Staniel Cay to Spanish Wells

We had a few nice days with friends before leaving them for the season. Jim and Janie on Pirate left a few days before us, as did John and Wendy on Windemere.

We spend the late afternoon most days hanging out on Pirate Beach on Big Major Island, off of Staniel Cay.

If you had wondered how Janie and Jim on Pirate transported their parrot from the boat to the beach, they would bring him hanging on the bar of their dinghy.

At the end of the season, the umbrella we had been using on the beach broke and Jim came up with this "fix" to make it usable until we all left.

Jim's innovative "fix"

Me enjoying an afternoon float.

These nurse sharks and rays come around the fish cleaning station off of Staniel Cay Yacht Club

One afternoon we went exploring in the Pipe Creek area near Staniel Cay where we could land the dinghy on the lee side of the island and then walk a path through to the ocean side where we can search for sea glass and shells.
Often when there is a path like that, cruisers mark the location of the path with flotsam and jetsam found on the ocean side. This one was was put together by someone with a "fun" personality for sure.

The "Pipe Creek Yacht Club"

We said goodbye to our remaining friends at Staniel Cay and headed north. At this point we were covering new ground as our plan was to do Eleuthera and Spanish Wells and maybe the Abacos. Well, we wanted to catch up with Dennis and Bettye on Miss Bettye, plus the weather was not as quiet that it usually is starting in April, so we ended up scraping Eleuthera and the goal was to reach Spanish Wells and then the Abacos.

Our first stop for the night was at Ship Channel Cay. The next day we crossed the Bahamas Banks to reach the island of Current Cut. We had to pass through a narrow channel there. Luckily, we were going with the current and that made it easier. Coming from the other direction was a Bahamian fishing boat towing one of the racing sloops, the "Abaco Rage" and they were bucking the current and it took them a long time to pass through the cut. They were on their way to the Family Island Regatta, which we had decided not to attend this year and use the time exploring new areas of the Bahamas.

 

A boat with a pretty spinnaker that we passed.

After a couple of nights anchored out near Spanish Wells, we went in to the marina because winds predicted to be as high as 50 mph were coming. Spanish Wells is a unique community in the Bahamas. It is a community of people that came to the Bahamas seeking religious freedom and have remained that ever since. This community survives on fishing the waters of the Bahamas for lobster. We heard that they supplied Red Lobster with most of their lobster. They have the nicest fleet of fishing boats we have ever seen.

Many of the buildings had nice painted murals on them, which I found attractive (since I paint murals). Here is one on the R & B Boatyard.

 

R & B Boatyard building

A beautiful Trumpy boat that we had seen in the Exumas came in and tied up at the dock behind us at the marina. It was great to see this boat close-up. The owner is the Captain and he charters this boat a week at a time. He had spent a bundle refurbishing this boat back to the beauty of its prime.

 

Freedom

After Freedom left, Hayfu II, a boat that we had seen in the Exumas last year and met the crew of, came in at the dock. It was great seeing Captain Brian, First Mate Jack, and Chief Mark. We had been given a tour of this beautiful catamaran, a much larger boat than the Prety Penny. We had them over one night for dinner and they responded later with a dinner on Hayfu! It was great catching up with them. The owner of the boat had them headed to the Abacos, so we hoped to see them again.

 

Hayfu II

 

Splish Splash is one of the many fishing boats tucked into this protected harbor between Spanish Wells Island and Russell Island. Most of these boats are cooperatively owned. Fathers give portions of their shares to their sums when they graduate from high school. This ensures that many of their children stay on the island and have a way to make a good income. As a result, the girls stay too!

 

Another fishing boat shown with the support boats that are towed out to the fishing grounds and then used.

We found that not only the boats were taken good care of, there homes were there homes and yards were nice too.

 

Island home.

After spending a week at Spanish Wells, we headed out to cross to the Abacos. It turned out that Hayfu II was crossing that day also, so we let them pass and followed.

 

Hayfu II passing

 

Northern point of Eleuthera we passsed after leaving Spanish Wells

Onward toward the Abacos!