Ed arrived in Spanish
Wells on Monday March 6th, 2017.
Planes, train and automobile adventure or rather planes, ferries and
dinghies. We had been riding out a store at the Yacht Haven Marina when he
arrived. The winds had been averaging
20-30 knots for the last 3 days. On his
first day, we walked over the museum, where we learned all about the difference
between the people living on Spanish Wells and the other islands. Most of the other islands were inhabited from
the Loyalist or English sympathizers during the Civil War. But Spanish Wells and Eleuthra were founded by the Eleuthra Adventures group which was a
Methodist religious group looking for religious freedom in the islands. They
actually shipped wrecked prior to landing on the island and ended up living in
a cave called the Preacher’s Cave on the far end of Spanish Wells. Most of the island people became fishermen,
they are known for crawfish primarily.
The entire island is built around the industry. After our adventures at the museum we went to
the beach, where Brad did some kiting and Ed & I walked in the shallow
waters of the bay.
The next day the guys went on a dinghy exploration to
Russell Island. Dinner at the Yacht
Haven local restaurant.
The next day we got up early and headed out on the boat to
our first anchorage at Glass Bridge. We
had to time the departure to arrive at the Cut at slack time, so the boat did
not get pushed much from the tide and current.
We made it without any problems.
We arrived at the Glass Window after about a 4-hour cruise. It was beautiful, where the Caribbean Sea
meets the Atlantic sea, what a contrast of colors and textures.
We also met some interesting people on a boat next to our
and they invited us to come for a sunset celebration with music and
snacks. It was great, they had a steel
drum and could play all kinds of great songs.
I even learned Brown Eyed Girl while we were there. Anyway, I now want one to keep on the boat,
it is a party waiting to happen. I loved
it and it was easy to play. I should
find a medium size one that sounds good.
And let’s not forget about the Fish Museum:
Today we went to Gregory
Town and did a little shopping and browsing. Also, took some great photos of the boat
anchored in the bay.
Then on to Hatchet
Bay, it is a great pond type of anchorage very muddy and not welcoming for
swimmers. The guys went to town in the
dinghy while I took a nap. They said the
town was a dump, locals only type of place not a tourist place, oh well I guess
I didn’t miss anything. Now we are
making pizza on the grill with Ed, interesting…
On to Governor’s Cay
one of the bigger towns on Eleuthra. We
took the dinghy to the Government docks and climb over the broken stairs to get
out and explore. We had been walking
about 5 min before one of the locals adopted us as lost sheep and proceeded to
lead us around the village. I was a bit
nervous just following this strange guy around especially when he said we
needed to go to the back of the bar to rent a car and this was not the good
part of town. We pasted the old jail on
the way and some guys house with a Pitbull in the front yard, a bit shady to
say the least. But we finally did get to
the bar and unbelievably they did rent cars. So, we arranged for a car to be
delivered to the Library at 0930 am.
After that we hiked up hill about 3 miles to the beach. French Leave beach was beautiful, similar to
Harbour Island’s pink sands. We strolled
the beach and did a bit of snorkeling but not much fish here. We ended up hanging out for a couple of hours
then got a ride back to town.
For dinner we went to the local fish fry, which turned out
to be the most popular place in town. In fact everyone in town was at the fish
fry, 50+ people. It was pretty good but
could not see very well it was dark outside, so not really sure what ate, it
was suppose to be snapper. Full and ready for a goodnights sleep on Sail La
Vie.
Ed’s last day consist of renting a car and driving up to the
airport at North Eleuthra. We stopped at
the cliffs and got some great shots of the Atlantic Ocean side of the
island. We also saw Surfer’s beach, but
no surfers. After dropping Ed off 2
hours early per airline request, they told him he did not need to be back to
the airport until after 1pm, so we had 1.5 hours to get some lunch. After driving all over the island to find so
food near the beach, we gave up and ended up taking Ed back to the airport and
leaving him there to get food inside the terminal. So, on our way home from the airport, we
found a perfect place right there by the Glass Window, wouldn't you know
it. We had a couple of cheeseburgers in
paradise, except for the pesky flies that kept bothering us. I finally got smart and set a separate bowl
with food over to the side of the table so the flies had their own lunch, that
worked pretty good actually. That is the
end of Ed’s Adventures on Sail La Vie 2017.
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