On to Eleuthera

Eleuthera is Greek for “freedom” and after six weeks in the Abacos and a month in a marina, getting to Eleuthera certainly feels like freedom.

 

On 9 March we sailed at noon on a rising tide from Abaco Resort Marina (Boat Harbor) on the south side of  Marsh Harbour after an evening “farewell dinner” with Rob and Lynn from SV Kaiulani, with whom we have been hopscotching with since we left Coinjock, NC.

 

 

We motored about 5 miles to Tilloo Cay, a thin island with its east side facing the Atlantic Ocean.  We anchored in the lee of Tiloo (the west side)  and waited a day for the “perfect” weather day (which has a similar existence as the unicorn and the Easter bunny).

At 0700, 11 March, we got underway for Eleuthera, some 70 open ocean miles away.  At 0930 we passed the North Channel Cut and entered the Atlantic, proceeding to a point 2 miles offshore.  Winds were fair out of the southwest at 10 knots and seas were calm with a three foot easterly swell on which Sophia rides easily.  We sailed close hauled on main, genoa, and staysail for the rest of the morning and all afternoon, and into the evening, putting 35 nautical miles us, but pushing us 20 miles offshore.  The wind began to veer to the west allowing us to close the distance and point more to our destination into the shallow area west of Eleuthera (the Eleuthera bight, part of the Grand Bahama Bank).

At 10pm, the wind became light and variable, making it hard to maintain course and speed.  For the most of the next few hours, we made I knot (nautical mile per hour) and sometimes we just went in circles chasing the wind.  At 11pm, the cruise ship “Royal Princess” passed close, within a half of mile, going at 20 knots, lit up like a city.  We needed to watch it carefully as those guys do not like to change course.

At 0200 on the 12^th, we gave up and started the engine and proceeded at 4 knots to our waypoint to the west of Egg Island.   At 7am, we passed Egg Island and entered the Eleuthera Bight going from water that was 4000 feet deep and a deep blue to 12 feet and Bahamian blue-green within a few miles.  We proceeded about 5 miles and anchored off of Royal Island – our destination for the crossing.

Elena handled the transit well and was able to sleep for much of the passage.  After a good breakfast and a couple of hours of sleep, I was ready to go again and we decided to move to Spanish Wells another 5 miles to the east and the place we wanted to go ashore.  We anchored a half mile off of the harbor at Spanish Wells and went ashore for a quick tour.

Spanish Wells was much like Green Turtle, small and quaint.  It had more industry (specifically fishing) and took larger ships at the government dock.  The older buildings seemed a bit run down to me, but the people were friendly, offering us rides as we walked around the ‘settlement” as towns in the Bahamas are called.

 

 

Of historical note, Eleuthera was settled initially by the “Eleuthera Adventurers”, a set of Puritans who settled here in 1647 (30 years after the Pilgrims).  Unfortunately, their ship wrecked on the reefs.  Perhaps more unfortunately, the land is not fit to grow crops and while the Adventurers survived, one would not say they flourished, scratching an existence with small farms and fishing.  But they did form the first republic in the New World.  Shipbuilding in the late 1800 and early 1900 provided economic opportunities and many of the houses and cottages in Spanish Wells and nearby Harbour Island are from that period.They d  id not even have local aborigines to help out as the Spanish had long before enslaved the entire native population of the Bahamas and shipped them to Cuba.

 

On the 13^th, we went ashore again for groceries and to use the WiFi (we have had real problems using the hotspots with our Bahamian phones).  On our way in, we went past “Fancy Free”, a 42 foot sailboat crewed by two women of a certain age, hard aground in the channel.  On the way out, we offered to help at high tide (11pm), but we noticed they came off with the help of a local boat at 7pm. 

 

 

The winds were forecasted to increase and veer to the northeast over the next several days.  We pulled anchor at 3pm and headed to a small island called Meeks Patch wich provided us protection from southwest to northwest winds. 

 

 

We stayed at Meeks Patch for two days, in company with as many as 10 other boats who had the same idea.  We used the time to top off water with our watermaker.  We have a 60 gallon port tank that we use consistently and a 40 gallon starboard tank we just keep full.  If we let the port tank get to half empty, it takes 4-6 hours to fill it.  We used the Honda gasoline generator we bought in Cocoa, Florida (it seems so long ago) to top off the batteries. 

On the March 16^th, we were finally underway from Meeks Patch for the channel through the long reef between Eleuthera and Providence Island (Nassau).   We entered the deep water (3000 feet) Northeast Providence Passage and hoisted sails in a northeast wind of 10 knots, making a comfortable 5 knots on genoa (big forward sail) only with the winds behind us, a bit bouncy though.  AT 1230, we entered Flemming Channel and crossed onto the Eleuthera Bight proper.  We now faced a wind in the direction we wanted to go, so in came the genoa and we motored into a choppy sea for the next 4 hours.  At 5pm, we finally anchored at Current Island safely in lee from the island itself and small point of rock.

The next day, we were underway at 8:30 for Governors Harbour.  We raised main and staysail.  Winds were again out of the northeast and we had to sail close hauled in a choppy sea.  We averaged 4.5 knots, but frequently were making over 6 knots, heeling at 20 degrees, when the winds would gust up to 23 knots.  Elena slept through most of it, being particularly fond of crashing into the waves.

At 5pm, we anchored off Laughing Bird Cay just south of Governors Harbour and Cupids Cay.  We were in company with about 10 other boats, some of which we have been sailing alongside since Spanish Wells and one that we spotted from Marsh Harbour.  We had a couple of margueritas for observing sundown and grilled a couple of steaks for supper.

 

 

 

We went ashore on the 18^th.  Governors Harbour is a bit more run down than what we have seen in other parts of the Bahamas.  We went ashore the next day, Sunday, walking up the hill to observe the Atlantic side and have dinner at the Buccaneers Club (highly recommended for the cruisers that are following us).

We expect to leave Governors Harbour on Tuesday, the 21^st, for Rock Sound, where we will wait out some weather.  We plan to stay at Cape Eleuthera Resort and Marina for one night to stage for our open water jump across the Exuma Sound and to the Exuma Islands.