It's just a Short Walk: Spanish Wells and Eleuthra

Our first stop after the great sail from the Abacos Royal Harbor. Royal Harbor is just a secure anchorage in an area where Roger Staubach (spelling?) and other investors were trying to build a marina.  The project is on long-term hold but much of the construction equipment remains.   Unfortunately, abandoned project like this litter the Bahamas and don't make the American investors very popular.   Luckily, the Bahamians take one look at our boats and know that we are not in the Roger Staubach league and are nothing if not gracious.

After a quick night in Royal Harbor, we moved onto Spanish wells which is considered the fishing and lobstering capital of the Bahamas.   The community itself probably has some of the most well kept houses we have seen in the islands and the fishing boats are pristine so we're guessing the fishing is still lucrative.   The major fishing is done August through November so most of the boats were back in the small harbor at dock for now.   Of course, as we were leaving, one of the larger boats decided to go north in the channel that we were headed south out of but he held his course and let us pass.   There is no anchoring in the Spanish Wells harbor itself (more like a channel than a harbor) but they have put in 8 moorings.   We were traveling with another sailboat (Plumpuppet) and luckily we both got moorings.   I don't think I have ever seen moorings any closer together. When we picked up the line to our mooring, we were literally 10 feet off the stern of the catamaran in the sunset picture below.   No pressure.....

We had hoped to take a fast ferry from Spanish Wells to Harbortown but the ferry ran a short schedule on Sunday and not much was going to be open anyway (remember when stores/restaurants actually closed one day a week? So civilized).   So after one night, we moved on to Eluethera.   To get to Eluethra, you need to go through Current Cut.   The water flows/floods onto the waters of Eleuthera at a speed of over 6 knots.   My dive book indicates they do drift dives in the cut which must be liked flying through the water. The cut is deep (over 20 feet) and wide but to get out of the cut you have to make a 90 degree turn into a narrow channel of shallow water (7-10 feet) with rocks on one side and sand shallows on the other.   Again, no pressure. We tried to put our heads together with the other boat we were traveling with (Plumpuppet) to figure out the time for slack tide for the cut but between the 4 of us we missed it.   We had about 2.5 knots of current against us but we both made it through unscathed.   We opted for a short day and moored in Hatchet Bay and Plumpuppet traveled on.

According to the cruising guide the entrance for Hatchet bay 90 feet wide, carved out of the rocks (see the pictures below).   The tricky part is that you can't see it until you are right on top of it.   And I would probably debate the 90 feet measurement.   It was an extremely calm day but this would be an impassable entrance with a large surge or sea.   We were fascinated to see both a fuel ship and a fast ferry zip right through the entrance proving once again how skilled those captains really are.

From Hatchet Bay, we had another great sail about 35 miles south to Rock Sound.   Rock Sound is the boating mecca of Eleuthra with a grocery store, beach bar, car rental and a beach and a blue hole withing walking distance (2 miles is walking distance in the Bahamas).   Eleuthra is 90 miles long and since we wanted to see a bit more than the harbors this time, we rented a car and drove about 2/3 of the island.   Between some paved and some sand roads, driving on the left and trying to figure out how many kilometers/hour we should be driving (the dashboard was not in MPH), it was a fun but long day.   We stopped in a beautiful resort in Alabaster Bay (and put it on our list for future land trips) and also checked out the abandoned US Naval Base.   The base was downright creepy and although Joe had great time checking out abandoned pump houses and barracks, I swore I heard the theme song for the Twilight Zone playing in the background.   I did think about the "poor" sailors who were stationed here and how they suffered because the base had facilities right on one of the beautiful pink sand beaches.    There is only a hint of pink in the sand but it is still a gorgeous beach (except for the ruins and trash which is now being left there).

Now the winds are revising our plans a bit. At least half the boats in the harbor were planning to leave Eluethra headed for Little San Salvador and the other Out Islands of the Bahamas.   However, another cold front is headed our way with winds around 25mph and from a direction that would make that trip downright miserable.   Since the plans were written in Jello anyway and since we have learned (the hard way) not to fight the wind, we are changing tack and heading directly to the Exuma Cays tomorrow.   Hopefully, we will get to the Out Islands on the way back north in March. We're headed to some deserted Cays first and probably won't have internet for at least a week so don't worry if we don't update again for a bit.