Navigating cuts & currents in Spanish Wells, Eleuthera

On Sunday Nov. 14th, we left Man 'o War channel in the Abacos and motored for ~70 miles in dead calm seas for about 10 hours to arrive at Egg Island in Eleuthera. From there, we had to take the great circle route (with which we will be becoming very familiar) around Egg Reef, past Rocky Bar and around a wreck to arrive just before sun down in a quiet & protected anchorage at Royal Island, which we shared with one local fisherman. 

The next day, we crept (at 3 knots) into the harbor at Spanish Wells, a small fishing town at the north end of Eleuthera, where we saw 7 1/2 feet under our 7 foot draft boat! Once inside, we picked up a mooring from Bandit (a local pilot) and took a dinghy tour down the channel to find our friend Will's house and his favorite fisherman, Bernard. We didn't find the house. We found Bernard but he didn't have 'no fish' so we settled for frozen grouper from another fish market. 

On Tuesday, we rented a golf cart for $30 to tour the island and continue in the pursuit of finding Will's house. Our first stop was at Wood 'n Stuff Art Gallery, where a handsome, blue eyed Irishman named Austin, runs an arts & crafts program for the island kids. He teaches the kids how to carve wood (or copper when he can afford it) into the shapes of fish & coral and then nail them to pieces of wood to make these fabulous displays. We couldn't resist designing one ourselves and getting a signed artifact for the boat.

We eventually found Will's house tucked away in the causarina trees and some beautiful ocean views from the eastern end of the island.

Our original plan was to stay in Spanish Wells for 2 nights and then head off to other parts of Eleuthera but on the morning that we intended to leave, there was a cargo ship blocking our only way out! The evening before, a catamaran named Valentin with a German couple we had met at the Salty Dawg dinner in Marsh Harbor, had showed up at the mooring next to us and stopped by in their dinghy to say hello so we though we'd check in with them the following morning see what they were up to. After a brief radio exchange, we all decided it would be fun to ferry to the main island, where we would take a cab to the harbor taxi which would drop us off at Harbor Island, a supposedly bustling New England style village with renowned pink sand beaches.  

We never found the bustling village but we enjoyed a boisterous ride in the harbor taxi, an excellent coffee shop called Sweet Spot Cafe, the famous for some reason drift wood stuck in the sand and a stroll about town and on the beach.

On Thursday (11/17), we were still on the mooring in Spanish Wells waiting out some weather. We kept ourselves busy; Andrew dealing with the latest boat issue (a clogged sink) and me walking to town for a plunger and trying to figure out how to update the blog since my iPad died. We'd gotten to know Bandit (Jock) and his wife Caroline, with our daily visits to pay for the mooring ball. On our last day, after Andrew and I had a nice lunch of fish tacos and rum drinks at the Shipyard Restaurant on the point, they gave us some of their home grown avocados and invited us to come back and visit their beloved little town.