Bahamas Journey Update - 4/25/25
After the Jones Family & Kerry left, we spent the past week in Eleuthera (Spanish Wells and Harbour Island) before making our way up to the Abacos.
Thursday 4/18 - Jones Family/Kerry Depart; Day of Rest and Laundry in Spanish Wells
We took everyone on the golf cart to Pinders Grocery to catch a 5:40 AM water taxi to Eleuthera, where they were flying out of North Eleuthera Airport. After dropping them off, we came back and did some boat clean up and got organized for the day. We decided to spend one more night in the marina, which was super convenient. We had the golf cart for a few more hours, so Jen took a run over to the Food Fair and restocked on groceries and then Steve took care of a few errands (refilling dinghy gas). The big priorities for the day were getting our cruising permit renewed at Customs and our visas renewed at Immigration. We ended up 1 for 2 on those efforts and only got the cruising permit done because the (only) person who could sign off on our visa extension was sick that day, so we decided to tackle that one on Friday morning before we left for Harbour Island. We returned the golf cart and spent the day on boat projects and laundry. We took advantage of having access to a laundromat to wash all the blankets, sheets, towels, etc. We do have a washing machine on board that does pretty well, but the dryer function is slow and takes a ton of energy, so we generally hang everything dry. It was a nice luxury to be able to use a dryer for sheets and towels and get through 7+ loads of laundry!
Friday 4/19 - Harbour Island Day 1
After spending Thursday at Yacht Haven Marina, on Friday morning, we made a quick trip to Immigration, where we were given a 60-day visa extension. We left Spanish Wells around 10:30 in the morning with our friends Leo and Lorene on Ushuaia and navigated (uneventfully) through Devil's Backbone to Harbour Island. Devil's Backbone is a shallow reef system in the Bahamas that extends from Spanish Wells to Harbour Island, about 1.4 miles northeast of Spanish Wells. It has sharp coral, and many people hire local pilot boats to guide them through, but we had great weather and calm seas, and we did the route (uneventfully) without a pilot. Harbour Island lies just northwest of Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. It's known for the long pink sand beaches stretching along its eastern shore, and the main town, Dunmore Town, features pastel houses like the 1797 Loyalist Cottage. We anchored between Valentines and Romora marinas and spent the afternoon resting. We took the dingy into Valentines, tied up there, walked around town a bit, and had a fantastic sushi dinner at Da Vine in Dunmore Town. Sitting at the sushi bar was fun, and everything was pretty amazing. Walking back through town, we stopped for ice cream to top off a super nice day.
On a less fun note, Jen ended up with a not-so-fun dental issue: her crown came loose. Luckily, it's on a tooth with a root canal, and it wasn't sore at all but needed to be fixed. We carry some emergency dental glue/cement stuff, and Steve got some experience as a boat dentist and reglued it (temporarily) back on. We ended up re-attaching it a few times over the next few days until we were in an area with a dentist, but this is something I'm glad we had some stuff for and one of the things you have to be prepared for when you're out and away from civilization.
Saturday 4/20 - Harbour Island Day 2
We had met Lorene and Leo on SV Ushuaia when we were anchored at Meek's Patch with the grandkids. They're a young married couple who are sailing full-time. They ended up in a slip near us at the marina in Spanish Wells, and we headed through the Backbone together, which was fun. We had made plans to spend Saturday morning with them, and they invited us over to their boat for breakfast. They have a small boat and don't have a traditional oven/stove on board, but they made us fresh bread in their solar oven and cooked us eggs and grits using their whisper-light stove. We contributed some grapefruit and bacon, and it was an awesome breakfast. After breakfast, we all loaded up in our dinghy and went down to Bottom Harbor to feed the turtles and stingrays (we stopped for a box of squid and got some tips from the dockmaster at Romora). Hanging out with the turtles and the stingrays was one of the cooler things we've done in the Bahamas (there are a ton of photos and videos in the Google Album if you want to check them out - fun fact is that in order to feed the rays, you put a piece of squid between your toes and they swim over it and grab it with their mouth…super odd sensation).
After the turtles/rays, we headed back up to explore a few snorkel sites. On the way, we passed a couple of wrecks and checked out some of the super fancy houses on private islands in the bay. We saw some great fish at Cistern Rock and some decent coral, and then we went up to Eastern Rock and snorkeled there as well (saw the biggest starfish I've ever seen). After snorkeling, we took Lorene and Leo back to their boat since they were heading back to Spanish Wells, and we got our stuff together to take a walk over to the famous Pink Sand Beach. We tied the dinghy up at Romora and walked across the island to the public beach access. We walked a ways north on the beach (the sand does look pink) and admired all the cool houses and resorts. The water and beach were gorgeous. We ended up at the Blue Bar at Pink Sands Resort, where we had a couple of Pink Sands Painkillers (by far the best cocktail we've had in the Bahamas), and then we walked back through town before heading back to the boat for dinner.
Sunday 4/21 - Royal Island Anchorage
On Sunday, we left Harbour Island around 10 AM (Steve's back was bugging him, but he rallied to navigate the path back). Traversing Devil's Backbone was (again) uneventful. We came north through the Spanish Wells channel and then decided to anchor in a protected harbor on Royal Island for the afternoon/evening. We wanted to stage here overnight for our planned crossing to the Abacos the next morning (planned departure is 3 AM). We spent the afternoon relaxing and preparing for our crossing.
Monday 4/22 - Jump to Abacos
On Monday, we got up and were on our way by 3:30 AM. We had a full moon, which made visibility decent, and the entrance to Royal Harbor was lit on each side, which made exiting that much easier. We needed to go north 50+ miles, and while our winds were only OK, we had trailing seas, which made the ride super comfortable. It was a pretty uneventful sail/motor-sail (winds were a little lighter than we had thought they would be), and we made it to Little Harbor on Great Abaco Island by 12:30 PM. We anchored outside Little Harbor and took the dinghy into Pete's Pub, which was fun. The bar really reminded us of some of the beach bars we see in the BVIs. The food (and drinks) were great, and we can see why people recommend it. After lunch, we moved over to South Bridges Cay for the night (since we were expecting some northerly winds). We were able to get good holding and had a good night with not too bad of weather (we had a small squall come through with some rain, but we were grateful for the boat wash, so we didn't mind).
Tuesday 4/23 - Beneath the Lighthouse
We spent the morning catching up on stuff at the boat and letting Steve rest his back. After lunch, we headed north to explore anchorages and get our bearings since we're hosting guests later this week. We made our way up on the inside along Tiloo and Elbow Cays and anchored in the Beneath the Lighthouse anchorage outside of Hopetown for the night. We generally found the charts weren't super accurate (we saw 1-2 ft below what was expected), so we moved slowly at low tide until we reached our point. The Abacos are shallow!!
Wednesday 4/24 - Marsh Harbour
On Wednesday morning, we got up early and moved over to an anchorage on the east side of Marsh Harbor because Jen had a 10:30 AM dentist appt, and we wanted to scout the harbor out in our dinghy before moving the big boat in. We took the dinghy 2-3 miles into Marsh Harbor and tied up at the Union Jack dock. Jen walked the 1.5 miles to Agape Family Dentist, and Steve took a break at a coffee shop. The walk to the dentist was super interesting. Hurricane Dorian hit Marsh Harbor in 2019. Hurricane Dorian was an extremely powerful Category 5 Atlantic hurricane, which became the most intense tropical cyclone on record to strike the Bahamas and is tied with the 1935 Labor Day hurricane for the strongest landfall in the Atlantic basin in terms of maximum sustained winds (winds peaked at 185 mph). It caused such extensive damage here because it stalled out over the island for more than 24 hours. Walking to the dentist, Jen was struck by how many buildings still needed to be rebuilt/repaired and also by the number of lumber and hardware stores on the island. The dentist trip was successful - the dentist was super sweet and was interested in our journey. We chatted for a while, and she even hugged Jen as she left. After the dentist, Jen headed back towards the dock but stopped along the way at Maxwells, the local grocery store. This was by far the nicest grocery store we've been to in the Bahamas (even nicer than the one in Nassau). Jen picked up some groceries and walked back to meet Steve at the dinghy. We dinghied back to Second Half and moved her into the harbor around lunchtime.
We spent the afternoon doing a tour with a local taxi driver, Lady Barbs. She likes to do these tours for boaters and takes you to see local neighborhoods. She showed us her church (which was in the process of being rebuilt by a group from the US that was in town this week). It's been 5+ years since the storm, but there's still so much rebuilding to do. After our tour of Marsh Harbour, we stopped in at Colors Restaurant for a quick dinner before heading back to the boat. We're excited for Shay & Randy to arrive tomorrow!
It was nice to have a week to get caught up and explore a bit, and now we're looking forward to spending a week with Shay & Randy and exploring the Abacos.
Photos
If you're interested in seeing photos from the last week, that album is linked below
Bahamas Week 12/13 - Harbour Island & Abacos (Steve & Jen)
We've also started an album for this week with Shay and Randy if you'd like to follow along:
