Mike
01/28/2008, Royal Island, Eleuthera, Bahamas

Sunday, January 27.... Spanish Wells back to Royal Island Harbour.

There is a cold front forecast for this morning so we need to find a little more protection than is offered here at Spanish Wells so we weighed anchor at about 9:30 and headed back toward Royal Island Harbour. Actually we passed the harbor and went on to check out a possible anchorage a couple of miles to the west at Egg Island. On arrival we found wind protection but waves were curving around and it seem to be a little too rolley for either snorkeling or anchoring for the day. So it was back to Royal Island for the night.

We arrived a little before noon and listened to the Wolverines lose on XM ... which was probably the highlight of the day.

Before we left Spanish Wells, we checked and our remote transmission to Sailblogs was sort of there .... out in the ocean with our text but the was not where it was supposed to be... so we downloaded the directions to try to work out the bugs. Eventually, we should be able to make everything work together....maybe.

It rained hard for about five minutes and the wind blew around 20 to 25 knots all day shifting from the west to the north.

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Mike
01/27/2008, Spanish Wells, George's Cay, Eleuthera

Saturday, January 26 Spanish Wells, Eleuthera

We and "Madcap" hauled anchors and drove about an hour east to George's Cay and the town of Spanish Wells. At the dinghy dock we met "Hawk" who is from Wisconsin and has a home here. Hawk spent a few minutes explaining the town and it's attractions.

There is a cement break wall that runs the length of the harbor lined with ships big enough to be impressive, but not too big for the shallow waters of the Bahamian ports. There is also a large fleet of commericial fishing boats....trawlers that a all clean, and shiny unlike similar boats along the ICW.

We bought some fresh tomato's, a green pumpkin and a few green peppers from Shirley who was standing along the side of the pier. Then we were off on a walking tour of the island. The homes are small and painted in every conceivable pastel...neat, tidy, and for the most part well kept. One point of interest is that the houses have shingle roofs like any other, but they are painted with some white substance to reflect the sun and to glue the edges together so they won't blow away in a storm.

There was no real downtown area just a few shops scattered around town. We stopped for lunch at a small restaurant and waited forever for our very marginal lunch. Kathy bought some "Johnny Cake" at Kathy's Bakery and some lemons at the grocery before heading for the gardens at the Methodist Church. The Gardens consisted of a palm planting of about an acre with shaded paths crisscrossing the interior. All the plants seemed to be native .... and were quite impressive.

We returned to the dinghy in the mid-afternoon and headed back out the channel to Sapphire anchored off shore. The afternoon was spent ferrying water and fuel back and forth from town to the boat. Pindars, where we bought the fuel allowed us to fill jerry cans of water for free with the purchase of fuel ... so I took the opportunity to top off both of our tanks. Meanwhile, Kathy was busy uploading blog entries and keeping up on emails.

We had a wonderful meal of pan fried mahi-mahi, potatoes, and sliced fresh tomatoes.

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Mike
01/26/2008, Royal Island, Eleuthera, Bahamas

Friday January 25

The forecast cold front moved through just before dawn and the wind picked up to about 20 knots. The day was cloudy and breezy. A few boats dragged but we were fine.

After coffee, we began the project of regrounding our SSB. At about noon we finished up and on the first try were able to log into one of the win link sites. What that means is that we should be able to send and receive email over the radio.

Kathy made pizza for lunch and we spent most of the afternoon reading. We are planning on heading for Spanish Wells tomorrow and then on to the Exumas on Sunday, but you never know.

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