Excellent Eleuthera!

After putting Alyssa in the taxi to the airport Sunday we just relaxed … coffee at Starbucks, a stroll down the street to Montague Park and back to the marina.  Monday we topped up water, did laundry, got groceries, and ready to leave.  Tuesday February 25 we sailed from Nassau to Spanish Wells in perfect conditions.  The wind was on the beam (coming from the side of the boat for you non-sailors) and blowing 15 – 18 knots.  Most of the route from Nassau to Eleuthera is protected from the southeast by a reef, so the waves were only about 1 metre.  Half way to Spanish Wells I couldn’t help myself, “these are the days we live for!” I exclaimed to Karen.  Luckily we got a slip at the Spanish Wells Yacht Haven, to weather the next blow. 

(l-r) Hugh Sue Karen Randy

Sue and Randy met us on the dock and we marveled at how we had actually managed to connect a year after they floated the idea that we should meet them in Spanish Wells.  Tuesday evening they invited us to the cottage, called Sweet Ting, that they are sharing with Randy’s sister Marilyn and cousin Heather and we all enjoyed Bubba’s fish tacos, and some wine.

Heather and Marilyn

Wednesday we walked around St. Georges Cay, the island on which Spanish Wells is located.  And when I say walked around … I mean almost literally.  Turns out Sue and Randy love to walk, so we left the marina, walked up to the Shipyard restaurant at the extreme north end of the island to make a reservation and then down the beach nearly to Sue and Randy’s cottage at the south end of the island!

Sue and Karen on St. Georges beach

After recovering, we all went up to the Shipyard for a very lazy dinner.  Thursday we decided to sit another day due to the rather sporty conditions, and were happy we had when the black clouds rolled in in the afternoon together with a cold wind. Sue, Randy, Marilyn and Heather hosted us for lunch and then we all enjoyed takeout pizza from Wreckers for dinner.

Friday the sun was out and we cast off with Sue and Randy aboard for a run down Eleuthera. Current Cut is a narrow passage one has to transit on the way from Spanish Wells to the other Eleuthera towns farther south.  Apparently the tide can flow through the cut at up to 6 knots, so the key is to arrive at slack tide.  There is much discussion in the cruising guides and on Active Captain, crowd sourced information, on the best time to transit Current Cut.  The best I could figure based on our prior experience and Active Captain was 90 minutes after Nassau high tide.  Just before we left the marina I asked Leroy, the manager, and he said 60 minutes after Nassau.  Anyway, we left in time to hit it at 60 minutes after Nassau and were pushed through by a 2 knot current. 

Once out on the Eleuthera bank we had a gorgeous sail, beam reaching in 10 knots of wind on our way to Hatchet Bay.  Then … two dolphins joined us and played in the bow wave and around the boat for 20 minutes!  Unbelievable!  We have rarely seen dolphins before, so it was amazing that they joined us while Sue and Randy were aboard.  Of course we told them that we had laid on the deluxe cruise for them!

Dolphins playing with Trekker

Hatchet Bay is a small harbour with a very narrow entrance carved through the rock.  Incredibly, freighters and ferries use the cut too.  I image they bounce of the sides at times!  There were quite a few boats already anchored when we arrived, but we took our time and luckily found a patch of sand to drop the anchor in and were very happy when we backed down on it, it buried and held.

We all hopped in the dinghy and went into town and while the Front Porch would not serve us a beer (too busy preparing dinner) we did enjoy a cool one at Two Brothers before returning to the boat for the evening.

Saturday we had the anchor up at 0730 and headed for Rock Sound.  We put in one reef and were pretty comfortable with the wind almost right behind us in spite of it gusting to 23 knots and the waves being about 1 metre.  Once in Rock Sound we downed the main and began motoring over to our normal anchoring spot by Frigates.  As we neared the other boats anchored there we noticed that it was not as protected as we thought it would be and everyone was bouncing around quite a bit.  Plus it was still gusting into the 20s.  Had we been smart we would have just gone over to the west side of the bay where two boats were anchored (and our sister-ship Breeze On anchors in a westerly blow) but instead we decided to head back out and go to Cape Eleuthera.  What I hadn’t figured on was a one hour bash back into the wind and waves to reach the beginning of the Davis Channel, a narrow, unmarked channel that one has to take to Cape Eleuthera.  Not fun.  Anyway, we made it and arrived at Cape Eleuthera marina about 1600. 

Sunday we rented a car with Sue and Randy and toured the south end of the island. We showed them the caves and ocean hole in Rock Sound and then we had lunch at Frigates gazing out at the boats sitting calmly in Rock Sound harbour, protected from the wind that had shifted to the northeast … oh well. 

Sue, Hugh and Randy in the caves

We ate dinner at Harbour Point restaurant in the marina and Monday we took Sue and Randy up to Governor’s Harbour, had a great lunch at Buccaneer’s Pub with Marilyn and Heather and then Sue and Randy went back to Spanish Wells with them and we drove back to Cape Eleuthera.

Lunch at Buccaneer's with our entertaining waiter Bigz

Today, Tuesday, we relaxed, did a load of laundry and biked a four mile loop on bicycles our neighbour kindly loaned us.  I spoke to Cherry at the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park and put our name on the list for a mooring ball tomorrow, and also spoke to US Spars to arrange to ship our mast north while we motor up the ICW.  It’s looking like a nice day to cross to Warderick Wells tomorrow, so we’ll try and get away by about 0900 so that we can get to the inlet while the tide it still flooding through the cut, the same direction as the wind and waves, for a calm entry. Currently it looks like we are going to spend a week in the ECLSP (due to more fronts coming through), then start heading back to Florida, one day at a time ...