Tony and MIchelle met us at the marina in Nassau and we all headed out together to go to Spanish Wells in the Eleuthera islands. We found a great anchorage near Spanish Wells, called Meek’s Patch and were able to do a lot of snorkeling, paddle boarding and swimming there. There was a lot of wildlife in the water: beautiful fish, small sharks and stingrays. While MIchelle and I went paddle boarding we drifted over the rays and sharks. I was mostly sitting, afraid of falling off my board and onto a shark! It was amazing.
We also went ashore to see a new pig attraction. Everywhere in the Bahamas now has a pig beach because thie swimming pigs in Staniel Cay have become so popular. The pigs at Meek’s Patch were very friendly although they did not swim, and there was poop and biting flies everywhere. We only stayed for a minute, vowing to spend more time with the original swimming pigs when we got to the Exumas.
From there we went to the Glass Window bridge further down in the Eleuthera Islands. It is a beautiful area where two narrow points of land come close together between the Atlantic ocean and the Caribbean sea. Connecting those two points there is a car bridge, and under it is a rectangular “window” looking from one body of water to the other. It is really cool because on the Caribbean side the water is calm and turquoise and on the ocean side the water is rough and sapphire blue. In rough weather the ocean spills over the rocks under the bridge and makes quite the racket joining the Caribbean sea.
We anchored just south of the bridge and took our dinghies to shore. There was a really cool place on the Atlantic side called the Queens Bath. It is basically a beautiful part of a very rough coastline with sea caves and tidal pools and tons of crabs and other crawly things. Nearby on the way to the glass window bridge is a blowhole. We didn’t see it at first when we walked over the bridge, but on the way back some local guys showed us where it is. It is quite small, but when a big wave crashes some 50 feet below, you can hear it working its way up through the fissure in the rock and out through the tiny opening. It sprays cool salty water straight into your face, or if you move fast enough it just splashes nearby. It’s hard to predict when its going to blow, so we got splashed in the face many times. We had so much fun!
Bad weather was forecast again so we decided to head south toward a protected harbour that would offer all around protection. When we got there it was packed with other boats, and the holding was not good. We made the tough decision to leave, which felt scary, but it was not where we wanted to be in a storm. We asked a friend of Tony and Michelle’s who was there in the harbour for advice and he suggested going right back where we came from at Glass Window. We had to agree that the holding had been perfect the night before, so that’s exactly what we did.
The storm went on for days, and although we had good wave protection, we had very little protection from the wind. The holding was in fact great, and we didn’t drag a foot. When the wind shifted to southeast on the second day of the storm, we started getting hit by waves, and it was rough onboard. There is something very exhausting about being on a boat in a storm. After a few days of that we all felt sick and risked taking the dinghies to shore in slightly rough seas. We went for a walk and had lunch at a restaurant. We also went back to the blow hole and because of the storm it was spraying much more enthusiastically. It was very cool, and the break from the rolling boat was much needed.
The forecast then shifted to high west and then north wind, which there was no protection from there. So we headed back up to Spanish Wells for a few days. Between Spanish Wells and the rest of Eleuthera is a passage called current cut. On the way down we were there at slack tide and it wasn’t much, but on this trip we were going with the current and it was more intense. I kept the throttle hard down to maintain control and with the current push we were speeding through at about 10 knots through a rough opening. Very exciting!
We rented some dock space that had protection from the North wind in Spanish Wells. It was quite the tight and twisty channel into it, but Douglas did a great job navigating it during high tide. We found that instead of a regular dock, we had rented a concrete wall in front of a private summer home, managed by a local. It was very nice, and very well protected. We toured around the island looking at the beautiful scenery, and finding new fun spots to explore.
On our first night we went out to a local restaurant for dinner. I had a conch burger, and although I had had conch twice the week before, I thought I was going to die. I threw up for hours and was burning up. Poor Douglas was a great nurse but he was starting to feel sick at the end too. At that point we thought it was food poisoning, but have since learned that more likely I developed an allergy to conch.
The next day I felt much better and we did some provisioning. That night we went to a Super Bowl party at a local club. We were there with Tony and Michelle and their friends, Scott, Silva, Rhonda and Sean, who were also staying in Spanish Wells. It was a really fun time and felt a lot like being home. The next day though we decided that it was time to push on. So we left the marina and anchored a few miles down in an anchorage, ready to make tracks for the Exumas next! We said goodbye to Tony and MIchell’s other friends who were all heading back toward Nassau, but Tony and Michelle stuck with us for more adventures.
