Bahamas Journey Update - 4/11/24
We had a mellow week between visitors and spent time near Spanish Wells and Eleuthera and enjoyed some time to work on the boat and move a little slower.
Wednesday 4/3 - A Day of Rest
On Wednesday morning, after taking the girls over to Pinders Grocery on Spanish Wells for their airport transport, we moved a mile and a half across the bay to the east side of Meeks Patch to sit out a westerly blow. We spent the AM getting caught up, cleaning, and doing laundry and then we took the dinghy back to Spanish Wells for a 4 pm appointment at the museum (it only opens by appointment). After the museum, we grabbed a quick dinner at the Shipyard restaurant. We had a wet, bumpy dinghy ride back to Meeks Patch, but managed to catch the last 30 min of a Cruisers HH on the beach that had been organized by one of the boats in the anchorage. We were so late getting there that there were only about 10 people left, but we heard there were 40+ people there at one point. Tons of boats in the anchorage and it was fun to meet a few folks (including the couple aboard CatDog, a boat we’d seen several times over the past few months).
Thursday 4/4 - Boat Day
Thursday was a super mellow day and we mostly rested and did a few projects. There was another (smaller) Cruisers HH on the beach on the east side of Meeks Patch that we attended and met a few more folks.
Friday 4/5 - Day Trip to Eleuthera
On Friday, we took a ferry ($6pp) from Pinders Grocery to Jean’s Bay dock on Eleuthera where we had a rental car waiting for us ($100 cash for the day paid at the end of the day - they never took a CC, Identification or anything else - definitely island process). We wanted to spend a day exploring Eleuthera by land. Eleuthera is a long, thin island in the Bahamas archipelago that is 110 miles long with it’s widest point being only 2 miles across. It’s become a popular place for vacationers in the Bahamas. Typically, people rent a house (or stay at one of the smaller resorts) and rent a car and just hop from beach to beach throughout their stay. We wanted to see a few sights and were also hoping to scout out some potential spots for our visit with the Jones Family and Grandma Kerry.
We started our tour of Eleuthera off by visiting the Sapphire Blue Hole. The Bahamas has over 2,000 blue holes, and National Geographic has only mapped 10% of them. Many of the blue holes are located in the ocean, but a few are on land. The Sapphire blue hole is located on the mainland of North Eleuthera and gets its name from its deep blue color. People do jump off the platform, but it was a little murky and a little early for us (+ the ladder to get out looked a little sketch).
After the Sapphire Hole, we went over to Preacher’s Cave. Preacher’s Cave was used by William Sayle and a group of Christians seeking religious freedom from Bermuda, now referred to as "The Eleutheran Adventures." They were shipwrecked off the Eleuthera coast on a reef called the Devil's Back Bone and took refuge here after coming ashore. They shaped an altar from a large boulder at the far end of the cave, which still stands, and conducted the island's first religious service there, earning the cave its name.
From Preacher’s Cave, we went south along the Queen’s Highway to the Glass Window Bridge and the Queen’s Baths. The Glass Window Bridge is one of the most famous sites on Eleuthera and used to actually be a rock structure until a storm destroyed the rock bridge. It’s now a manmade bridge. It separates the dark blue water of the Atlantic from the turquoise waters of the Bight of Eleuthera. It often gets shut down during heavy sea states/storms. The Queen’s Baths are just south of the bridge. The Queen's Baths or Hot Tubs are a collection of natural pools that border the rugged Atlantic Ocean side of the island.
We continued south (Steve did a great job of driving on the left - our rental car had the steering wheel on the right side, and getting used to the wipers and blinkers being on opposite sides of what we’re used to was a bit tough). We stopped at Hatchet Bay Caves but just walked into the main entrance. Apparently, you can go quite a ways in with headlamps, but we hadn’t brought any and decided to pass. We drove around Alice Town which was a bit rough and didn’t have much, but was interesting to see.
We ended up stopping in Governor’s Harbor for lunch at the Buccaneer Club and drove over to French Leave Beach to see the “pink” sand. We decided to go all the way down to Rock Sound to check that out and then made our way back north, stopping at various beaches - favorites included Ten Bay, Coco di Mama, and Rainbow.
We left the rental car at Jean’s Bay and took the ferry back to Spanish Wells. We met someone from the rental car place at Wreckers (where we were having dinner) and gave her our payment and the keys. We had a mellow dinner at the bar at Wreckers and then made our way back to the boat.
Saturday 4/6
Saturday was another mellow day of boat projects (Steve tackled some of the hull cleaning), and we mostly relaxed on the boat.
Sunday 4/7 - Steve’s Birthday
Jen made (homemade) lemon blueberry muffins for Steve’s Birthday breakfast, and we spent the morning hanging out and talking to family. Steve’s choice of what to do on his birthday was to go snorkeling. We took the dinghy and tried a few spots between Russell and Royal Islands but mostly ended up in Turtle Grass. We ended up taking the dinghy around the back side of Spanish Wells and just generally explored for a while. We finally made our way back through the channel on Spanish Wells, where we saw some turtles, a spotted eagle ray, and other wildlife. We made a yummy dinner of grilled chicken and then had an orange, vanilla pound cake for Steve’s birthday cake (Jen even sang). It was a nice day.
Monday 4/8 - Provisioning, Dinghy Gas
On Monday, we went ashore on Spanish Wells. Jen walked over to do some provisioning at Food Fair while Steve refilled our dinghy gas, got rid of some garbage, and did some recon on how we’ll renew our Cruising Permits and visas in a few weeks. Once we made it back to the boat, we decided to move the boat about an hour south to an anchorage near Current Cut.
Tuesday 4/9 - Current Cut, Eleuthera
On Tuesday AM, we crossed through Current Cut and over to Eleuthera. Current Cut needs to be crossed when conditions are right (e.g. you need to be sure the current isn’t too strong for or against you and you need to pay attention to wind direction). We went through from west to east right around high tide, and the current was with us, but the wind was against us, so we had a little chop, but the crossing was pretty uneventful. After crossing through the cut, we made our way across to Eleuthera and south to Governor’s Harbor. We had been warned that holding was poor in the harbor, and after trying three different spots and not being happy with how well we set, we moved slightly north to Levi Island and anchored there first try. We only had one neighbor in the anchorage, and it was a nice spot (although it was a little rolly).
Wednesday 4/10 - Governor’s Harbor
On Wednesday, we did a big boat cleanup day. Steve focused on the hulls and worked for several ours cleaning the bottom of the boat (a very tough job) while Jen focused on getting the inside ready for our guests. In the afternoon, we moved over to Governor’s Harbor to try to anchor there again. Today, the third time was the charm, and we found a spot in the north part of the harbor (pretty close in) where we finally set well. We really wanted to be in Governor’s Harbor for our guests who were arriving the next day, so we were glad we found a spot. We decided to take the dinghy ashore to explore a bit and grab dinner. We ran into some of our neighbors who had beached their dinghy and were stuck. We made sure to anchor ours out a ways so we would be ok to get back and walked around town for a bit and then had a really nice dinner at the Frigate Restaurant. The taxi driver we thought we had for our guests wasn’t communicating, so we asked our waitress if she knew any drivers and a few minutes later, she was handing me a cell phone, and we were all set for Stanton to pick up everyone the next day. While we were at dinner, we noticed the group of folks from our neighbor boat had come in for dinner. Apparently, the tide had continued to go out (we were all off on our reading of the tide tables), and it was going to be a while before they could float their dinghy. They warned us that we were probably beached too. Once we got back out to the dinghy, we saw that we were on sand, but we were able to tug it out and made it back just fine - phew.
Thursday 4/11 - Morning Prep for Guests
Steve finished up some work around the boat and drove Jen over to shore so she could do a little more provisioning that morning. After a quick lunch of leftovers from Frigate dinner, Steve went ashore to the Majestic No. 9 Barber Shop, where he had a 1pm appointment. The haircut was (mostly) successful and should last a while (super short). After a small delay in Nassau, the Crew arrived at GHB on Eleuthera around 3:30pm and were met by Stanton, the taxi driver. We’ll cover the rest of the day with guests on next week’s blog
We’ll have this set of guests on board for the next week or so. We can’t wait to share SV Second Half with our grandkids, Bode and Hadley (and their parents), and Grandma Kerry!
Photos
If you’re interested in seeing photos from the last week, that album is linked below
Bahamas Week 11 - Eleuthera Week Between Guests
We’ve also started an album for this next week with the Jones Family and Grandma Kerry if you’d like to follow along
