A Tour of Spanish Wells, Surprise Beach, and a Visit From a Manatee

Spanish Wells – 2 nautical miles sailed, 4 miles in dinghy, 2 kilometres walking, 2 miles by paddleboard

I woke up at my regular time, feeling great. After a bit of writing I took the dinghy out to the reefs north of the anchorage. There was almost no wind as we were between weather systems and the water was flat and beautiful, broken only by the wakes of the passing fishing boats.

The reef was decent but the water clarity was not great, likely churned up by the winds of the past few days. I saw a few fish, but nothing worth shooting at, and could find no sign of lobster. Still, it was good to be in the water as I hadn’t snorkelled for a while.

After breakfast we took the dinghy back into the fuel dock to say goodbye to Catherine and John, who were on their way to Hatchet Bay, Eleuthera to meet up with their friend who lives there and is a caviar and champagne importer. Really. Catherine had texted Ana in the morning and told her they had arranged for a night of free docking for us at the slip they had prepaid for at least another week but wouldn’t be needing it. We’ll take that.

Unfortunately the lobsters had already been unloaded from the lobster boat so we didn't get to see that, but it worked out well as the big boy pulled away just as John and Catherine were arriving. We helped them dock then hung around while they fuelled up and filled their water tanks from the amazing RO system there which is in place primarily for the lobster processing plant, but is also available to cruisers for 50 cents a gallon. I asked the local man filling it about the presence of manatees in Spanish Wells and he told me there were no manatees anywhere in the Bahamas when he was younger, but they’d somehow found their way here over the years, and there were a number of these beautiful sea cows to be found in the channel, even young ones. The prospect of seeing manatees again was thrilling. After our chat, I browsed the seafood store and found grouper, lobster meat, and conch, all for US$20/pound. They also had larger bags of crab claws which were $120. On the top shelf was a giant lobster tail, and a photo of the local lady who had captured the beast just off the reefs here in Spanish Wells a few years before. It was a 14 pound lobster with a tail that weighed over 4 pounds, and they had kept the giant frozen tail trophy in the freezer since then.

After saying goodbye to our new friends and watching them sail down the channel towards the harbour entrance, we dinghy’d over to Pinders Supermarkeet and tied up at the dinghy dock then went for a walk. We visited a few shops, deposited a bag of aluminum cans at the local public school which has a collection facility there (the only such place we’ve discovered in the Bahamas), I picked up a couple of ultra-cheesy Spanish Wells postcards, bought fresh milk, and we found a great book exchange. The town is extraordinarily clean and well kept, and John had told us to avoid locking anything up as the locals are insulted by this. As we walked we saw open doors, keys in golf carts and cars, valuables in the open, no locks anywhere. Small town life still exists.

Ana and I returned to SeaLight, had lunch, then sailed back in and docked at Adventurers marina. A beautiful and protected channel runs through Spanish Wells, creating a mangrove wonderland between it and Russell Island and Charles Island to the south. My poor paddleboard had been suffering from disuse so I removed it from the deck and launched it while Ana ground through some yacht club work in the hot cabin. I paddled all the way to the western end of the channel, passing surfacing turtles and inviting gaps in the mangroves leading to other anchorages, but sadly no manatees. At the end of the channel I was surprised to find a small bridge to Russell Island and an opening to the sea, so I passed beneath the bridge and the channel opened up into a huge and shallow bay with delicious beaches on both sides. I landed the paddleboard on the shallows, becoming shallower by the minute with the dropping tide, and walked through the ankle-deep water for a while, wishing Ana was here with me to see it, then realized I could just go back and get her, so I jumped back on board and paddled back to SeaLight.

We rode the dinghy and when we returned I was surprised to see the shallows I had been walking in had transformed into a massive offshore beach. We pulled the dinghy onto it then walked, first across the sand, then through the shallows which went on and on and on. We crossed through a knee-deep channel back to the mainland where we found two swings suspended from posts mounted into the dry sand, that would become foot-deep water before long. A passing couple offered to take a photograph of us, in an image that is sure to be one of our favourites from the trip.

We had a little swim then got back in the dinghy and motored carefully as the water had become even shallower. As I scanned the bottom, looking for the deepest path, I suddenly saw something large off our bow – a manatee! I cut the engine and stopped the boat. We could see the bubbles breaking on the surface and the swirling patterns in the water from its tail movements as it came towards us. Then, we could see it perfectly – a juvenile manatee, still big, maybe five feet long, but tiny compared to an adult, and already had a few propellor scars on its back plus a smear of blue bottom paint. She passed right beside our boat and we could see her whiskered face so clearly, but also her front flippers, the scars, and her mermaid tail. We floated alongside her for a long time, watching her rooting up sea grass with her nose and sucking it in. We then lost sight of her so I started splashing my hand in the water. Sure enough, she approached again and brought her face right up to my hand where I was able to have the faintest touch on her nose before she had a look at us then descended. We could not believe our luck. We’d seen many manatees back in Vero Beach, but none nearly this close, and her details were just as beautiful as we’d imagined.

The only unfortunate aspect of the experience was that Stella was not here to see it. She would have fallen in love with her.