn’t getting up at 0600 to listen to the marine forecast every morning, the crowing roosters would make sure I was up!

Do you think they sell beer here? Only a dingy ride away.

After a week here, all of us on boats were beginning to feel a bit like we were being held hostage and were ready to leave. Unfortunately, the weather was still uncooperative and with offshore seas exceeding 10-12 feet, even the fishing fleet remained in port. We were finally able to score a rental car on Eleuthera and set out one day to explore many of the sights we’d missed on our weather truncated trip up the island. 

The "Glass Window" on Eleuthera.
Narrowest spot on the island. As the
tides change, water rushes through
a very small opening. 

The road at the "Glass Window" on
Eleuthera. A storm shifted it 8' and
killed several people standing here!!

I’ve included some photos that will hopefully give you a feel for the rest of the island.

Diane trying to slay the dragon of
the Glass Window blow hole. Pretty
impressive sight with water
spouting up 15-20 feet!

Tim gives JL a lesson at Surfer's Beach, Eleuthera

This is what is left of a Club Med destroyed by
Hurricane Floyd in 1995.

We just had to make a return
trip to Hatchet Bay for their
frozen daquari. Just like
ice cream...with a kick!

Even with this one-day escape we were not satiated, and there was one “must see” spot we’d missed.  So yesterday, we booked passage on the high speed Bahamas ferry on the run from Nassau to Harbor Island just off the northeast coast of Eleuthera with a short stop here. Harbor Island is one of those places where the rich and beautiful go to see and be seen, eat tiny portions of perfectly prepared, very expensive local food at their exclusive "members only" resorts and bask on the pink sands of the beaches hoping someone will notice how cute their skimpy bikinis are! No kidding, the sand has a pink hue to it, or maybe that was the reflection off sunburned skin! For us, it was a way to get off SW for a day and even the $46 per person round-trip fare didn’t faze us! Of course, the weather got in the way again and the high seas cancelled this run for a couple days and then, after we’d gotten all gussied up and ashore this past Tuesday, discovered that day’s ferry was just for cargo, not people! But, we were told, the next day they were running people again so off to the ticket window we went.

This is the "Bo Henly," queen of the Bahamas Ferry fleet.
It can do almost 30 knots!

 To be honest, while the girls were looking forward to the shops and sightseeing of Harbor Island (“…is that Brad Pitt over there??”), for Jennings and me, it was the ride there and back which peaked our interest. The “channel” from SW to Harbor Island winds through an area aptly called “The Devil’s Backbone,” a couple mile long obstacle  course around some really mean coral reefs…and the ferry does it at 20+ knots! It is so difficult and potentially dangerous that few personal yachts even attempt it except in calm seas and even then only with an experienced pilot. It was an absolutely amazing experience, especially since I was able to wrangle an invite to the bridge on the way back and got to watch it done standing next to the Captain. 

I had to put an airplane photo in! Probably some movie
star headed back to the states from Harbor Island.

This guy (the most senior employee of Bahamas’ Ferry system) deftly maneuvered this 150’ high speed catamaran with one hand on a joystick rudder control and the other on the 4 throttles as he worked our way around the Mack-truck coral formations, missing them by only feet. I was just observing and the hair on the back of my next was standing straight out! He, on the other hand, was telling stories and cracking jokes the whole time. Of course, he's done it hundreds of times. When I asked him what trips for the company he normally did (they go all over the place), he pointed out that as the #1 Captain, he got to do what he wanted and this was “his” route…he didn’t like excitement! HUH? Fascinating. I took several photos, none of which came close to correctly showing what it really looked like. We'll try to post a video on FB.

Richard, the owner of Queen Conch
makes the world's second best conch
salad. His wife makes THE best!!

     While on the island we again rented a golf cart and tried to hit all the high spots; the pink beach, the Haunted House, the many shops and finally, "Queen Conch," where supposedly the best conch salad in the world is made. Guess what....it is! If you ever get to this island, you have to visit his small place on the west side and order his "exotic" conch salad. It is truly to die for. 

    In many ways, this has been one of our very favorite stops in the Bahamas and I look forward to more visits, but it is time for us to get the heck out of Dodge. As I sit here in the cockpit of Magic, a weather window for us to head to the Abacos (a 45 mile run) looks to open this Saturday. In company with Veritas, we will slip our moorings tomorrow and head to nearby Royal Island to stage ourselves for early departures the next day. At that point, we will have to bid a sad farewell to our “buddy boat” for the past couple months as they are headed back to Miami via Bimini while we are going to extend our stay a few more weeks. Veritas has family visiting there and Jennings has a few maintenance issues he needs to address, so we will split up and go our separate ways…at least for a while. Diane and I couldn’t have asked for a better buddy boat to accompany us since we left Bimini seemingly just days ago and we will miss them a lot. We look forward to more sailing with them on the Chesapeake Bay this summer.

As for us, the Abacos beckons. I’m not sure (again!) how good internet service will be up there, so please bear with me and I promise to blog whenever I can. One final note; several of you reading my missives (there really are a few!) have commented that they wish they could do what we’re doing. To that I say….DO IT! Life is not a rehearsal and none of us are getting any younger. You don’t need a huge boat or fat wallet to do this. We don’t and while there have been challenges, wouldn’t have missed this for the world. Nuff said. Till next time….