As you can see from above, we have moved on from Eleuthera to the Southern Abacos. But let me finish my update from April 11.

April 11 through April 13
To finish our Eleuthera story, we rented a car with Teddie and Brian from Indian Summer. The woman at Dingles was quite reserved and truly appalled that we expected to park her 25 year old car by the side of the road that night. We said, “that’s what they asked us to do in Long Island” and she rolled her eyes and said “thy’re very different there” (a phrase that was pregnant with meaning). Teddie and I walked up to the Laundromat with our carts and waited and waited for it to open. Several nice locals called the owner, but no answer. We finally decided to go back to Dingles and use their washer lady service. This turned out great; it only cost a dollar a load more and we picked it up all folded and super dry.
We spent a lot of time our first day trying to replace our newly acquired, quickly busted phone at the Batleco offices on the island. The way this company operates is unbelievable. So, the local store in Rock Sound determines that , yes, your phone is busted, after having put in a new battery and tested some things on the computer. But, no, we can’t give you a new one ‘cause we don’t have any. Okay, let’s try some other stores on the island, we say, very American-like. Since we were there, we asked about buying a SIM card for our Verizon Wifi hot spot device. This office thought we could do it and even graciously sold us a one day card and installed it. However, no joy. Our friend Brian said there is some software on our computer that needs to be disabled in order for this set up to work, but he couldn’t remember how to do it. Nice try!
Off we go up the long, skinny island of Eleuthera, stopping at scenic towns and every Batelco on island. Next Batelco, no phones, so we wisely ask “can we exchange for another phone?”. “Oh yes, only if you have the original packaging”. Right, boaters get rid of trash at every opportunity. Anyway, they didn’t have the next 5 least expensive phones available! We finally decided to just sightsee!! And buy booze!! The very quaint town of Governors Harbor along with Cupid Key was just the spot. They had a fabulous liquor store with almost US prices. Great wine selection and beer was ONLY $36 a case as opposed to $50 everywhere else. All this technology stress got us hungry, so off we drove to Tippy’s on the Atlantic coast. It was a lovely spot with tiki huts, a beach and great food.
The next day we vowed to avoid technology. Only problem was, Brian left his iPad on the seat of his dinghy—you should have seen the panic in hill was well, tho. Then Jeff begs for one more quick Bateloc moment; that was fruitless, except when he got in the car he sat on our laptop. We now have a image of his ass on our screen. Next stop was the market. It was quite large by island standards and we bought some frozen lamb chops. The produce was very disappointing though. We ran into Rick and Carla from Euphoria and agreed to meet for breakfast at Sammy’s the next day.
We drove north again and passed the silo country where they had once raised cattle here. The silos were built of cinderblock. The Glass Window is a natural arch between the Atlantic and Exuma Sound. It was low tide, but the rush of water was still impressive. This spot had been painted by Winslow Home in 186? when it was still a natural arch. A hurricane finally wiped it out and it is now a cement road. Next stop was the tip of the island, Current Cut. Many cruisers were very intimidated by this, but compared to Wood’s Hole it was a piece of cake. Heading south, we stopped at Hatchet Bay for a refreshment at Twins where we met Naj, a terribly nice Haitian woman who was the bartender. We promised to return for dinner the next night. Brian and Teddie also reconnected with a young cruiser they had met along the way.
Further down the road we ate a late lunch at Laughing Lizard. This café cum art studio cum garden shop was a real treat. The benches were old surfboards and the flowers were beautiful. When we got to Tarpum Bay, there were two docks where fisherman were cleaning, packaging and selling their catch. We tried really hard to buy a Nassau grouped, but they were all big and the fisherman convinced us to buy a triggerfish. It was actually very good, but it almost looked like an overgrown tropical fish. I never would have thought it edible, but my fishing guidebook calmed me down!
After breakfast the next day, where I had the best grits of my life, we headed off to Current Cut and Spanish Wells. The run to the Cut was a motorsail and the Cut itself was no problem, but we did see 10.6 kts on the SOG. After we turned north, we had a beautiful sail all the way to Spanish Wells. We had to take a dock because the 5 moorings were taken and the channel is super narrow and packed with commercial fishing boats. The marina was a rather sad affair but safe enough. We took a walk and talked to the Yamaha dealer about the outboard—again. A golf cart ride took us to the north shore beach which was beautiful. Another quick grocery stop and we felt that we’d seen it all. The people here are mostly white with that odd accent and not very outgoing at all. Since the weather was favorable for the passage to the Abacos, we left the next afternoon for Royal Island where we spent the night with about 20 other boats. Most of us left at daylight and headed to the Egg Island cut. The going was slow and sloppy there, but after a quick 30 minutes of engine work we were on a beautiful starboard tack all the way to Little Harbor.