Unexcused Absences Eleuthera (he said)

Eleuthera (he said)

by Kent 26 Jan 2016

January 14, 2016 – January 24, 2016. The crossing from the Berry Islands to north Eleuthera on Wednesday was pretty rough, but it was now or never. Strong westerly winds were predicted for Thursday through Saturday, and the only place to hide in the Berrys, Great Harbour Marina, was fully booked. So Spanish Wells, here we come.

Approaching Spanish Wells

Wednesday night we found a great anchorage in the lee of Meek’s Patch, a low north-south strip of land to the south of Spanish Wells harbor. Perfect protection from that night’s easterly wind. Thursday morning we drove the two miles into the harbor and got our slip at the Spanish Wells Yacht Haven to ride out the coming storm. For lunch we walked up the hill to Budda’s Cafe and Liquor Store, which is run out of an old school bus painted like one of those hippie-dippy jobs from California in the 70’s, but with fish and reefs instead of flowers and peace symbols. The food was only 3-star, but the ambiance, plus Mr. Budda himself, made it a 5-star experience.

Budda’s Liquor Store and Cafe

Spanish Wells is a bit of an anomaly for the Bahamas. Most of the settlements in the Out Islands feature run-down houses with exposed cinder block, yards full of weeds and rusting appliances, free-range chickens, and golf carts. Spanish Wells, surprisingly, is full of freshly painted houses, trim landscaping, vibrant businesses, and golf carts.

A typical house in Spanish Wells

The town is home to a large fishing fleet and the businesses that support it; boat yards, mechanics, hardware stores, and a fish wholesaler. And golf carts. That cart that took you and your buddies around the links 10 years ago? Highly possible it ended up in Spanish Wells, Eleuthera, Bahamas. Even the police had a tricked out cart. I wonder if it had cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks? The guy driving it sort of looked like one of the Blues Brothers.

Parking lot at the grocery store

That afternoon all the boats were preparing for the storm. Folks were taking down flags, folding bimini tops, and lashing down anything that could move, rip, flap, tear, or fall over. The big blow and the rain weren’t supposed to start until the next day after lunch, so we met our boat neighbors and caught up on some internet activities and settled in.

Side door at the fish wholesaler

Early on storm day actually had some outstanding wind and clear skies, so I loaded the dinghy with windsurfing gear and had Heather drive me down the canal and around the point to a pristine sandy beach, which offered perfect windsurfing conditions, so good that I broke the front of my boom about half an hour in to the session. Obviously, with no mechanical breakdowns possible on Miss Adventure (because she was tied to a dock), the cruising gods got creative in handing me my mechanical problem of the day. But at least I got some sailing in.

A bit of windsurfing before my rig broke

After lunch the rain clouds rolled in, a big gray wall that approached from the west. The marina docks were perfectly protected, so we hardly felt a thing, although the rain dumped a lot of water on us. The winds continued into the night, but by next morning the sky was clear and the wind was light out of the north, perfect beach and snorkeling weather.

We loaded the dinghy with beach mat, umbrella, bluetooth stereo, iPod, folding chairs, snorkel gear, wetsuits, spearfishing sling, cooler, and towels. We looked like the Beverly Hillbillies with all the stuff packed into our 9’6” inflatable boat. We had a nice time on the beach, and chatted with some of our boat neighbors who were out for a walk.

Beach weather

That evening we suggested that everyone bring a dish to the T dock where Miss Adventure was moored, and we set up our tables and chairs – in the hierarchy of boating, trawler folks are expected to have storage space for all the things that sailboaters wished they could cary onboard (like tables and chairs). We met Ben from Loon, Bill and Terry from Second Option, Brian and Susan from Good Morning Vietnam, Dave and Barbara from Cookie, and Dave and Sandy from Bel Canto. Staying in marinas is really fun, if a bit hard on the wallet.

The snack table at happy hour

“Miss Adventure” with all the sailboats

The gang at Spanish Wells Yacht Haven

The next day we decided to continue our way around the west coast of Eleuthera. To make the jump from the Spanish Wells side over to the main island, we needed to transit Current Cut, a narrow cut with a lot of current (man, the names they come up with). The trick is to time your passage with the tide, so you’re heading east-bound on a rising tide or west-bound on a falling tide. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Whatever it was, we did it right, and had a four-knot following current on our passage. Miss Adventure’s never traveled so fast. Our destination was the Glass Window, an oddly appropriate name for a natural hole in the cliffs where the Atlantic Ocean beats against a narrow spot in the island.

The Glass Window, Eleuthera

The place is a minor tourist attraction, because the north end of the 40-foot-high bridge spanning the gap was knocked seven feet (!) to the west by a rogue wave in 1991. And this being the Bahamas, the local officials looked at it, scratched their heads, and simply re-painted the road stripes to channel traffic onto the newly skewed bridge. The area is also home to the “Queen’s Baths,” a formation on the ocean side that resembles some of the hot springs formations in Montana. Without the geysers and the hot steam.

The Glass Window Bridge was knocked askew in 1991

That night Brian and Susan invited us aboard Good Morning Vietnam for dinner, along with Ben from Loon. It was a ton of fun, and we stayed up well past boaters’ midnight (9pm). The talk of the night was about the upcoming storm, which was projected to bless us with two days of west winds (remember, there are few places to hide from west winds in the Bahamas). Both GMV and Loon were planning to head down to the protection of Rock Sound early, but we decided to take it easy and explore some more of Eleuthera before getting pinned down by the weather.

Sunset at Glass Window with “GMV” and “Loon”

Our next stop was Ten Bay, at the “elbow” of Eleuthera where the island turns to run north-south. It was nothing remarkable, just another beautiful anchorage in 10-12 feet of turquoise water off a lovely beach. The day’s cruise was fun because the deep water ran right up to shore, so we drove down the coast only a hundred yards or so from the cliffs. A number of beautiful (and a few not-so-beautiful) homes dotted the cliff-tops.

Cruising down Eleuthera’s west coast

Friday we continued three hours and arrived in Rock Sound, but not before enduring a truly tremendous downpour that reduced visibility to about 50 yards. The rain cleared right as we were approaching the Sound, which is one of the only harbors for probably one hundred miles that provides all-around protection from any wind direction. Cookie, Loon, and Good Morning Vietnam were already parked, so we figured once the storm cleared we would have some socializing to do.

It took 48 hours for the west winds to blow themselves out, so we camped out on our boat and (finally…) finished listening to Ken Follett’s Century trilogy on audiobook. We started this ~90 hour audio marathon all the way back in Deltaville in late October. I do like Ken Follett as an author, but he sort of went off the rails by the third book in the trilogy. How can you write a “comprehensive” historical fiction about the 1960’s and never even mention NASA and the space program? The good news about being pinned down by wind and rain is that we were able to fill the water tanks with our zippy new rain catcher / sun awning. Of course one of us had to stand outside in the rain to tend the catcher, since it has a few design flaws, but the work was assigned alphabetically by first name, and, well, there you have it. Leadership is a lonely business.

Heather on rain-catcher duty

Monday, January 25, the conditions had settled enough to cross to the Exumas. Cookie and Good Morning Vietnam left at the crack of dawn while we elected to sleep in and visit the grocery store in Rock Sound. The store was actually pretty well provisioned, and we even found some tahini (most locals’ reaction in the Bahamas is, “what’s tahini?”). I’ll save the crossing for the next post, but (spoiler alert), it was clear and calm.

Bahamas 2016 Cruise – Eleuthera