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| This is thr reason we had to leave Virginia. It may be beautiful, but it sure is cold! |
Aaanndd we’re off. On Friday 29 March we took off from the
Harbor Club Hotel and Marina in downtown Nassau on our way to Spanish Wells,
Eleuthera, then to the Abacos and eventually back to Florida. We decided to go to Spanish
Wells because … well … we hadn’t been there before and it sounded kind of
interesting. We decided to go to the Abacos because we HAD been there before
(it’s where we spent last winter) and we decided to go back to Florida so I can
go to yet another set of doctor’s appointments.
That’s right, I still have problems with my foot – or rather with the
medical profession in general, the members of which cannot figure out what is
wrong or how to fix it. Deep Breath, deep breath … I am not going there; I
think any doctors reading this blog already know what I think about their
colleague’s inability to repair me. Deep breath!
As I said, we took off on Friday into 3-5 foot seas – a
little more than that with which we are comfortable, but we have been in worse.
I can’t blame the weathermen as they actually predicted the 3 – 5 footers. But,
it didn’t make any difference. We wanted to get out of Nassau – and its
high-priced marinas – so badly that we figured we could handle whatever the
Northeast Providence Channel threw at us. Other than the fact that we got
bounced around quite a bit the trip was uneventful. The only thing that got
seriously displaced along the way was the booze! Now, I know you are thinking that,
of all things, I should have taken better care of the booze – but the reality
is even worse. The reason the bottles got bounced around so much was because we
didn’t have enough liquor in the liquor cabinet. My God, the shame of it all!
There are a couple of places we could have stayed while in
Spanish Wells. Royal Island is a magnificent lake-like, very well protected
anchorage a few miles from the settlement – but for us to get to Spanish wells
proper it would have been quite a long dinghy ride. There is also an anchorage
just off Russell Cay, (not too far from the town) but there weren’t that many
reviews of it in Active Captain, my go-to anchorage guide, so I was a bit
hesitant to drop the hook there. But all was not lost as they also have nine
mooring balls. The issue was whether the mooring balls would handle a 52 foot
boat. We have learned that the answer to that question isn’t always “yes,” and
that it is better to call before just showing up on someone’s doorstep. To make
a long story short, we called, only one of their balls would handle a 52’boat,
but it would be free by the time we got there. Yesss! It seemed like things
were working out for us.
We pulled in, tied up to the mooring ball and rested a while
before heading to the dinghy deck to lower the boat. We got it almost halfway
down and … it stopped. We managed to get it back up – though not into its
cradle – and we saw the problem. As we had been lowering the dinghy it had made
a few funny noises, but they weren’t THAT funny and I thought it was just
because we hadn’t used the dinghy in over a month. Well, I was wrong. The cable
that raises and lowers the dinghy had slipped off the pulley and had wedged
itself between the pulley and the side of the crane. We started working to get
the dinghy in the cradle, and the people in the boat behind us, in a sailboat
named Chummy, called over to see if
we needed help. We did. So, all four of them came over. Between the six of us
we got the dinghy down and into its cradle. That’s when we noticed what the
real problem was.
It seems the cable got tangled inside the winch and part of
the cable had, in fact, torn apart. Now we needed a professional with some
special tools to take the winch apart, take out the old cable and put in some
new one. The chore didn’t really sound too hard, except for one little fact.
This was not only Friday, it was Good Friday in a very religious community. No
one would be working on Saturday either. Or on Easter Sunday. Or on the
following Monday – it is a holiday in the Bahamas. So, unless we were going to
stay on our boat for four days with no way to get to shore, we had to find a
marina in which we could stay and spend more money. So, on Saturday morning we
docked at the Spanish Wells Yacht Haven.
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| The beach on the north side of Spanish Wells. |
Spanish Wells is kind of an unusual community. It occupies
the whole of St. George`s Cay and is laid out in kind of a grid pattern. It has
two streets that run the length of the island (about two miles) and 30 streets
that run cross-wise. I know there are thirty streets because they are numbered
from First Street to (you guessed it) 30th street. The north side of
the island is a beach, as long as the island. It isn’t as beautiful as some we
have seen in the Bahamas but you can walk out at least a quarter mile and still
be less than knee deep in very calm water.
Spanish Wells has an interesting history. It seems to have
received its name from the 16th Century when Spanish Galleons used
to stop here to top off with water from the local wells. There don’t seem to be
too many records from that time and I can’t tell you too much. But some of the
most interesting history begins with the Eleutheran Adventurers who came to the
Bahamas in 1648.
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| My kayak is no longer a virgin! Paddling around Spanish Wells |
The Adventurers left Bermuda and came to the Bahamas to find
that most elusive of freedoms – freedom of religion. Just south of St. George`s
Cay their ship sank when it ran into what is still known as the Devil’s
Backbone and they settled on the Island of Eleuthera. I am not going to go into
great detail, but basically when their ship sank they lost all their provisions
and for several months lived in a cave, called “Preacher’s Cave” until they
could build their own huts. At some point, William Sayles, their leader and the
former governor of Bermuda went to the American Colonies to find fellow
religionists who might offer some support. Though not particularly well off
themselves, the Pilgrims from Massachusetts Bay Colony gave Sayles 80 pounds
sterling as well as a ship full of provisions. Fast forward a few years. After
a split among the Adventurers, some went to an island just off Eleuthra, called
Spanish Wells. This group sent a shipment of Brazeletto wood to the Pilgrims to
repay them for their help. Ok, now get this. (This is where I have been going
for this whole paragraph.) The Pilgrims sold the wood for a profit of 124
pounds sterling – which they used to buy the last corner of a piece of property
now known as Harvard Yard.
A couple of other notes on Spanish Wells:
·
The population of Spanish wells is about 1500
–many, if not most, of whom can trace their lineage back to the original
Eleuthran Adventurers.
·
Apparently, one of the families that came over
with the Adventurers was named Pinder – as there are more Pinders here than you
can shake a stick at.
·
After the American Revolution, a number of
Loyalists came to the Bahamas (and brought their slaves with them) to start new
plantations. Because Spanish Wells
started as a religious community and retained that character, the people of
Spanish Wells discouraged the use of slaves. They made it clear that the people
who used slaves should leave, while the people who performed their own labor or
paid wages to others could remain. They disassociated themselves from the
neighboring islands who dealt with slavery. So, according to many locals, the
disapproval of slavery is why today the island has a predominantly white
population.
·
Spanish Wells provides 70% of the lobsters
shipped from the Bahamas. Their largest customer is the restaurant chain Red
Lobster. (Some of you who know me well will recognize the irony of that.)
·
Many of the large houses on the “channel side” of
the island have sixty to seventy foot commercial fishing boats docked in front
of them. Those who own the houses also own the fishing boats. Lobster fishing
is a lucrative occupation – especially if you are the captain and owner of the
boat. (It is also interesting that these ships, moored as they are in front of
their owners houses, are generally in ship-shape and Bristol fashion, as
opposed to most of the commercial fishing boats we see elsewhere in the Bahamas
AND in the States.)
While here we have also met some new cruisers. Jerry and Lee Ann
are aboard the 51’sailing vessel, Bella.
We had them over for cocktails on Monday, then went out to dinner with them on
Tuesday. The unique thing about them is: Lee Ann was a hospice nurse and Jerry was
a … well … an orthopedic surgeon. I have decided, though, that Jerry is one of
those good surgeons as he is willing to serve as my consultant for dealing with
my foot. I have three buzzwords that I have to fit into a conversation with an
orthopedic guy: (1) the Campbell Clinic in Memphis, (2) a wound-vac, and (3) a
hyperbaric chamber. Oh! And (4) I want
them to cut on the side of the heel next time, not on top of the last incision.
Sadie M, a 44’ Tollycraft, also came in on Tuesday and I talked to them for a
while. They, too, are heading up to Marsh Harbor so we will probably see more
of them in the near future.
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| Contrast this with the picture of snowy Virginia. I'm just sayin'! |
On Tuesday I walked over to On-Site Repairs, the company
that everyone recommended for work on our winch. Although they weren’t sure
they would be able to get to it right away, I begged and pleaded and they sent Mark
over right away. He was a bit surly when I explained what we needed and told me
that no one in town would have the cable. I told him we had been in town for a
while, had asked around, and knew that Pinder’s Tune-Up, a car repair store,
had the stuff. After I told him that he
kind of shut up and got to work. Lo and behold, by noon he had taken apart the winch,
taken out the old twisted cable and put in the new one. All he had to do after
lunch was to put the winch back in the crane and we would be set. When he was
leaving he said he was going off to get something to eat and to get a set of
smaller hands (to put a particular set of nuts in place). I didn’t think
anything of it until he returned with … are you ready for it … a little person.
Yes, Ferris was about four feet tall and, in fact, had the little hands that Mark
needed to hold the nuts in place while he tightened the bolts.
It is now Wednesday morning and we are ready to leave. We
are doing a batch of wash, getting some fuel then spending the night at Royal
Island – it looks like a very nice anchorage, but I’ll report on it in the next
entry. From there we are heading to Little Harbor and thence to Marsh Harbor.
We’ll keep you posted!
ANN’S NOTES:
I cannot tell you how happy I am to be cruising again…having
Traveling Soul tied to a dock is not what she is meant to do and not what she
was built to do. I am still an adventure girl at heart. The boat and I still
like to see different islands and explore the land, culture and the people.
What Michael did not tell you in his part of the blog is
that the people in the sailboat Chummy were all Canadian. They worked very hard
to secure the dinghy back on deck and really tried to fix the crane. That cable
was really stuck but we all did our part to un-stick it. We did get it un-stuck
but the cable was all torn up…not a pretty sight to see. As usual when our boat
needs repairs it is usually on a late Friday and in the Bahamas they take their
week-end seriously… Sorry mon ... no work on weekend. Thank heaven the marina
was open and we could get to it. Now we could at least walk around the island
and look around. The people are so very friendly and helpful…unless it is the
weekend.
We found a marine store/fish market open and we bought some
lobster tails. So we may have started a new Easter tradition while in the
islands, I made homemade mac and cheese with lobster chunks in it. It was so
good, as good as any restaurant according to Michael.
We have met some really nice cruisers on this lay over. Lee
Ann and I hit it off right away. We have so much in common, the same work in
hospice… she was a trainer for the CNA`s and knows how important we are in
caring for the person that is dying and for the families that at times feel
helpless. We have read the same books, like the same movies and can talk to
each other for hours. She also has a wonderful sense of humor and we laugh a
lot. When I told her about the small set of hands and then seeing Ferris come
on board, it took a few minutes to settle down. The other good part is Michael
likes Jerry even if he is a doctor. He gave Michael lots of good advice and
told him he could call him if needed and would even talk to the other doctors …
now that is a friend.
Michael wants to get this sent out before we leave the
marina, I need to go check on the last batch of clothes in the dryer so I
better wrap this up…
Wildlife Report:
29 March 2013
Northeast Providence Channel
Flying fish
Thanks for following us…
Traveling Soul…..OUT
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