Sunday brought us 53 nautical miles across the NW Providence Channel ( aka the Atlantic Ocean) from Little Harbor on Great Abaco Island to St George's Cay, called Spanish Wells, just west of North Eleuthera. We were ushered along by 10-15 kt wind and a following 2-3' seas.
The picturesque working harbor of Spanish Wells is the world's epicenter of the Bahamian lobster, conch and fishing industry. Depending on the source, it is credited with supplying anywhere from 50-70% of the total gross production of spiny lobsters. The 70-100' lobster boats that are processing plants and stay out of 3-4 weeks at a time, tow several smaller (22') center console boats. Once they are in an area where the spiny creatures are known to be, a diver will go out in each smaller boat and with the assistance of a gas driven air compressor on each boat, will dive to 60-90' to retrieve the delicacies. I suspect that the mortality rate among lobster divers is high; locals talk about divers who "aren't right in the head" anymore after going too deep. The mother ship freezes the lobster tail and brings it to shore where they are placed on small freighters that bring them to FL.
Spanish Wells Lobster Boat with tenders
Waterfront in Spanish Wells
Last night we enjoyed a delicious dinner of stone crab claws that measured 7-9," (three to the pound) they can be had at the local fish store/processing plant for $6.00 a pound. I won't share what I paid for claws in Fl last year, but suffice it to say, I could buy four times as many in Spanish Wells. We did not have to purchase the claws as our guests, Rich and Nancy, knew a young woman, Ingrid, who lives on Spanish Wells and she gave them a huge bag of claws.
It's a small world story; while walking to the supermarket on Spanish Wells, we stopped to ask directions from a woman who was sitting on the porch of her house enjoying the magenta hues of the sunset. She inquired where were we from, etc. and she shared that for 20 years she lived in Patchogue and worked in Franks Nursery on Sunrise Hwy. She and her husband retired and 10 years ago bought a home in spanish Wells after vacationing there for 20 years. I still have a Stag Horn Fern that I bought at Franks 35 years ago!
We spent three nights on a mooring in Spanish Wells while a front blustered through, and took advantage of the time to take a ferry to N. Eleuthera, where we rented a car for the day and toured a little less than half of the 90 mile long Eleuthera Island. We first drove to Current (population 131) a tiny town where there is a Current Cut (Eleuthera Panama Canal) with a current of up to 10 kts producing rips and roiled seas that were impressive
We then drove east and south down Eleuthera to the Glass window, a point in the rock spine of Eleuthera, once no more than a natural arch undermined by the ocean, which became a real break from the Ocean to the Bahamiam Banks. It was named for the "look through" window formed by the arch. We drove across the new bridge, the latest in a series of bridges that have been built to replace the ones destroyed by storms.
Our southern most part of the car tour brought us to Hatchet Bay, where abandoned grain silos, remnants of a failed cattle-raising venture loom lofty in the distance. Hatchet Bay has a man-made entrance through limestone cliffs into a landlocked pond, this was accomplished to assure success for the Hatchet Bay cattle-raising project. Apparently needing more than a deep, well protected harbor to be successful, the cattle-raising didn't come to fruition, but today a lovely protected harbor beckons boaters. If we had planned to bring the boat down the West side of Eleuthera, we would have stopped at Hatchet Bay.
Tuesday found again on the Government ferry (no life preservers evident) crossing to Three Islands Dock on N.Eleuthera where we took a taxi and another ferry to Harbor Island which is somewhat analogous to FIre Island off Long Island. We rented a golf car and found our way to multiple paths leading down to 3 miles of blush pink sand beaches on the Ocean.
Government Ferry Boat (the little one in the foreground)
Homes and shops painted in the traditional pastel blue, greens and pinks dot the streets as chickens strut around pecking at unseen morsels. On the harbor front a local stands at the water's edge and cleans conch amidst a mountain of conch shells whose occupants were rudely wrenched from their homes to be skinned, pounded and consumed as salad, chowder, fritters, and fried tasty treats. Lunch at Acquapazza Ristorante, with its panoramic views of the harbor, provided the finishing touches to a beautiful day.
Today, Wednesday, January 18 finds us traversing south from Spanish Wells through Fleeming Chanel from west to east into the Exuma Sound on our way to Highbourne Cay (in the Exumas) where will be be at a marina for two nights and hopefully I will have a wifi connection to reconnect with the world.
The Exuma Cays run northwest to southeast, we will travel mostly on the Exuma Sound side, the east side where there is deep water as we hop from Island to Island.
When we were an hour from our destination, we slowed to trolling speed and put a couple of lines out, we were rewarded with a 5', 48 pound bull dolphin (not the Flipper variety) I was the lucky angler who got to bring the fish in,he is by far the biggest dolphin that I have ever caught and he will be delicous dinner many times over.
That's some gorgeous fish! How lucky can you get?
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