Spanish Wells to Egg Island

It was bound to happen. Since leaving Florida on Leap Day, February 29th, we have had no real problems. High winds a few times sure. Minor repairs here and there, no problem. Even a major repair that was beautifully handled by Captain with relative ease. We had been having such great luck....until Egg Island.

Our stay here started off well enough. We anchored snuggly after 3 attempts [maybe that should have been the first clue]. We were in a nice little cut tucked in between Royal Island and Egg Island. Beaches on all sides, reefs just off the coast to snorkel, crystal clear water, it looked like a little slice of heaven. We realized quickly after anchoring that one of our anchors was caught on a deeply buried cable running between the islands but knowing it wasn't a utility line, we weren't too concerned. We put out another one just in case. We spent the next day relaxing and exploring the beaches on both sides of us and swam some in the clean cool water. 

Fun chill day

With plans of staying here only a day or two, we quickly learned that stay would be extended when some nasty wind came up a little earlier than predicted and was going to stay around awhile. At least we were tucked in nice and safe, right? With the winds, came an amazingly strong current through our little cut. So no more swimming for a while and rides to the shore, even as close as we were, took on a more serious focus. That's about when our luck ran out.

First, Grandma broke one of her toes. Just walking through the salon, same as she's done a million times before only this time, one of the ottomans jumped right out and attacked her. Ouch!! The boat wasn't even rocking that much. Just dumb luck. Next, the "tan" I thought I would be getting on the pale parts of my back and stomach while snorkeling the previous day, was now obviously quite a good burn. I guess when attempting to get some sun in places that haven't seen sun in years, start with baby steps! Not 5 hours of full sun because you're having such a good time snorkeling with the family and lose track of time. Next, our little furry child, Sandy, found out just how hermit crabs defend themselves, especially very LARGE hermit crabs. She's now sporting a nice cut on her top lip. After that, the wind and strong current pushed us up into the shallow part of the cut and grounded us during low tide. Efforts made by Steve and Jake to get the lodged anchor up so we could reposition were not successful although some progress was made and they managed to pull us off the bar with the dinghy at rising tide and put out a third anchor to keep us from the shallows.

Last picture of Bud

After a particularly bumpy and windy night, with little sleep, Captain awoke and went upstairs to get some coffee started only to find the kids new dinghy with our 2.5hp Yamaha gone. Nowhere to be seen. Steve and the kids spent several hours looking for it in the wind and heavy chop while I hailed on the radio to anyone in the area who may have seen it to let us know, that there was a cash reward, but with the open ocean on one side, about a 700 sq mile open area on the other, and the winds and the currents - it was probably already to Cuba by then, unless someone had stolen it in the night, then we obviously wouldn't find it.

Great, so now what? Gram's foot is a nice shade of purple, my burn is competing with it on the color wheel while adding full coverage blisters for effect and we're down to one dinghy. The kids took the loss of their "car" surprisingly well [maybe because they would no longer have to walk the dogs in the mornings] and luckily, Steve had removed a lot of the important items from it the night before. Now we just had 2 more days of waiting out the weather before we could make our jump to the Exumas.

We did our best waiting out the weather, which wasn't our best by any means. The boat seemed to shrink on us as everyone's stress was a little higher than usual. Outdoor activities were slim to none with such rough weather so that wasn't helping matters and Gram and myself weren't feeling topnotch either. I won't bore you with anymore details other than to say the good news is Gram's toe is mending, my blisters are improving, Sandy will have a cool scar on her lip to show all the other dogs what a tough girl she is, there were no fisticuffs, no one stabbed anyone else and no permanent relationship damage was done. The days did pass, however slowly, and we were even able to have a hotdog/marshmallow roast before burning our trash the night before we left since the winds finally laid down and we managed to leave one of our Easter Conchs on a beach on Egg Island for someone to find. [We thought it was appropriate.]

Easter Conch #2

25°29.714'N

076°53.229'W

Steve used his dive gear to successfully dislodge the anchor before departure and with full throttles, we sped out of there, happily putting "Rotten" Egg Island in our wake. Hopefully our run of bad luck stays anchored there too. And knowing how God works, we're hoping whoever finds our little dinghy "Bud", is able to put it to good use.

Goodbye Egg Island!!

Next stop, Ship Channel Cay, Exumas!

~Mimzie

Royal Harbour to Spanish Wells

Royal Harbour to Spanish Wells

A quick hop over to Spanish Wells for a little provisioning. We needed fuel, medications and a little food. We had planned on grabbing one of the city's mooring balls but once we were within eyesight of the field, we realized not only were they full but there is no way we would have been able to fit on any ball other than the one on the end without bumping into a neighboring boat. After a quick visual scan, we located a spot off the north and west end of the island, next to an anchored fishing vessel. The anchor grabbed quick and we had a nice little spot all to our selves.

It was still early so Steve and I ran into the main channel, hoping to tie up and get the lay of the land. We found a spot on the sea wall and were told we'd be fine to leave her there. After getting directions to the main "shopping" center, we headed off. It was a beautiful little island town where almost everyone gets around by golf cart. There were a few cars here and there but most of the locals and visitors used carts. The gentleman Steve spoke to did have carts to rent for $10/hour or $50/day but we usually walk everywhere and wasn't sure how long we'd be gone so we opted to walk. The walk would have been quite pleasant had it not been for the heat once we were out of the ocean breeze and my recent back injury but we made it there in about 30 minutes without issue. We were able to use the Royal Canadian Bank to get some cash and were pleased to see a physician's office right next door to the grocery store/pharmacy in case we needed to have a doctor sign off on prescription refills. Checking with the pharmacy first, we were happy to hear a doctor visit was not required and they were able to refill several of the crews prescriptions. While waiting for the refills, we took advantage of their well stocked grocery store and quickly filled up our cart with some greatly missed luxury items.....such as bacon, hamburgers, Coke, fresh local made bread, etc. We paid for our meds and checked out with our food items and then realizing we had walked there and would now have to walk back with 15 bags of groceries. Never shop on an empty stomach, especially after being off the grid for several weeks! Luckily for us, we only made it about 100 yards before a nice lady in a golf cart stopped to offer us a ride. She delivered us right back to our dinghy, which happened to be tied next to her son's very nice 75' lobster boat. We probably would have snatched up some of his catch had we not just loaded up with fresh food and already had our fill of lobster already that Steve has had little trouble catching on his own.

Back at the boat, Gram and the kids were very excited to see our bags of goodies, that included chocolate cupcakes for the evenings dessert. We feasted on bacon cheddar cheeseburgers, chips, Cokes and cupcakes while the sun set and were reminded of the things we took for granted, all to often, back in the states.

The next morning we headed back into the channel to stop in for fuel. The dockhands were so helpful at getting us tied up and offered to let us fill up our water tanks at no charge as well as offered to take our trash off our hands. While Steve and Jake helped with the fuel and water fill; Gram, Dani and I snuck into the little store and picked up some icecream cones for everyone. We had been thinking about offloading the 2 folding bikes we had onboard since we never use them and asked the very nice gentleman helping us if he knew of anyone that could use the bikes. He said his kids would love to have bikes so it seemed a perfect fit. We handed over the bikes, paid our fuel bill and headed out with full tanks and an ice cream sugar buzz. We didn't spend much time in Spanish Wells but the time we spent there, was worth it.

Next stop, Egg Island!  

Little Harbour to Royal Island

Miss Daisy at anchor

We finally had the weather window we had been waiting for while in Little Harbour,  so we headed out March 31st. We crossed Northwest Providence Channel without issue. The swells were about 8 feet but well separated and with little chop. There is something unsettling about being in water that is 13,000 feet deep. It puts you a little more on edge than a usual passage.

We pulled into Royal Island about 6pm. We found the anchorage to be fairly empty with only 3 other boats in a large area. We anchored in a spot just off a small sandy beach to walk the dogs easily and settled in for the evening. 

The next day, Steve and I took the dogs in and went exploring. We could see the rooftops of some old buildings and there was an old road to follow so we headed that way. What we found was remarkable! What we later found through research was that we had stumbled upon a great estate from the 1930's that a prominent doctor from Florida used as his "fishing getaway" or his get-away-from-the-wife house. There were several buildings, all connected by old paths with rock walls still intact in places. The great hall with its enormous fireplace, had beautiful tile and an arched ceiling, with a balcony off of one end. The separate, large, bar area, still had the concrete bar, complete with conch shells placed there by fellow travelers. The main house, 2 stories at one time, was now missing most of the second floor but the first floor still had what appeared to be bedrooms, one with a fireplace and a bathroom that also had a fireplace with water pipes running through it to heat the water for the concrete tub. We followed the wide, large steps that lead down to the water and walked on what was left of the concrete dock. Still standing was a rusty flag pole which would have stood alongside the massive steps leading up to what was once a magnificent island estate. There were several smaller buildings, one looked to be a kitchen, one maybe the helps' rooms and more for storage. Beautiful tile is still visible in most of the main rooms, with built in shelving and fixtures, along with trees and roots pushing their way through, in an effort to reclaim what was once theirs. We spent a long time there, daydreaming about what it would have been like there, belly up to the bar, telling fishing stories from the days adventure on the crystal blue Bahamian waters. Picking a ripe mango from one of the many mango trees scattered around the estate. It was simply amazing.

Separate bar area overlooking the harbour

The Great Hall

Just one of the beautiful tile floors still visible

After returning to the boat, we did some research on the island and found the information about Dr. W.P. Stewart and the island's history. We also learned that in the early 2000's, the island was bought by Roger Staubach and Jack Nicklaus in order to develop this beautiful island. They sold lots for houses, planned on building a championship golf course, large marina, resort and more. Then 2008 came, the economy sank and everything stopped. Luckily, no houses were built and other than a couple of piers and a couple ultra expensive huts on the other side of the island, the old estate and east side of the island remains untouched. You can still see some of the remnants that remain from this effort in old rusting equipment, abandoned building planner trailers and even a lot for sale sign along the crumbling old road. I do hope the island manages to stay untouched, letting nature take back its control and the natural beauty return. I'm just glad we were able to get a glimpse before it's too late.

Steps from Dock to estate

What's left of the concrete dock

Later that day, Steve took the kids to see the ruins. Dani took one of our Easter conchs to add to the collection on the old bar. Since we marked them with our email address, maybe we'll hear from someone who was lucky to visit the grand old fishing estate while it's still there.

Easter Conch #1

25°30.893'N

076°50.695'W

Day 3 we headed out to Spanish Wells for a top up of fuel, food, and medications. 

Spencer's Bight to Little Harbour

A short trip around the peninsula is Old Robinson Bight, and at its' southern end is Little

Turtles everywhere! Dozens of them!

Harbour. We entered in the middle of a rising tide, with a northern wind pushing a little extra water into the channel. No problems entering the harbour or attaching to the mooring. We dinghied into the ultimate dive beach bar, Pete's Pub. We had a Coke each, and paid for a night on the mooring ball. We saw sea turtles everywhere, there were caves to explore, an abandoned lighthouse, and a nice beach to walk the dogs. There was even a back way to get to the beach, since the waves on the beach were a little rough for the dinghy.

Little Harbour

After checking the engines, once they cooled down, Steve continued the electrical trouble shooting to find out why we were losing power to the starboard engine, making it barely able to start. Simplifying and cleaning electrical connections, so that all of the batteries were not connected to the house bank, which was done the LAST time we paid for someone else to work on our boat! The next morning, we saw that our starboard starting battery was way down on voltage, even though it had been shut off all night. The port side starting battery was at full charge, so we flipped some switches and tried to start the engines, no luck! Three hours of sweating and salty sailor words later, and Steve had removed both engines' starters and found that they both needed service. Great! How do we replace a 100+lb 8D battery, and two 30lb each starters for diesel engines 20 miles from the nearest town, with no vehicle, and seas too rough to dinghy that far? We had no idea, so we did what any normal person would do. We asked our friendly local bartender, of course! Miss Amber, who was shocked to learn that we don't drink alcohol, made some calls on our behalf, and got the Captain a ride into Marsh Harbour, and she even helped carry the battery to the truck! She said it was lighter than the coolers of ice that she moves every day!

Mr. Desmond, Amber's husband, loaded Steve and his broken parts into his pickup truck, and down the road they went. Their first stop was to Carquest to exchange the battery, and to get hose connectors for the dinghy. No problem, mon. Next was IDG, the alternator, starter, and generator, repair shop. After a couple of hours of testing, diagnosis, and repair, both starters were as good as new! In the meantime, the guys went to lunch, bought new bolts to mount the starters, and hung out at the repair shop. As it turned out, Desmond knew everyone on the island, and every place to go to get things done right, and right away! Paying cash at the small shops helps, and the labor rates are VERY reasonable, compared to the US, where you're lucky to find someone to repair components at all, without charging as much to repair them, as it would to replace them.

After getting back to Little Harbour, Steve installed the battery and starters with Jacob's help. Both motors started right up, and ran smoothly. Jacob was very excited to contribute to such vital and successful work. The weather was not ideal to move to our next stop for at least five days. We then moved off of the mooring ball to anchor nearby. There was just barely room enough for our boat in the water depth we needed, so we put out two anchors in a Bahamian moor, to minimize our swinging around when the tides changed.

After getting settled in, it was time to walk the dogs. Down to the dinghy, try to start the motor, and the throttle handle falls apart! Yay, we're yachting! [Yachting=boat repair in exotic places]. Luckily we still have our 2.5 hp motor, and a bracket on the dinghy! Dogs refreshed, time to fix some more broken stuff! The handle base had cracked off pretty smoothly, so a little cleanup and an application of epoxy fixed it up. Time for bed and epoxy curing!

Two strong cups of coffee, breakfast, and a dog walk is our morning routine now. Done by ten o'clock, and project time. Steve decided that "while he was at it" he should clean and grease the throttle handle and mechanism. Not too complicated, but a few little parts to keep track of and replace in the correct order. All put back together, and now it almost works too well! Goose it and she's off to the races, let go of the handle, and the motor dies out. More tinkering and adjusting, when Steve gets sick of it enough to deal with it again!

Waiting for the weather window for our deep-ocean passage, we set about exploring the area. Little Harbour lives up to its name, it is less than a half of a mile across! Late morning until early afternoon and our exploring was done. There are two large caves to explore on the west side, and beach landing near the pub puts you on the road to the light house trail. The southernmost cave was the most interesting, with multiple levels and rooms, bats, and stalactites! The lighthouse trail was an easy walk on a slight incline, less than a half mile long, through mangrove, coconut palm, and sea grape trees. The ruins were very cool to explore and to explain to the kids how cisterns work, and that they are a major freshwater source in the islands. Beyond the lighthouse, on the ocean side, are spectacular views of the Atlantic ocean, which transitions very quickly to thousands of feet deep. This feature allows you to see deep blue ocean from dry land.

Yes, those are bats!

Can you see us up there?

These caves were huge. The first family to settle here, in 1952, used these caves as homes until they built a thatched hut.

The old lighthouse

A late lunch back on the boat, and the generator is "making funny noises." Super. A little testing showed a stuck intake valve! Awesome. Steve pulled the head off of Genny, and cleared the piece of oil-absorbent cloth from the catch can that got sucked in and was stuck on the valve seat. Reassembled, and refilled the coolant. No more funny noises, no leaks, and running smoothly. Woo-Hoo!!

Easter in the Bahamas! We explored around the corner of the harbour, in the bight, and found a nice long beach to explore! Empty conch shells littered the beach, so we gathered a few to paint as Easter conchs. We were out of eggs. We all sat around the sundeck table and painted the shells, and wrote our Miss Daisy Email address on the inside of the shells. We plan to leave these shells on islands we really like. Maybe we will hear from someone who finds our conchs!

Easter Conchs #1-4

This is turning out to be a spectacular repair week. The water maker is producing salt water, and making funny noises, too! Luckily, we have some spare parts for it. After going through the trouble shooting guides, and inspecting the innards of this machine, it turns out that we have a couple of worn-out parts, and we have the replacement parts! After cleaning and reassembling the pump, Steve ran a cleaning cycle and the water is ridiculous, Evian, nectar-of-the-gods, fresh, and delicious. Can I get an AMEN?

Now we rest and wait for our weather window to Royal Island. We watched the turtles, read books, and lounged around. On Island Time. What day is it again?
~Steve

Marsh Harbor to Spencer's Bight

We left Marsh Harbor after filling up with fuel and water and headed to Lynyard Cay. With the winds blowing north by the time we were close, it was obvious Lynyard Cay was not going to be a smooth spot. We ended up weaving our way into the back of Spencer's Bight and tucked up in a beautiful area.

Miss Daisy tucked into Spencer's Bight

 We hit the beach with the kids and the dogs to explore. The beach seemed to stretch on for miles. We swam some, walked some, played and ran some. After a couple hours, we headed back to the boat ready to relax for the night.

Day 2

We headed out to snorkel Sandy Reef in the morning. The water was a little cool, but couldn't have been better visibility and with the sun shining, the water felt good with the heat. We spotted all sorts of angelfish, grouper, beautiful coral and lots of other colorful fish. After we finished there, we decided we'd stop by a wreck that was on our way back to the boat. We were not disappointed! The wreck seemed to be a ship from the 60's or 70's that had burned at some point and maybe floated until it stuck in the shallow 6-10' waters. There were sting rays everywhere, some were quite large. We saw a happy little sea turtle that came out of his hidey hole to say hello. Jake spotted a lionfish but unfortunately Steve didn't have his spear with him this time so the lionfish lucked out. Lots of beautiful fish, snapper, puffer fish, spadefish, parrotfish and many more. There were containers of old bottles, some you could still see the Pepsi logo and we even found one that had melted with the heat of the fire and was morphed out of shape. After we went back to the boat for lunch, we dropped the kids and dogs off,  Steve got his wetsuit and spear, we headed back for some more. Steve caught the lionfish and we got two large conchs. We really enjoyed that wreck but after about 5 hours of swimming, a person tends to get worn out! We let the two conchs go at the boat since I was in no mood to cook that for dinner and Grandma ended up fileting Steve's fish for him and fried it up so he could enjoy his catch. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing after a long day in the sun.

Large Starfish were everywhere

Day 3

We decided we would go explore the other side of Spencer's Bight where we had read about an abandoned mill left empty for 100 years. We could see some ruins from our boat so we set out in that direction. Once we got to shore, we were in for a real treat. The history behind this site began in 1906, when Wilson City was built by The Bahamas Timber Company, a firm based in Minneapolis, MN, to harvest the pinelands on Abaco. The mill employed 540 people by 1912 but by 1916, they had depleted the land of pine and were making so little returns that the lumber company dismantled the machinery and even some of the houses and shipped everything off. Wilson City became a ghost town, completely uninhabited. What was left was a lot of the stone structures. Buildings that had several walls still standing, made of huge blocks of quarried coral limestone covered in a thin layer of concrete. Other buildings were brick and there were remnants of the bricks scattered through the area. We walked along the shore line and found some more building ruins on the other side. Steve found some more coal (he's been collecting it since Powell Cay and tells the kids it's for their Christmas stockings), I found a nice sized piece of glass that appears to be from a lighthouse light and we found several other little collectibles. Eventually we're going to have to figure out what we will do with all the items we are collecting from the beaches but until then, I love finding these little treasures.

We wound our way back around and headed out in the dinghy to a second location we had noticed from Miss Daisy. Once we were close enough, we could see it was an empty fishing camp. It was a perfect spot for lunch and with ready-made fire pits, it was a good place for a campfire. Steve and Dani ran back to the boat to collect lunch, Grandma and the dogs, while Jake and I collected firewood. We had a nice time there for lunch and a little exploring and then headed back. 

By the time we returned to the boat, the swell from the ocean was getting pretty large and the winds were picking up so Miss Daisy felt like a bathtub toy bobbing around. We decided to raise anchor and head onward to find a calmer anchorage. After about an hour, we pulled into Little Harbor, riding the ocean swells all the way in through the narrow channel. We grabbed a mooring ball from Pete's Pub and called it ga night. All in all, Spencer's Bight turned out to be right up there with Powell Cay for my top spots. Not too bad for a last minute find!

~Mimzie