On to "Spanish Wells" April 19 thru 24

APRIL 19, 2018
                                    Total mile traveled to this point = 501.6

Our early departure from Lynyard Cay resulted in some fairly rough waters on the first half of the crossing which takes about 5 hours over open ocean. More on that below.....

But the last half resulted in some fishing and most of all a WHALE sighting off the bow of "Just Us".
What a sight to behold, only got to see the whale from my "nocs"..that short for binoculars.
Wish I had a picture taking "noc" because I saw the whale jump completely out of the water and also several times he would roll up and blow.....That's one for the record book.
I also "while fishing" watched Dave over on "Just Us" catch and lose a really nice Wahoo.
Followed for a few minutes with the "Nocs"...Dave is still wiping tears.

A peaceful evening anchored at Royal Island.
A well protected harbour of an old abandoned "something", maybe an old marina or just an old settlement.

Some construction in progress but charts say since 2006...Long time to be building something.

Spanish Wells tomorrow.

That rough crossing created some waves crashing over the bow.
On one of my checks down below I notice the inverter had tripped out. Didn't find the problem until after we anchored.
Seems some water got in thru a window and shorted out a receptacle in the forward stateroom. That could have been a real big problem in those Atlantic waters.

April 20,2018

First things first when you arrive at a new Island.....feed the Captain..

That usually requires a visit to the local grocery to get some fresh goodies.
Milk, bread, eggs, fruit, etc....

A very busy place the day after the supply boat arrives.

Being the past builder/owner of two Log Homes I just could not pass up this opportunity to check out a log house being built in the Bahamas.

Who would ever guess this would happen over here.

Spanish Wells is made up of many different styles of architecture but a Log House?

This "Log on Log" unit is overlooking the water on a very busy street.

The houses here in Spanish Wells are painted all different colors and very well maintained.
This should stick out like a sore thumb, but I love it........

Before turning in the Golf Cart Michele wanted another tour of the town so Annie and I found this cool beach overlooking the "Devils Backbone" just for her.

Both these gals just love to stick their toes in the sand and play in the surf.



April 21, 2018

My new buddy "Darian" brought in this nice 55 pound "Bull Dolphin aka Mahi" just a few minutes off the reef in deep water.

Darian and his dad "The Captain" were wheeling the Sportfish for the owner of the marina here in Spanish Wells.

They were on their way here to bring a group of orphans from Nassau to enjoy the amenities of this beautiful resort.

I swam with the boys in the pool and we had a great time....so good to see them enjoying the good life.  Thanks to Milton Moscoew, a fine man.

Darian and I became good buddies while they were here and he gave me some excellent tips on catching the Big One.

Here he is showing me the art of cleaning a Bull Dolphin so when I catch my Big One I will know how to take full benefit of the meat, all 75 pounds of it. Mine will be even bigger.

Sunday, April 22

A rainy day is forecast so we decided to ferry over to Harbour Island for the day.

Here we are waiting on the ferry and meet up with a couple of very interesting locals.
The man with the cap (sitting down) was born/raised on Eleuthera Island, seen a lot of changes in 75 years..
The gentleman standing is a Methodist Minister on Eleuthera  and took the day off to visit a daughter while his son fills in for him at church today. We really enjoyed our conversations with these two. They had some interesting stories to tell.

When visiting Harbour Island the first thing to do is go to the world famous "Pink Sand Beach", where the rich and famous play.

This trail leads over the hill to the most beautiful beach in the Eleuthera Islands..So they say.

Being a cloudy overcast day we did not get the full effect of the pink sand but it is still apparent in this shot of Annie and Michele playing in the surf.
The sand is like powder and has a pink tone....beautiful.

We expected to get rained out so we went to the beach early to avoid the showers...however, we didn't get rain all day.

We walked along this "High Dollar Piece of Real Estate" while Annie played in the sand.

Not a lot of people this early and with the clouds looming it probably kept several people inside the resorts until later.

On to Ramora Bay...hear it's a really nice place.

Lunch at Remora Bay Marina and Resort was great. We had reservations to bring our boats here but cancelled when we didn't make the scheduled dates.
Weather plays such a factor over here.
Turned out to be a good decision because one day on the Island is plenty for me. Not my favorite Island and the seas were too rough to make the trip thru Devils Backbone to get here, even with a guide. We took the Fast Ferry and it was quite a ride in 5 to 6 foot seas...Yeehaw..

After lunch we had a few hours before catching the ferry so we cruised around Dunmore Town.
Christine is still looking for that perfect sea shell so we stopped at the "Shell Ladie's Place"..

Dunmore Town seems to be getting more run down since our last visit here three years ago.
Pure poverty on one side of the hill and High End resorts on the other side of the hill.

While exploring the Island we discovered an old road bed that had been closed off to vehicles and a sign that said "Trail to Cannon, walk only" so we did. Annie led the way down this 1/2 mile road to an Inlet into the harbour.

We didn't find any cannons but we did find what appeared to be a hand cut trench in solid rock that might have been the mount for a large cannon to guard the Inlet. Need to do some research on that some day.

This trail down the hill led to the trench cut in rock.

The big red pipe goes back up the hill to a water tank and now lays in the trench.????

The Inlet is narrow so a cannon could have been guarding this easily.

On our way back to the ferry we come across this fellow making fresh Conch Salad.

Now, as a rule, I do not eat Conch or anything else that is raw. But really fresh Conch Salad is delicious.
He said he had been doing this for many years...
He uses everything fresh..onions, peppers, tomatoes, lime, lemon, sour oranges, etc.....ummmm good.

Did I mention this was Fresh Conch Salad.

This fellow is breaking open the Conch that was caught today and handing them to the man making the salad.

The chef stated "If I can't make it fresh.....I won't make it".

All done outdoors, nothing sanitized...you gotta love the Bahama's mon...



Total miles traveled at this point = 501.6

April 24, 2018

Back at Mystic Lady in time for dinner and to prepare to move back to Royal Island tomorrow. There we will stage for our crossing the Northwest Providence Channel on Thursday...weather permitting.. Storms moving thru tonight but forecast to be gone by that time.