4/20/2010 – Cape Eleuthera to Alabaster Bay – 31.8 Miles
With the unstable weather now out of the forecasts it was time to start heading north. Unfortunately the winds, which clocked to west on Monday had now also clocked north on their path toward northeast. At least the winds were light – 12 knots true initially, easing over the day to the 10-knot range.
The route NE of Cape Eleuthera first follows the relatively narrow Davis Channel about 5 miles to the ENE between sand bores and coral heads to port and starboard. Once through that we turned due north for roughly ten miles to skirt some sand bores to the west, after which we were finally able to ease off a bit to the NNW toward Alabaster Bay, all of this under motor into 2 to 3-foot chop. It wasn't what one would call an exhilarating day, but we were making progress toward our goal under beautiful sunny skies, albeit the bow was throwing spray across the forward half of the boat every few waves (so much for Saturday night's rain and Bill's scrubbing to wash the salt off our decks and windows).
After a bit of work trying to get a good anchor set in Alabaster Bay, we dingyed in to the beach for a white tablecloth dinner at Cocodimama resort and restaurant. Coco's has a beautiful setting and offers a significantly upscale menu and ambiance compared with the norm in southern Eleuthera (that norm is not too high). The appetizers we chose – wonderfully light calamari and a pear and Gorgonzola salad, were simply outstanding; the rest of the menu was good but unremarkable. However, Alabaster and Coco's is still a worthwhile stop if the wind is right.
4/21/2010 – Alabaster Bay via Current Cut to Royale Harbor on Royale Island – 36.8 Miles
A major point of discussion over dinner the prior night and breakfast in the morning was when to go through Current Cut at Current Island. We knew we wanted to go through at afternoon slack, as the current through the narrow cut can reportedly run 4 to 6 knots. But just when would afternoon slack be?
We consulted several boaters and other local sources, getting just about as many answers as we had responders. The complicating factor is that the tide south of the cut is about 2 ½ hours later than the tide north of the cut. One person told Susan they had gone through the cut many years ago and would never go through it again. Others (typically dive boats or powerboats with big engines, didn't seem to pay much attention to when they went through. One of the guide books said the tide here is the same as Nassau, but every other source was saying it was about an hour later on the north side of the cut and two to two and a half hours later on the south side of the cut. We looked at our Navionics tide marks for Royale Harbor, scarcely 7 miles from the cut, and for the west side of Eleuthera, and determined that the tides would be equal at about 4:00 pm on that day, the northern side going down and the southern side going up. This also tended to agree with a couple of other sources we talked with, but they gauged their estimates based on Nassau high plus about 2 ½ hours. 4:00 pm it would be, right or wrong.
Meanwhile we raised anchor around 10:00am for a lazy 28-mile quartering sail to the cut holding the boats to about 5 knots average to arrive right around 4pm under glorious blue skies. The only obstacle of the day, other than Current Cut itself, was the occasional string of fishing bouys we had to track (see Judy watching for bouys), but unlike Maine there weren't too many of them to dodge.
We hit Current Cut almost exactly at 4:00pm and it turned out our 
computations were right (see shot of Andiamo passing through ahead of us at left). If anything we got about a .2 to .3-knot boost through water that was smooth as silk. It certainly was a better experience than the one we had at Woods Hole Massachusetts, where we totally timed the current wrong and barely could motor against a six-knot flow with rocks on both sides. Current is another place that deserves respect, and we gave it to her.
Having dodged a couple widely separated rain squalls earlier in the day, our luck ran out just as we were anchoring in Royal. No problem, though, as we just sat it out after getting the anchor deployed and before finishing up with the snubber. Our reward – a rainbow over the Andiamo shortly after the rain passed. We were blessed. Time to celebrate! Tomorrow will be a very short day as we run up to Spanish Wells.
4/22/2010 – Royal Island to Spanish Wells – 6.2 Miles
Needing a bit of tide to get into Spanish Wells we left Royal Harbor at 10:00 in the morning on a rising tide. The entrance was no problem, but we wouldn't have wanted to try it any later.
Spanish Wells is a place like none other in the Bahamas. It was originally settled by Brits and Scots in the 1600's, with more British Loyalists arriving after the American Revolution. However, unlike other settlements in the Exumas and elsewhere, this one prospered and does so to this day. The harbor was bustling with activity. Everyone was busy. Fishing trawlers were carefully kept and some were being painted during the slack time after the lobster season. 
Everything in the town was neat and colorful. Every home seemed to have beautiful gardens. One could get almost anything here at one of the two excellent grocery stores (the one further from the harbor being almost the equal of stores “back home”), plus hardware stores, apparel stores, 
cafes … you name it. They even have the ability to haul huge boats for repairs (boats as large as their fishing trawlers), a capability no other place in the Bahamas has except for Freeport – not even Nassau. We immediately fell in love with the place.
4/23/2010 – Cruisers helping Cruisers
Back in Warderick Wells we had met Sic and Gail McDonough from Weymouth, MA, aboard Whimsy. We sailed across to Eleuthera with them the prior Saturday, where they bypassed Cape Eleuthera and went on to Rock Sound. Later they moved up to Governors Harbor. On Wednesday when we traveled to Royal Harbor from Alabaster Bay they sailed up from Governors, however their engine had gone DOA. It appeared they had a fuel problem that couldn't be solved by changing fuel filters or by replacing the injectors (yes, they even carried spare injectors).
Current Cut isn't a place one would want to negotiate under sail without an engine, so they anchored off Current Island while we called and emailed repair yards in Spanish Wells to ask about a possible tow for repairs (Gail and Sid didn't have an SSB, HAM set, or SatPhone on board, so our SatPhone came in handy on their behalf that day, with relays via VHF). Thursday morning they raised anchor and sailed SE to the Fleeming Cut which is much wider and carries far less current than Current Cut. Then they turned NE to anchor off the entrance to Spanish. Once there, they were able to make arrangements for a slip at the marina and for repairs with the mechanics at Pinder's Tune Up.
The only problem was getting in to Spanish and the marina. By coincidence we had just met Gene and Kathy Johnson on Front Page the day before. Gene and Kathy live in White Bear Lake, MN, 15 miles east of our home in New Brighton. They own several community newspapers, one of which is the White Bear paper (thus the name of their beautiful power boat, Front Page). They kindly agreed to assist in bringing Whimsy into the harbor using a side tie with their inflatable dingy, Second Page, and its 25-horse outboard. It worked like a charm! Whimsy was now safely in the marina awaiting diagnostics and repairs starting Monday.
4/23/2010 – Exploring Spanish Wells
Mid-day we rented a golf cart with Bruce and Susan to explore Spanish Wells and the adjoining Russell Island. We fell in love with the colorful houses, well kept yards and gardens, flowers everywhere, beautiful beaches and colorful waters.
One particularly beautiful spot was the grounds of the local Methodist Church. The church was set about a city block back from the main road, with carefully tended gardens, palms, flowers, benches and wandering walking paths winding through the park-like setting. Behind the church was the ocean-side pink sand beach that stretched for over a mile!
Other stops along the way were equally beautiful. Unfortunately the accompanying photos just don't do justice in capturing the magic of the settlement.
On the recommendation of Jock Morgan, better known as “Bandit”, we purchased five pounds of stone crab claws to steam for dinner Friday evening. The fisherman here fish the entire Bahamas. To catch their stone crabs and lobster they make simple artificial reef structures out of corrugated steel. These “lobster and crab condos”, as they like to call them, are apparently all over the Bahamas. They provide a little shelf-like shelter about 6” off the bottom, which creates a perfect habitat for lobsters and crabs to hide under – even better than stone or coral reef ledges and cracks. All of these structures, literally thousands of them, are unmarked – their location known only to the fishermen by GPS position. The harvesting is done by divers working in small boats around the mother ship.
The crab claws they harvest are HUGE! It turns out they only harvest one claw from each crab. The crab does just fine with the remaining claw, thank you, and then promptly grows back a replacement. Wouldn't it be great if we could do that rather than have to replace hip or knee joints?
That evening we literally stuffed ourselves with steamed crab on board Andiamo. Not having crab or lobster crackers, we improvised with channel locks, vice grips and pliers. Turns out channel locks work better than lobster crackers anyway. We'll have to buy some for the galley for future years!
4/24/2010 – Exploring Harbor Island
On Saturday we took the fast ferry over to Harbor Island for a day of exploring with Bruce and Susan on Andiamo, Sid and Gail from Whimsy, and Mark and Jan from Seas the Day. We had shared our Alabaster Bay anchorage with Seas the Day the prior Tuesday, and chatted with them on the radio during our trip to Current Cut, but we had not actually met until they ended up next to us on one of the mooring buoys at Spanish. Turns out Mark and Jan's home is in Afton, MN, just east of the Twin Cities. Mark used to work at 3M, and Jan was originally from Duluth! Small world.
Our ferry trip to Harbor island took us over the Devil's Backbone, a treacherous stretch of water filled with shifting sand bores and coral reefs around the north end of Eleuthera. Anyone passing through these waters is well-advised to hire a local pilot. In fact, even the high speed ferry, which negotiates these waters twice a day seven days a week, has a local pilot on board for this stretch! The trip through the backbone turned out to be one of the highlights of our day.
Harbor Island was almost as different from Spanish Wells as both Harbor Island and Spanish Wells are 
from the rest of the Bahamas. We found Harbor Island a bustling but more touristy spot than Spanish Wells. Unlike Spanish, which is a dry island, there were bars and more restaurants on Harbor, plus several upscale resorts (see pool-side photo) and a marina where we found several mega-yachts moored, none as small as our modest little sail boats.
The ocean side of Harbor Island sports a wide, almost endless beach with beautiful private beach homes and resort properties just beyond the beachfront.
After dinner at the marina restaurant we caught a water taxi to Eleuthera Island, followed by a van ride across the island to its NW point, and then another water taxi ride to Spanish. Northern Eleuthera had been a major agricultural center until relatively recently, growing oranges, pineapples, tomatoes, mangoes and other produce. However two hurricanes, Floyd and Andrew, changed all that. One sat over the island for over a day, knocking down trees, all power lines and, generally raising havoc across its path. The storm surge did not reach the inland areas, but intense salt spray saturated the island's soil, subsequently killing the fruit trees and making it impossible to productively farm. It's hard to tell how long it will take for the salt to precipitate out of the soil, but it certainly had an immediate affect on the economy of this industrious island.
If others pass through this way we'd highly recommend a side trip to Harbor Island, although you'll probably find just a one day visit to be sufficient. We wouldn't recommend going to the time and trouble of hiring a pilot to take your own boat there, but we certainly enjoyed the side trip by ferry.
4/25/2010 – Cruiser Gathering in Spanish Wells
Cruisers tend to be a gregarious bunch. There are few loners out there cruising (or perhaps you never meet those few who are loners). Sunday evening was a prime example of that trait.
Jean and Tom Goldson from Greenwich, Rhode Island, own the 32' Grand Banks trawler Amadon Light lying on the outer-most mooring ball at Spanish Wells. Each year they cruise from Rhode Island to 
Spanish for the winter, then return north in May-June. Over the years they fell in love with Spanish Wells so much that they purchased a second home here, just ½ block inland from the mooring field.
Most nights they open their porch to visiting cruisers for a 5:00 happy hour (see above photo), and on this evening we were pleased to join the festivities. Twelve other cruisers were there: coincidentally six of us from Minnesota, and others ranging from western Canada to Florida and the US East Coast, and as far away as the Mediterranean island of Corsica off the French coast. The gam went on until after the conch horns started blowing, a tradition at sundown in almost all tropical anchorages.
The term “amadon light”, the name the Goldson's chose for their Grand Banks Trawler, is the Gaelic name for the brief flash of green light observable when conditions are right in the tropics a split second before sunrise or after sunset. We had seen it several times this year.
The Goldson's also maintain a book exchange for cruisers in their Spanish Wells home, another tradition maintained in marinas and other spots frequented by cruisers around the cruising world.
Cruising IS about the people, and the Goldson's are an excellent example of that.
4/26/2005 – Fronts and Plans
We had initially hoped to depart Spanish Wells today, but weather has a way of changing things. Instead we sat out a full day of nasty squalls and near-continuous rain (see photo of Seas the Day with yet another squall approaching). The prudent choice was to sit tight for the system to pass and for the subsequent post-frontal forecast winds to clock to the NE, a more favorable direction for our next destination.
But every cloud does have a silver lining. Throughout the gloomy day we were entertained by four dolphins working the mooring field area. Must have been good fishing here today.
And rain or shine, cruising get-togethers never skip a beat. Monday afternoon White Bear Lake, MN, cruisers Gene and Kathy Johnson invited everyone over to their beautiful 63' Ocean Alexander, Front Page, for the day's cruiser gathering. The accompanying photo shows the Twin Cities contingent enjoying the party aboard Front Page: L-R Kathy Johnson, us (Judy holding a copy of their special family Christmas issue of the White Bear Press), Jan and Mark Hynnek from Afton, MN, and Gene Johnson.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. As much fun as the sight seeing and cruising contingent in Spanish Wells have been, it's getting time to start heading back toward Georgia. The winds are forecast to clock easterly by Wednesday or Thursday, at which time we hope to make our first jump to the northwest. Expect our next posting to be postmarked from either Lucaya, West End, or maybe even somewhere in Florida. So keep watching this space. 'Til next time ...
