CODA STILL HERE IN THE BAHAMAS 2025 (53)

CODA : Exploring Spanish Wells, Bahamas.

4 March 2025 

Spanish Wells Yacht Haven,  Spanish Wells,  Eleuthera, Bahamas  

Spanish Wells has a resemblance to Martha's Vineyard with quaint cottages and beautiful flowers.

Marc-  Another interesting cottage.  The first chore I did this morning was go on foot to get my propane tank refilled on a nearby street.  If you know me I am not one to easily get lost.  I was told to "Go up to 14th street then go left until you see the tanks in the Richard's yard."  There were few street signs and google maps was totally lost, indicating that the streets here are not numbered sequentially.  On the google map 14th street is next to 8th and so on.  I did find 13th street when I asked the owner of this house what street I was on.  She was quite helpful in saying just turn left on the next alley, go to the end, and you're at 14th Street.  I did get to 14th street but then a woman in a small car stopped and asked if I needed a ride.  I must have looked strange (old guy walking around with a propane tank in one hand looking lost).  I indicated I was looking for "Richard the propane man's house."  She got out of her car, said she would take care of me, walked across the street and knocked on a door.  Another woman came out and said "Oh, Richard's house is just over there."  Then they both walked me down to Richard's house about 100 feet away.  It's not over.  The second lady said "Just leave your tank on the lawn and Richard will fill it." Then Richard's wife came out and said hello and told me Richard was at work at Pinder's Auto but would fill my tank at lunchtime or when he got home at 5 pm.  "Just come back a little after that."  I went back at 5:05 pm and there was Richard out in his yard filling my tank.  When he finished he told me that he was taking $5.00 off the refill price because the tank had a little left in it.  Friendly place eh? 

Sorry for the drama here but this is really a small town where everyone knows everyone and it's very friendly with zero crime.  Doors are mostly open, kids play outside.  We spent much of our day riding our bikes around the two connected islands:  Spanish Wells and Russell.  It was good exercise and fun.

We passed about 10 large lobster fishing boats on the commercial street getting ready for the last trip of the season.  They are about to go out for the last official month of fishing.  Boats were loading up on supplies, gear, whatever they will need.

We came along this repair boatyard with good advertising.

The boatyard has a marine railway that crosses the street with a unique feature:  there is a wooden bridge for the street traffic to cross over the marine railway that is removed whenever a boat passes to or from the water.

Another view of the marine railway and bridge.

That jumbled up bunch of boats is the only mooring field in town.

The eastern tip of Spanish Wells.

Sign over the ferry dock building.  The ferry connects you to either Eleuthera or Nassau.

Sue found a nice clothing and fabric store in town and I found a field of dreams.  Imagine hitting a baseball out of this park.

We stopped for lunch at a beach park.

Beach gazebo with special water left for the local free range chickens.

Next we crossed the bridge over to the more rural Russell Island.  We saw goats and chickens about and some agricultural land.  Some boaters told us to go out to the Sandbar grill.  

Might there be mermaids here.

No mermaids but this interesting little lizard appeared.

We split a Poutine order overlooking the bay.

Later in the day we found a rather unique neighborhood Ice Cream Parlor.  Most people drive up in their golf carts and order ice cream.  It opens at 7 pm.  The soft serve ice cream was excellent and the small size was quite large.  Made my day!

Sue:  There is a lot to explore here.  There is a museum that we want to see, and we've contacted the lady who gives tour via WhatsApp.  We're waiting to hear back from her.  I went in a clothing and souvenir store, and was shocked to see some beautiful fabric and notions.  Before I came to The Bahamas (this is my first time) I asked my friend Kathleen if there were any fabric stores here.  She said she had never seen one.  I had no idea how silly my question was until we got here and I saw that there were barely any grocery stores, never mind a fabric store.  I'm sure there are fabric stores in Nassau, and I think that is where most people buy their clothing, but we didn't go to Nassau (only to Atlantis).  Spanish Wells is a very industrious place.  There is a lot of industry (primarily commercial fishing), homes are very well kept, and it looks to be thriving.  Of course I had to get some fabric - 2 different prints of sea turtles.  They had quite a bit of "Bahamas Batik," and I am trying to think of what I could do with some of that so I can justify going back tomorrow to get some.

  

CODA STILL HERE IN THE BAHAMAS 2025 (52)

 CODA : Exploring Eleuthera, Bahamas.

3 March 2025 

Spanish Wells Yacht Haven,  Spanish Wells,  Eleuthera, Bahamas   

The Isles of Spanish Wells.

Marc-  I awoke at 3 a.m. thinking something is not right.  I went to check on the anchor alarm and it indicated that the boat had dragged significantly when a 180 degree wind change had taken place.  The anchor reset on its own.  I stayed awake for another hour to be sure.  This was a good time for me to check on my planning for passing through the Current Cut passage from the Eleuthera Banks to the Ocean.  Spanish Wells sits on the Ocean side of Eleuthera.  The tidal current through this passage can reach 10 knots and is best passed through at "slack" tide stage.  The problem is calculating the time of slack.  On line sources do not agree and neither do the boating guides.  I found a local boaters site that helped.  Slack is two hours after high tide at Nassau.  We arrived 2.5 hours after High Tide at Nassau and benefitted from the beginning of the outgoing or ebb tidal current.  We left Hatchet Bay just in time to reach Current Cut at 13:00.  We sailed the entire distance under main and genoa until arriving in the Cut where we expected a severe drop in wind due to land.  The boat really did not need the engine at this point since we had the current of 3 knots in our favor, but it was nice to have it for control.

Leaving Hatchet Bay (with favorable easterly winds of 12-15 knots).

Approaching Current Cut (staying in the dark water is key to getting through this unmarked passage).

Coda is the red arrow.

Right in the middle of Current Cut sits town workboat Current Pride at the Government pier.

The next tricky passage was the entrance to Spanish Wells.  The only markings are a couple of poles set at either end of a narrow pass (and some rocks extend beyond the poles).

Entering Spanish Wells inner harbour.  Multiple marinas, shipyards and commercial fishing facilities are  located here between the several islands that form Spanish Wells.

Our marina was down the channel to the left.  One hidden danger in this channel are several old concrete pier footings that come out into the channel edge.  A Good Samaritan alerted me to this issue waving me off.

We made it to a very nice first rate marina and cottage complex.

We found our way to the local supermarket, pharmacy and bank.  Lots of golf carts on this island.

We walked to the shopping center through a nice residential part of town and were impressed by the neat homes and the nice flowers.  

A community garden that grows bananas (really cool).

After dinner we walked up our street to the beach.  We had a nice walk on a wide beach with firm sand.

Sue:  I want to mention that the high (tourist) season in Cape Eleuthera is in April, and I imagine that is true here, as well.  It was very quiet in Cape Eleuthera, as it was a place strictly for boaters, divers and tourists, and we were early getting there.  Spanish Wells is a busy place with a lot of residential streets and small businesses.  The homes are well kept, landscaped, and there is zero trash.  The beach is really beautiful and the homes on the beach are also beautiful.  The grocery store had everything we needed.  It even has a pharmacy, which we fortunately did not need.  It's the first pharmacy I've seen in the Bahamas.  George Town had a pharmacy, but it wasn't walking distance from the harbor so we did not see it.  The prices here are the usual high prices:  $2.50/foot at the marina.   The 88 oz All laundry detergent costs $33.11, the 141 oz All is $51.48, a 15 oz can of Del Monte fruit cocktail is $5.45, watermelons are $12.75, a dozen medium eggs $12.75, a 5 oz bag of baby spinach/spring mix is $9.85, a box of Ghirardelli brownie mix is $8.75, a package of 4 Morningstar Farms chick burgers and black bean burgers are $8.64, a package of 4 Morningstar Farms grillers veggie burgers is $9.85, a gallon of milk is $10.73.  We bought eggs, bread, bananas, turkey from the US, half and half creamer and oatmeal.  I don't know how the Bahamians afford this.  This island's primary work is commercial fishing.  It is as different as night and day from Alicetown.

There were kids playing in the street in their school uniforms.  Running races, riding bikes and scooters.  It reminded us of when we were kids and parents didn't worry about you being outside unsupervised.

We walked back to the boat in the dark, and Marc noted that there are more street lights here than in Vergennes.

CODA STILL HERE IN THE BAHAMAS 2025 (51)

 CODA : Exploring Eleuthera, Bahamas.

2 March 2025 

Hatchet Harbour, Alicetown,  Eleuthera, Bahamas  

There are seven sailboats anchored in this nearly landlocked harbor but only one with active AIS.

Marc-  We had thunderstorms overnight that for once did not require a run to close the hatches since we were at a marina with the air conditioning on.  We thought about the boats anchored on the ocean side of the beach as the wind increased.  All was back to sunny skies and a northwest breeze of 10 knots this morning.  The breeze was favorable since we were headed northeast to Hatchet Harbor.  

Nice new bungalows at Cape Eleuthera as we came out of the marina inlet.

The coastline of Eleuthera is a huge arc sort of like Cape Cod in Massachusetts without the mainland to connect to one end.  As we cut across the Bay we could barely see the shore except for the fact that low lying clouds appear only over land.

The 90 foot wide entrance to Hatchet Harbour.

After finding a nice corner spot to anchor we set off ashore.  The dinghy pier was fine.  Unfortunately most of the businesses are closed on Sundays.  A fisherman on the pier suggested a few places that would be open.  The Twin Brothers restaurant was open and it was also suggested that there might be ice cream up the street, but 2.5 miles later no ice cream.  The ice cream shop is part of the laundromat, and a fellow working there said they were out of ice cream, and "maybe next week we'll have some."  We returned to the restaurant, had some dinner, and had a nice time speaking with fellow sailors on a 42 foot Sabre from VA.

We passed by this "full service shipyard" on our ice cream walk.  This shipyard actually builds steel barges and manages a boat storage yard.  

This steel barge is 100 feet long and 30 feet wide.

The black rubber inflatable tubes are placed under the barge and inflated when it is ready to launch.

Since the barge is built on an a very large launching ramp it can be pushed out to the harbor rolling on the rubber tubes.

Back in town (A fairly large blue collar town with friendly people).

We wandered down this alley to the Twin Brothers resto bar.

Nice little place with outdoor covered seating.  

Sue:  Our overall thoughts re Alicetown:  rough around the edges with friendly people.  It reminded us a lot of Bimini - the area where the Bahamian people lived, not the area by the cruise ship port.  And not  like the Cape Eleuthera resort we stayed at last night.  Tomorrow we plan to go to Spanish Wells.

CODA STILL HERE IN THE BAHAMAS 2025 (50)

 CODA : Moving on to Eleuthera, Bahamas.

1 March 2025 

Cape Eleuthera Resort and Marina,  Eleuthera, Bahamas 

This classic wooden yacht was anchored at Shroud Cay near us this morning.

Marc-  We said farewell to the Exuma Land and Sea Park this morning.  Our intention was to head north to Hoffman Cut to cross over to the ocean on our way to Powell Point, Eleuthera.  Two large sailboats left just before us and one was a 75 foot Oyster sailboat and they were taking Wax Cay Cut.  I decided to follow them out since both were deeper draft vessels so if they got stuck we could just turn around.  The charts were good but a surprise was in store for us.  Coda proceeded at about 6 knots out this rather long Cut (passage between two islands leading from the shallow banks to the ocean).  Our speed soon increased to 8.9 knots as the ebbing tidal current rushed out.  The light east winds did not alert me to any problems.  After we passed through the first exposed reefs the breaking waves began.  I saw the Oyster crashing through the white water.  We followed through some 6 foot breaking waves.  The unusual part was that this continued for 1/4 mile before calming down to just some long ocean swells from the southeast.  With our sails up Coda did fine and by the time that we reached the mid way point the ocean was flat calm.  

Our plan for the day was to stay at the Cape Eleuthera Resort and Marina.  Eleuthera is a 90 mile long set of connected islands (by bridge and ferry).  Eleuthera is 35 miles northeast of the northern Exumas.

I was not aware of anchorages so we made reservations.  We later saw boats anchored off the resort ocean beach (very exposed).   

Land Ho.  We saw the clouds hanging out over an area ahead before seeing the land beneath.

Crossing from the Exumas to Eleuthera the depths go down to over 15,000 feet

 (these are metric depths indicated on the chart).  I thought that I was seeing things when my face appeared on the screen as well.

The entrance and basin are a major man made enlargement of a creek mouth on Powell Point.

Easy entrance with 12 foot depths and deep berths for visiting boats.

There are over 200 slips in this basin with many cottages, condos and private homes.

View from the Clubhouse restaurant and bar.

Looks comfy.

Beautiful ocean beach.  The cottages are just behind the sea grapes.

One area of the resort is Powell Pointe (Andy Powell is this somehow related to you?).

Nice tree house style cottage for sale on Powell Pointe.

Next door to the marina is a large Ocean Life research Center and School.  The Island School is impressive.  See  https://islandschool.org/#:~:text=The%20Island%20School%20offers%20a,learn%20about%20the%20natural%20world.  

Some of the high school students were at the Marina Gift Shop getting ice cream and other snacks when we stopped by.  The rear of the store houses the laundry, bathrooms and showers.  We took advantage to do three loads of laundry and take real showers (hot water, plenty of it, a first for us in the Bahamas).

Sue:  It is beautiful here, but reminiscent of the fancy resort end of Bimini, which is completely different from how the locals live.  The marina is half full, and I did not see anyone at all in the new cottages (we failed to get a photo of them).  There were people in the Powell Point homes.  The cottages and homes are super nice and built out of cement block.  There was hardly anyone at the restaurant.  I guess it is early for people to be getting to Eleuthera?