On To Eluthera, highlighting Royal Island and Spanish Wells

At  Cambridge Key we say goodbye to Jose and Char. They will remain in the Exumas while Wind Dancer and Sand Castle set sail for Eluthera. And we do set sail. A glorious breeze from the southwest scoots us across the Exuma Sound and we anchor that evening in Rock Sound. Eluthera was settled by English families looking for religious freedom  and their descendants still live there. While we don't make it ashore in Rock Sound, we do enjoy our glimpse of the white Anglican church in the harbor. The town has a more European look than those in the Exumas. During the night, warnings of high winds expected have us scrapping our plans for a leisurely trip through the island and we decide to make a run for the Abacos, where we are supposed to meet crew member, Don Hutchins, who is to join us for the last two weeks of the adventure. The plan is to make a run for Spanish Wells, which involves a 10 mile dash across the Atlantic and then back on the bank near Royal Island, from there make another mad dash across the Atlantic and through the reef where we are to meet Don. Of course, it doesn't work out that way. A 12 hour sail with 15-20 knot winds gets us to Fleeming Cut where suddenly our speed drops from 6.5 to 3.8 and the steering feels odd. We decide it must be the current, and turn on the engine. It sounds fine, but we are still struggling through the cut, across the Atlantic and make Royal Island just as the sun goes down. As we anchor, an enormous tumbleweed of woody stemmed sea weed floats free from our keel and rudder. Royal Island curves into an almost complete circle and forms a cove, sheltered from almost every wind. It was the private hideaway of a Florida millionaire from the 1920s-1950s. Now, a group of developers, including Roger Staubach,  plan to fill the harbor with a huge marina and divide the property into multimillion dollar lots. We think we found the spot where you sign your contract for your ocean view lot.In the 1920s, a truly unique house, with living areas sometimes open to the outdoors and separate guest houses and kitchen buildings was built, but the house is deteriorating. Nature will always reclaim, what man does not maintain. Roofs have caved, walls have crumbled, re bars have rusted, and lovely mosaic tiles have chipped away.

Before leaving for Spanish Wells, Rick checks to ensure that all the seaweed is off the rudder. It isn't and he makes dive after dive bringing up handfuls of the seaweed which was wrapped tightly around the rudder. We arrive in Spanish Wells, but locals tell us the winds are already too high to make traveling through the reef safe. So, Don has to change plans, flying into Spanish Wells, and we are forced to spend several days in beautiful Spanish Wells, where we are amazed at the vitality of the town. The island was settled by English loyalists, fleeing the newly formed United States. There are still signs of their early life style, limes, mangoes, bananas, pineapples, and wild cotton plants still struggle in the soil. Goats and sheep eat the course island grass. Below is a picture of  a wild growing cotton plant over 6 feet high.

Their industrious nature is evident too. Spanish Wells produces 70% of all the Bahamian lobsters, dozens of immaculate fishing boats line the harbor. For a small town of only 1500, the amount of activity is astounding. Everybody works. There are busy shipyards, unique mini-ferries take cars and people to the main island of Eluthera, the Nassau to Governors Island ferry stops here twice a day, and fishing boats, which are not currently fishing, bring in supplies almost hourly. Residents line up at the docks with golf carts and pick-ups. They pick up huge quantities of paper towels, baby cribs, and electronics. They load on frozen fish, empty propane bottles, and cases of bananas and mangoes.You can find everything you need...we were even able to replace our computer charger at the local computer store...and found a real supermarket willed with fresh produce and every kind of fresh, canned, and frozen delight we'd been missing for 4 weeks. Most amazing to us was athat a small community of Mennonites live here. A boat near us in the marina was occupied by a family of three. The mother washed out diapers by hand and put the diapers out to dry on the life lines of their sailboat. She wore an ankle length dress and, head scarf, and apron to do so. Another Mennonite man, wearing suspenders and a full beard operated one of the single car ferries.

The day Don was to arrive, Luke, Jan, Rick and I took the super ferry through the coral reefs to Governors Island. We passes our mooring field on the way.

On Governors Island is the famous pink sand beach, where movie stars and the rich and famous tan themselves...but not while we were there.

We arrive back at Spanish Wells within a few minutes of Don, who had arrived from Seattle via a plane to Palm beach, a cab to the train station, a train to Fort Lauderdale airport, a flight to Nassau, another flight to Eluthera, a taxi to the passenger ferry, and a passenger ferry to Spanish Wells. It takes a dedicated crew to work so hard to arrive!

By arriving in Spanish Wells, Don is able to see the beautiful sand bottomed Bahamian waters of blue before we head north to the green glass waters of the Abacos.