April 4, 2012. Although the air was very light, we decided to haul up the anchor and head to Rock Sound on Eleuthera. Good sheltered harbor to wait out a front with 20-30 kt winds predicted. Good place to provision...wine is gone, need fresh veggies and they have a wonderful supermarket (really, a supermarket!)

However, on trip over, the AC panel went blank even though the generator was running and producing power. Diagnosing time again...

Rock Sound was a pleasant surprise. The harbor was filled with cruising boats, many of whom we had met along the way. We met up with Dee and Pete from Wind Lass for lunch at Sammie's for the absolute best cracked conch in the Bahamas! In addition, the week before Easter is homecoming for Rock Sound where members of the community who have left the island for various reasons return and party. Good food, music, games, etc. The best was watching the sculling competition, which is a bit different than what we see along Boathouse Row in Philadelphia. Bahamian sculling involves one person in a skiff with an oar in a lot on the stern, and a goal of moving the boat on a race course to a turning point and pack again, maybe a total of 200 feet. It's much more difficult than it looks, no doubt! The winner then moves on to the national competition, so it's a serious competition.

On Easter Sunday, we went to services at St. Luke's Anglican Church for a lovely (but very long) celebration, led by a very animated, personable priest. The best part occurred towards the end of the service when about 100 children, including all of the cruising kids, went up front to the sanctuary and sang. Their reward...Easter candy bags! Very enjoyable seeing all those kids together.

After church we decided to walk to the Atlantic side of the island to walk the beach and see if Rosie might be open for lunch. Everyone kept telling us that we needed to go to Rosie's. Along the way, a car stopped us and the driver said, "Get in." Lo and behold, it was Rosie! She gave us a lift, led us into the restaurant, fixed us a drink and went to change her clothes from her Easter finery before preparing lunch for us. What a lovely woman! The amusing part was looking at her table of shells, driftwood, beach glass, etc that friends have left her and finding a large piece of driftwood signed by Joe and Carole on Just Ducky, whom we've known for years from the Bay. It's a small world!

Alabaster Bay just north of Governor's Harbor is a stunning by with a long pristine white sand beach. What a lovely spot to enjoy a beautiful sunset dinner at Cocodimama's, a beachside restaurant at the small Italian resort. We enjoyed the area so much that we stayed two days, before heading northward to the Glass Window. When the megayacht, Ohana pulled into the anchorage, unloaded the jet skis and canopy on the beach, and set up the inflatable slide from the upper level of the yacht, we knew it was time to depart!

The Glass Window was quite interesting...a very narrow part of the island where waves have broken through so you can see the Atlantic Ocean from the western banks side of the island. In the 1990's a rogue wave came through, so powerful that it actually moved the manmade bridge about 7 feet and required the bridge to be rebuilt to access the southern part of the island. We anchored just south of the bridge in about 10 feet of water so clear that you could see every ripple of sand on the bottom. Beautiful!

The next day we motored through Current Cut, a narrow cut in the island where the current can be quite strong, and then on to Spanish Wells. The entrance into Spanish Wells was a bit dicey, to say the least. Apparently, a stake marking the entrance and shallow water was missing. As we made our approach, two boat were coming out, a wide catamaran and a monohull. The monohull realized that they were approaching the shallow water in time to avoid it but not in time to allow us room to miss it. As a result, we were hard aground. Not even a minute passed when several small power boaters came to our rescue to attempt to pull us off. After many tries, using the bow thrusters and Ingo working the boat back and forth, we were finally free. However, the most disconcerting part was the pilot boat for the megayacht Ohana (same one from Alabaster Bay) who kept yelling for us to get out of the way. Like we really wanted to be aground on the edge of the channel? Arrogant Ohana just kept on coming and ended up about a boat length from our stern when we finally got off the reef. Not very comfortable or professional on their part!

April 12, 2012. Arrived in Spanish Wells to ride out another front coming through over the weekend after a lovely, meandering trip from Rock Sound to Governor's Harbor, then on to Alabaster Bay, the "glass window" and into Spanish Wells. Since the generator was still acting up, Spanish Wells was the best place to have Ingo's diagnosis confirmed and receive a new main circuit breaker from the States. Luckily, it was covered under warranty and the Westerbeke supplier could ship it by FedEx overnight. Unfortunately, it shipped to the Bahamas! The part arrived in Nassau overnight, but missed the ferry to Spanish Wells in Friday morning, the ferry was chartered for a charity event on Sat. so no delivery, no ferry on Sun., FedEx missed the ferry departure early Mon morning, and again on Tues. because they thought the part was being held for pick-up in Nassau. Finally, they got it straight, got the part on the ferry and it arrived on Wed, was installed by Mr. Charlie Pinder and all was well. It's the Bahamas, mon! In addition, Mr. Pinder helped Ingo remount the rudder control for the autopilot which was loose and not communicating with the rudder properly.

So, what do you do for a week in Spanish Wells? First, it's a dry town populated by charming, warm, hard-working people...glad we provisioned with another case of wine and some coconut rum in Governor's Harbour. It almost doesn't feel Bahamian, certainly not like the Exumas. The town was populated mostly by anti- slavery Loyalists in the 17th century so the population is primarily white with a unique accent, sort of British. There are several main families, but about 70% of the people are Pinders. As explained to me by a local, if you live in Spanish Wells, chances are that you either were a Pinder, are a Pinder or will be a Pinder!

Staying at Spanish Wells Yacht Haven was perfect. We met Dennis and Bettye from Miss Bettye who are friends of Barefootin' and enroute to the wedding in the Abacos. Then, Terry and Carol from Australia on Common Sense arrived, so we had several lovely happy hours with some very interesting conversations and lots of laughter. Also, bumped into Steve and Amanda from Diana in town. Steve finally got his conch horn!

Walking around town was the best...beautiful pink sand beaches on the west end of the island, lovely little shops (bought Androsia-like fabric), extremely friendly people, great shell shop for gifts, and visited the quilting shed where several local women have their quilt frame and quilt all day long. Unfortunately, I missed visiting the museum, but it's always good to leave something for the next time.

April 19, 2012. Left Spanish Wells for Harbour Island, and, as highly recommended by the locals, we have a pilot on board who is driving the boat across the Devil's Backbone which is an area on the north side is Spanish Wells that is littered with reefs and coral heads.