Little Harbor, the Abacos, Bahamas

Scott with his big Mahimahi - great eating!

Little Harbor from the dinghy dock

It was a lovely sail up to the Abacos with enough wind to sail most of the way and a little help from the motor the last section. We left Royal Harbor at 6 AM, still pretty dark but we'd been in and out several times recently and there are lighted buoys marking the entrance. We wanted to have good light coming in the cut at Little Harbor and enough time to continue north to the next cut if the conditions were poor.

The front of the Studio shop - Pete still casts bronzes and
some days you can watch. Not one our's unfortunately

One Particular Harbor for sure

Looking out over the harbor from the western shore

Scott put out his fishing lines, two which we troll behind, and it didn't take long to get a strike. The biggest Mahi Mahi he caught yet! They are so beautiful in the water while still alive. It is rather sad to see them fade and die - but we were hungry for fish! As you can see from this photo, it's a beauty and provided a lot of meals for us.
We called Peter and Julie to let them know. They quickly put their lines in and not long later were back on the VHF to announce their catch. Without being able to share our fish, we had too much to keep in the frig so they volunteered to freeze some for us.
The cut was not bad going from the ocean into the sound although the breaking waves on the rocks on either side do make you nervous as you're lifted up and forward by the following waves. Once inside we motored up to our anchorage off the north end of Lanyard Cay. There is a very well protected anchorage and moorings in Little Harbor but the maximum draft is 6 ft (and that's at high tide). The Lanyard Cay anchorage is in deep water pretty close to the beach and protected from most directions. It was a quiet lovely night.
Next morning we went into Little Harbor via dinghy to explore. Scott and I have been wanting to come here for years, but never had the right weather. Today it was pretty calm. We walked around the harbor and down a long dirt road along the west side. New homes are being built along the cliff overlooking the harbor. Many vacation rentals are available and of course, the big attraction - Pete's Pub and Gallery.
Randolph Johnston, a major sculptor, brought his family here to live. They settled in a cave until the house was built and then lived here the rest of their lives. Their son Pete carries on the family tradition and casts bronze pieces which are for sale in the gallery (for big prices). The Pub itself is a popular lunch spot and is available for dinner by reservation. It's all outdoors under various roofs with the sand as the floor and lots of fun.

These weren't the last ones either....

We caught the spirit quickly and downed a number of beers and rum punches. Then had great sandwiches for lunch. The ocean beach is just over the sand dune with some good sized waves breaking. Glad we finally made it here!
We stayed one more night at Lanyard Cay and then left the next morning to motor north to Marsh Harbor. We had hoped to stop in Sandy Cay and do some snorkeling. Scott and I had done it last time we came, but it was too rough.

 

The bar at Pete's Pub

So we continued through this beautiful group of small cays. The Abacos consist of about 150 islands, around 15 are inhabited. The largest island Great Abaco is on the western side and Marsh Harbor is the largest town, the third biggest in the Bahamas, after Nassau and Freeport. There are many places to anchor all along here but we were headed up to Marsh Harbor for protection from the westerly winds expected and to pick up Julie and Peter's friends, Diane and Graham who were flying in there in a few days.

Curly tailed lizard for sure!

This isn't a lighthouse but a private home - very pretty though

Spanish Wells

We ended up spending almost a week here and had a lovely time. This is an unusual place in many ways. First it's dry - no alcohol sold or served. This has a number of ramifications. The restaurants are very simple and there aren't many of them. There appeared to be only 1 or 2 small hotels on the island, both not busy. Since this is a beautiful spot with lots of lovely beaches and the neatest, cleanest community we've seen so far, I believe commercial tourist development needs bars.
It is however a popular spot for vacation rentals. Many of the charming small traditional cottages are for rent and real estate brokers are all over, so many are now second homes. The nearby Russell Island, connected to Spanish Wells by a bridge, has many beautiful homes along the water that look like second homes for sure.
We rented a 6 person golf cart for a day to explore the island. As you can see from the pictures, it's a comfortable and jaunty way to travel.

My fascination with textures extends to trees
as well as walls. This forest was at the far
west end of Russell Island.

Spanish Wells is the fishing capital of the Bahamas. Their catch is mostly lobster (or crawfish)  nowadays but they catch a lot of it. Big fishing vessels on docks line the harbor which is really the channel between Spanish Wells and Russell Island. The north end of Eleuthera is very close by on the eastern side. To the north reefs protect both islands. Only a narrow channel leads out to the sea going north. The island is 2 miles long and a half mile wide with about 1,500 residents.
Unlike most of the Bahamas most of the residents are white. At one time black Bahamians were not allowed to live on the island. The first settlers were part of the Eleutheran Adventurers who were wrecked on the Devil's Backbone in the 1600's. Later Loyalists from the U.S. during the Revolution came. It's a traditional, religious, and conservative community.

Most of the boats look like the shrimp boats in the southern U.S. but now they serve as mother ships to smaller craft that bring the divers out to catch lobster. This picture to the left shows Scott Free and Anything Goes side by side on the far left of the dock.
The Marina is small but very friendly. It was a much fancier facility at one time with a restaurant and pool, but was destroyed by Hurricanes Andrew and Floyd in 1992 and 1999. It does have a washer and dryer and showers. There is a nearby supermarket that was well supplied and actually slightly better than Rock Sound.
We walked all over the island admiring the homes and gardens. The beach was white and long, mostly shallow water and protected - little waves. I particularly liked the swimming at the western end of the channel near the bridge to Russell Island where the water was deep and clear (see the large picture above).

We ate out only once, for breakfast, at the Eagles's Landing cafe next to the Spanish Wells Food Fair, 18th St. and Main. It was a basic reasonably charged breakfast but a strange little place. It looked like a small warehouse from the front - no windows. Inside a long corridor past the counter where you ordered (most of the food must be take out) there were 4 or 5 tables in a room without windows - not very appealing right!





Julie, Peter, Kathy and Nigel ate out the first night at the Anchor Snack Bar which has inside dining despite it's name, but no ambiance for sure. The food was plentiful, cheap, mostly fried and not great.
We recommend coming here for sure but suggest you plan to eat on your boat or in your house. Fresh seafood is available at Ronald's Fish Store. As we mentioned in a previous entry, we went to Harbor Island from here and there one can eat really well.

Nigel and Kathy had changed their departure flight from the Abacos to northern Eleuthera, leaving Sunday. It was sad to say good-bye as they were a lot of fun.
We left just a few days later, spending one night in Royal Harbor again. This has been a huge development in the making for some time. Plans are enormous, headed by Roger Staubach with a signature Jack Nicklaus golf course, huge marina, private homes, hotel etc. It is no longer possible to land on the island, but so far we can still anchor there. The next morning we sailed up to the Abacos, 60 miles north.

This cute little place, Norma's Seaside Take-away, looked
interesting but we didn't have a chance to try it. It wasn't
open when we went by. That's it's menu on the right here.

Small parks, lovely gardens and thoughtful benches are
scattered throughout the island
On the right, we weren't the only one enjoying the beach.

Rock Sound to Spanish Wells

Rock Sound is a great anchorage and we ended up staying a week there (and could have stayed longer). The supermarket is the next best to Nassau. There is now a great bar and restaurant (can't remember the name although 12 Points seems possible but you can't miss it) on the beach on the north side of town, close to where we anchored, just before the supermarket. They have a dinghy dock and a substantial tiki hut on the shore (where many cruiser pot lucks congregate and where we had a Mexican dominos game one day). They host groups from the Princess Cruise ships for a Junkanoo demonstration at lunch on a regular basis. We attended one of these and had a great time.
Junkanoo is a traditional festival held on Boxing Day or New Year's in the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos (and occasionally in the U.S. among former Bahamaians. "The word "Junkanoo" came from an African slave master and trader named "John Canoe" in the 17th century. Like the Carnival celebrations around the world, also started among African slaves, it was developed during holiday periods and incorporated tribal music and instruments. The costumes were originally made of native materials but have become increasingly complicated and brilliant.

Making conch salad from the start with fresh ingrediants

Our boats were just off this restaurant in Rock Sound

The food is good with a lunch buffet most days and the staff very friendly. We never made it to Sammy's Restaurant but we heard that was good too. A nice place overall to spend some time. But we had to leave if we wanted to see some more of the islands north of us. It was too far to Spanish Wells so we decided to stop in Hatchet Bay.

Only a few participants but lots of enthusiasm

The audience was encouraged to participate!

The drums are a critical part of Junkadoo

Hatchet Bay is a lake which was opened up to the sound in the 1940's by a narrow cut in the limestone cliffs. It seemed so narrow indeed that when "Anything Goes" saw it, they weren't sure they'd fit! We went ahead and radioed back, no problem. The community of Alice Town is on the south side and construction of a new dock was underway. A small freighter was just leaving the town dock as we arrived.
A few days before we had stopped to check out this harbor and saw a number of new looking moorings, empty except for 1 boat. So we were surprised when we checked them out to find no pennant. Our boats were too high to reach the iron ring on the mooring and thread a line through. So Peter launched his dinghy and helped us tie on. Later Scott swam over to check out the connection to the bottom and found 2 pennants tied to the line under the buoy. They didn't have floats on them so they hung straight down. You would think someone in the town might want to encourage boats to come and tie on some plastic bottles for flotation!
We were now six again as Julie and Peter's friends Kathy and Nigel arrived by plane the day before. That night they came over to our boat for dinner. Cruisers always bring food to share so Julie brought a salad and key lime pie. We had brushetta with sweet hot peppers, fresh mozzerella, tomatoes and basil (I have a herb garden on board)on Scott's coconut bread and pasta with sausage ratatouille sauce. Sitting in your cockpit watching the sun go down with friends is just about the best part of cruising!

Nigel and Kathy, good friends of Julie and Peter joined
us for a week on the boat!

The next morning we sailed northwest through Current Cut. There are 2 routes leading to the Cut and as the seas were calm and the light good we used the alternate cut and had no problem. Our anchorage for this next night hadn't been decided. We tried Week's Patch but found it too rough so ended up in Royal Island. Scott and I were almost out of water so we went into Spanish Wells and filled up one of the tanks at the Marina. It was just after high tide when we went aground entering the western channel. It was incredibly stupid but understandable. The channel markings are confusing and very close to the rocks on the port side. A local boat went through in the middle and added to our confusion. Luckily a local fisherman gave us a quick pull and helped us off.
Our plans were to leave the next morning for the Abacos, but after we talked to Chris Parker, our weather guru, on the SSB that morning, we decided it was too rough for a comfortable passage. Facing several days waiting for a better window we moved into the Marina at Spanish Wells where Scott and I had been the day before.

This sky is a large part of our view on the boat - unlike
at home where we often forget all about it

And sometimes that sky is the star of the show!

Harbor Island

And this was a fairly calm day!

The bridge over the famous Glass Window, an amazing
place. The pounding waves of the Atlantic on one side
and the calm turquoise waters of the Gulf on the other

View of Harbor island from the ferry

We went to Harbor Island twice. The first time we drove from Rock Sound and the second time went from Spanish Wells. Eleuthera is 110 miles long but very narrow, 3 miles across max. The narrowest part is the bridge across the "glass window", a deep chasm separating the island. Once a huge rouge wave came across the Atlantic and unexpectedly hit the bridge, pushing it several feet! Hopefully no one was on it at the time. It has been rebuilt.
We caught a water taxi from the north end of Eleuthera to Harbor Island. They leave constantly, take 10 minutes and cost $5 per person. Walking around the island is a delight but we didn't get very far in the heat. The next time we rented a six person golf cart and were able to see pretty much the whole public portion of the island (a lot of the island is private gated communities). The narrow streets are lined with lovely cottages in all pastel colors - everything pristine. It reminded me very much of Cape Cod but in color (Cape homes are generally natural gray with white trim).

Another look  at the lovely homes along the shore

Check out the painted flowers on the shutters, 

Methodist Church

Shell decorated signs

The beach is so beautiful, wide, pink soft sand and stretches out it seems forever. We swam in the warm water, only fun sized waves as there is a reef off shore (it's hard to believe that ocean we saw at the Glass Window bridge was the same one). The first visit we ate at the dockside Harbor Lounge Restaurant and had a very nice meal overlooking the harbor. We were really sorry we hadn't seen Sip Sip before we ate as it looked wonderful when we got to the beach. The next time we headed there right away but it was closed for a week's vacation. However we didn't miss out really as we ended up at the Coral Sands Hotel's Terrace Restaurant and had a wonderful meal overlooking the beach.

Walkway to the amazing beach

Hobbits would be comfortable here

Wisteria like vines on Cape Cod looking homes

The details, the flowers - this is a pretty place!

We had a nice lunch here overlooking the dock

The local ferry to Eleuthera from Spanish
Wells - it was packed!

Valentines's Marina, hotel, restaurant, all very attractive
but we imagine, expensive - no sailboats

This marina was really nice with a charming wine bar and
restaurant which looked good

This is a place I could see returning to for a vacation by plane. It has everything for a winter get away (or even summer); great low rise hotels or cottages and restaurants in a charming town on an amazing beach. I've already recommended it to friends. Only caveat, it's expensive.

Heather, Scott, Kathy, Julie and Nigel at lunch overlooking
the beach at the Coral Sands Beach Bar

The second time we came we left from Spanish Wells, we took a local ferry over to the north end of Eleuthera (departing frequently $4 per person), then taking a taxi over to the other side of the island and getting the water taxi from there. This was slightly cheaper than the high speed ferry and was fun since we took the high speed ferry back.
We really enjoyed the high speed ferry as it took the Devils Backbone route back inside the reefs. We came really close to the beaches at times and there are a lot of them on this route. This route is very difficult for a normal boat and a local guide is recommended. Several are available in Spanish Wells or on Harbor Island. In fact getting into Harbor Island Harbor directly requires a pilot for deep draft boats (like ours at 6.5 feet). The route into Spanish Harbor from the north is recommended as well. More about that location in our next entry.

This "Haunted House" next door was very evocative
and beautiful. Must have been something once!

This doesn't do the beach here justice. The cloud came over
while I took it, but take my word for it - gorgeous! and pink!

Peter's shot shows the other direction on the beach